There was a lot made in the media today about the concern that journalists have about being inadvertently caught up in the proposed new espionage and foreign interference laws, currently the subject of a parliamentary committee hearing. Admittedly there were a whole range of others who have also expressed concern, but my attention was with the journalists.
It would appear that they fear being criminalised for simply doing their job.
They are not alone.
An interesting article from Greg Barns reflecting on the actions of the now former Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, as revealed in the recent leak of cabinet papers. While most definitely unethical and immoral – that goes without saying – the actions do raise questions about the lawfulness of the Minister’s actions.
Not that I want to use the word ‘illegal’ at all, but then again….
Crikey Classic: could Scott Morrison’s refugee scheme amount to a criminal offence?
Public debate over almost everything devolves into trench warfare, in which the most important goal is to establish that the other person is wrong. Sensible differences of opinion deteriorate into a bad high school debate in which the objective is to win and facts are deployed like checkers on a board – none of this rises to the level of chess – mostly to knock out other facts. Like the customer in Monty Python’s legendary “Argument Clinic” sketch, we find ourselves merely gainsaying whatever the other person said last. (“This isn’t an argument,” the angry customer tells the professional arguer. “Yes, it is,” he responds. “No, it isn’t! It’s just contradiction!” “No, it isn’t.” “Yes, it is!”)
Tom Nichols, The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017), p. 41. eISBN: 9780190469436
One of the great concerns I have is the way in which public discourse has become so uncivil. The ability for people to enter into conversation about the ‘big issues’ of society without resorting to vitriol, animosity, and ad hominem attacks that are not about engaging with ideas but demeaning and, at times, demonising one’s opponent seems to be sadly lacking in contemporary society.
Accordingly, the article below, written by John L. Allen, Jr for Crux actually filled me with hope that all might not yet be lost.
…The United States is now a country obsessed with the worship of its own ignorance. It’s not just that people don’t know a lot about science or politics or geography; they don’t, but that’s an old problem. And really, it’s not even a problem, insofar as we live in a society that works because of a division of labor, a system designed to relieve each of us of having to now about everything. Pilots fly airplanes, lawyers file lawsuits, doctors prescribe medication. None of us is a Da Vinci, painting the Mona Lisa in the morning and designing helicopters at night. That’s as it should be.
No, the bigger problem is that we’re proudof not knowing things. Americans have reached a point where ignorance, especially of anything related to public policy, is an actual virtue. To reject the advice of experts is to assert autonomy, a way for Americans to insulate their increasing fragile egos from ever being told they’re wrong about anything. It is a new Declaration of Independence: no longer do we hold these truths to be self-evident, we hold all truths to be self-evident, even the ones that aren’t true. All things are knowable and every opinion on any subject is as good as any other.
Tom Nichols, The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017), Loc: 69-70. eISBN: 9780190469436.
Along with ‘law and order’ issues, one of the consistently raised set of issues in election campaigns in Australia, particularly at a state level, focuses on education. All sides of the political spectrum will have their say on the wide array of issues that fall within the education portfolio, some with ideas that are completely whacky, some with ideas that are worthy of embracing, and some with ideas that are just, well, predictable. Often one of the most conspicuous educational issues that get raised during election campaigns has to do with what is taught in our schools, the question of curriculum.
And it would seem that the Victorian state election, due at the end of 2018, will be no exception, at least not according to reports in the media this week. The Coalition in Victoria, the political partnership between the Liberal Party and the National Party, released its ‘school education values statement’ this week, promising (yet) another review of the school curriculum, along with a renewed focus on educational basics, which I have no real objection to, and an encouragement to teach ‘Western history’ and ‘national pride’, which phrasing causes a great deal of concern.
It should be noted for the sake of any overseas reader that the Liberal and National political parties fall towards the conservative end of politics, yet I would have the same concern were such suggestions come from a political party that falls towards the other end of the spectrum.
Another review into the school curriculum will inevitably lead to changes to the contents of the curriculum, as all such reviews tend to do. There is nothing wrong with reviewing and changing the contents of the curriculum per se, unless the curriculum is constantly being changed, with those responsible for the delivery of the curriculum, i.e. teachers, having to constantly change their teaching content rather than mastering the content and focussing their teaching practice on the delivery of the content they know inside out.
When the change in curriculum comes from a review instituted for partisan political purposes, as the proposed Victorian review appears to be, then not only are the teachers going to have to relearn their content over and over again, but they will also wear the political blame when school results do not match the political expectations that are the supposed reason for the review in the first place. It is the classic lose-lose situation for teachers, those who are the ones directly involved in the delivery of any school curriculum and who, in the overwhelming majority of cases, enter the teaching profession for the most noble of reasons.
At the heart of the apparent desire for politicians to interfere in the content of school curriculum is a desire to ‘play to their base’, to appeal to those people who will respond to the kind of message that underpins the political strategy involved. It is part of a developing ‘culture war’ mentality in Australia, following the example of such places as the United States, where the contents of educational curricula, along with so many other aspects of public discourse and public life, are held ransom to the power of ideology, often partisan in nature, rather than any understanding of the purpose of the curricula, which is the provision of an education to those who are students, be they primary, secondary or tertiary. And as I have already mentioned, the brand of partisan ideology does not seem to matter; culture warriors of left and right seem to embrace the desire to interfere in and micro-manage the contents of the content of the educational curriculum.
I have no problem with regular reviews of the contents of the educational curriculum per se. To not review such on a regular basis would be to suggest that human knowledge stagnated at a particular time and nothing new would be learnt after that point. Such a belief is patently wrong, and will ultimately contribute to the weakening of education, educational outcomes, and an entire society. I do, however, wish to insist that reviews of the educational curriculum, and its content, not be subject to the whims of this or that political entity; regular reviews should be an expected, planned, and non-partisan undertaking, fixed to a known timetable, every ten years for example, and be undertaken by experts in the respective fields, experts who are not pushing some partisan ideological agenda, but are committed to ensuring that those who are the ‘consumers’ of the educational curriculum, i.e. students, have access to the very best content that will enable them to make positive contributions to the broader society into the future.
One way of strengthening the educational curriculum, in my estimation, would be to ensure that the content of the educational curriculum focuses on two fundamental areas, i.e. the teaching of facts and knowledge, along with the ability to find new sources of facts and knowledges, and the inculcating of the theory and practice of critical thinking, which would enable students to be able to assess, analyse and critique information that is placed before them. This latter skill would, I suggest, greatly contribute to the identification and overcoming of what is now known as ‘fake news’, a phenomenon that is increasingly part of the developing ‘culture wars’, of which the constant ideological attack on the contents of the educational curriculum is but one example. I would further strongly argue that the teaching of ‘values’ does not belong in the educational curriculum, and its presence represents a danger that can be too easily hijacked for partisan ideological purposes, as evidenced by the announcement of the current Victorian Coalition Opposition.
The value of education to a society cannot be underestimated. From the basics to more specialised knowledge, education has the ability to transform a society, and all its members. To tamper with the contents of an educational curriculum for partisan ideological reasons is to risk the future of a society, and pose a danger to the ability of a society to know and to learn.
The 26th of January is kept in the Commonwealth of Australia as Australia Day. It is not, however, a feast or memorial in the calendar of the Catholic Church, but rather a ‘day of prayer’ where Australian Catholic Christians are called to pray for our nation and its peoples.
Below is my homily as preached for the Mass celebrated on Australia Day 2018 in Sacred Heart Cathedral, Hamilton. The readings were Isaiah 32:15-18; Romans 12:9-13; Matthew 5:1-12.
