Attempted Childhood Indoctrination 2022 – Primary School Edition

My 10-year-old son’s teacher has said a couple of interesting things in class of late. Not long ago during NAIDOC Week (which celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people), she decided to talk about racism in class. She first asked the kids what they knew about racism. From what I understand, they pretty much just sat their blankly not knowing. She tried to prompt them, but none of them seemed to care. To be fair to the kids, racism pretty much doesn’t exist in their lives. Their class, and the school, are extremely multicultural. I see how they play with one another. I see how my son plays with his multicultural friends. They just don’t care about race. All they care about is that you like the same thing I like. If you like talking about Pokemon or Minecraft, or like playing tag, my son will be your friend. It doesn’t matter to him if you’re from Africa or India, or male or female, or anything else. That is of no concern to him, as it is with all his friends.

But the teacher in her infinite wisdom wanted to teach them about racism, so she gave them an example: “If somebody didn’t want to play with Patrick because he has dark skin, would that be nice?”. “No”, a couple of the children responded. “Okay, so that’s racism, isn’t it? What if somebody treated Philip differently because he has light skin? Is that racism?”. The kids replied, “Yes”. Then the teacher said, “Well actually, that’s not racism. It’s not possible for white people to experience racism”. My son was a bit confused so told the teacher, “That doesn’t make sense”. But the teacher continued along that line telling the class that because white people are the dominant race, they cannot experience racism. At first, I thought this was just her crazy thinking, but if you look online, there’s quite a few examples of academics who agree with her.

When my son was telling me this story, I almost decided to go and complain to the school principal, but then I realised, my son didn’t buy into any of it, and nor did his friends.

Also as part of NAIDOC week, the students were asked to create some art. Some of the kids, of course, did some Aboriginal dot painting, but one little girl was told by this infinitely wise teacher to tear up her dot painting because she isn’t Aboriginal. The teacher honestly told these kids that only Aboriginal kids can do Aboriginal paintings. I feel this was a bit of a setup as it was NAIDOC Week, and of course, a lot of the kids wanted to try their hand at dot painting. Only letting Aboriginal kids do dot painting is like saying that only Japanese people can do karate, or only Indian people can make curry, or only Italian people can play the violin. It’s absurd in my opinion. No actually, it’s racist.

Just the other week, the teacher did another strange thing. She made a form for all the children to fill out. It was just about activity preferences or something like that. The form started with your name, and then gender: Male, Female, or Other. After the kids had filled out their forms, she collected them all and started flipping through them. She then commented, “Class, I noticed that all of you have ticked either Male or Female. Oliver, why did you tick Male?”. “Um, because I’m a boy”. “Okay, what about you Charlotte? Why did you tick Female?”. “Because I’m a girl”. “Why didn’t you tick Other?”. “Because I don’t know what Other means”. “Okay, so does anybody know what Other means?”. The class just sat their blankly, so the teacher decided to ask my son.

This teacher doesn’t just shove social issues down the students’ throats. She’s also just not a very nice teacher generally. Last week, my son successfully worked out the volume of a shoe box in class. But instead of being praised for his efforts, the teacher got angry at him because he wrote cm² instead of cm³.

And just one more story from last year. On the last day of school, my son’s teacher (who was named Simone), decided to tell the class that she used to be named Simon. (Obviously, any names I’ve used in this video have been changed to protect people’s privacy). Anyway, the teacher then asked the class what they thought about her changing her name. No response. She then asked the class why they think she changed her name from Simon to Simone. One of the kids said, “Because you didn’t like the name Simon”.

As I said before, my son, or any of the kids he hangs our with, honestly do not think in terms of race and gender identity and all the rest of it. All they care about is hanging out with kids they like who have similar interests. They don’t care if you speak Swahili at home, or if you don’t have a penis, or anything else. They just care that you like playing Roblox. And I think that’s a good way to be. All these teachers seem to want to push their agendas onto these children, but luckily, at least in my experience, the kids just don’t buy into it.

MUSIC
Melancholia by Godmode