Minister interferes with school curriculum

By Frank Barnes

Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt has come in for a flood of criticism over her reaction to a complaint about a class lesson.

Under the headline "School sex furore: Students asked to imagine being gay", the Daily Telegraph (June 6) reported Ms Tebbutt had banned a lesson after a 'community member' had complained to Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson.

The Telegraph reported: "Year 9 children at one Sydney school were told in a classroom lesson to visualise themselves being kissed by a member of the same sex."

The article said Ms Tebbutt had stepped in to ban future use of the lesson material when the Telegraph was about to reveal details of the lesson material.

Federation responded with a letter to the Minister, which was issued as a media alert (see sidepanel).

The President of the Secondary Principals Council, Chris Bonnor also sent a letter to the Minister, which said in part:

"Teachers and especially PD teachers will see the response of the government as simply a disgraceful act of cowardice. Your reported response is even out of step with readers of the Daily Telegraph. When asked 'do you think this subject matter should be taught in schools?' 80 per cent responded 'yes'. Your response certainly does not align well with other government and DET initiatives for dealing with homophobia."

"Even as reported by the Daily Telegraph I am struggling to see what exactly is wrong with the teaching strategy to the point where it warrants 'banning'. Teachers have used variants of this strategy in a range of contexts for decades. It certainly reflects all three dimensions of Quality teaching in NSW public schools."

"I certainly shall not be encouraging principals to ban use of such teaching strategies in their schools. Instead the task of principals is now to convince their teachers not to walk away from using teaching and learning materials which challenge students to understand the world of others and in the process reduce discrimination, bullying and homophobia."

The gay press has expressed their disquiet at the "highly irresponsible and reactionary" actions of the Minister.

Ms Tebbutt has also been sent a letter from AIDS Council of NSW President Adrian Lovney. The following are excerpts from that letter:

"As you know ACON [AIDS Council of NSW] is a health promotion organisation based in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities with a central focus on HIV/AIDS. As well as working to support the general health of our communities, we specifically work in the area of anti-homophobic violence through ACON's Lesbian & Gay Anti-Violence Project (AVP). Every week we receive reports and provide support to members of our communities who have experienced hate-related violence, abuse or harassment.

"I see from this morning's Telegraph that the Government has 'banned' what appears to be a proactive teaching approach used by one teacher in Sydney's West to address homophobia in their classroom. I understand it was banned despite the absence of any complaints.

"While I have not seen details of the program, it seems no different than the well-known 'blue eyes/brown eyes' anti-racism program used by Jane Elliott in the 1960s which was seen as controversial then but is now acknowledged as being ground-breaking and effective. I fail to see how this kind of approach can be seen as unacceptable some 40 years later. In fact the banned program resembles the lesson plan on 'Challenging Homophobia' published by the Tasmanian Education Department on its website. (www.education.tas.gov.au/equitystandards/discrimination/support/homophobia.htm).

"This comes on top of what can only be described as a half-hearted defence to the attack by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Andrew Stoner upon Vicki Harding's ground-breaking and innovative 'Learn to Include' books. Saying that "it was up to school communities to decide whether the books were appropriate and useful" was hardly a positive endorsement of their appropriateness or suitability, nor an encouragement for teachers to use them.

"Last year, the Attorney-General released the report -- 'You shouldn't have to hide to be safe' -- a Report on Homophobic Hostilities and Violence Against Gay Men and Lesbians in NSW, which found that 85 per cent of respondents have been subjected to homophobic abuse."

"This level of violence against our community members does not appear to have changed since the NSW Police survey, 'Out of the Blue', 10 years ago found lesbians were six times more likely to be assaulted than other Sydney women and gay men were four times more likely to be assaulted than other Sydney men."

"While ACON's AVP can help keep our community safe from violence and support those who have been assaulted, it is important that we tackle this problem at the source...It also means sending positive messages from the most senior levels of government about the importance of anti-homophobia initiatives -- not running away from the problem or banning attempts to address the issue."

"Rather than taking a 'hands-off' approach to systemic anti-homophobia programs, banning individual teaching approaches, or half-heartedly defending excellent resources from attack, perhaps you could advise the gay and lesbian communities precisely what positive and tangible steps the Government is taking to address homophobia in schools or in the wider community."

At a time when the Prime Minister and his Education Minister Brendan Nelson are flexing their muscles on any issue they can, we need our Minister, our Director-General and all other public education bureaucrats to be supporting their teachers. If this is an example of interference in the syllabus by the Minister, then we are in for a pretty rough ride. What's next? I am reminded of the early days of sex education where you were not allowed to teach it if you were single, and that if you were drawing diagrams of the man and woman, they had to be on opposite sides of the board as the twain was never to meet. We fought to change these...and we eventually won. The least the Minister can do is to change her mind, but she has given no indication that she is likely to do so. We call on the Minister, we call on the Director-General and we call on the Parents and Citizens to stand up to the bullying that is being driven here by the Telegraph and the shock-jocks. Are we going to live in a society where education is totally dictated by these people?

Frank Barnes is an Organiser in Western Sydney and is the convenor of the Gay and Lesbian Special Interest Group.

The Telegraph's initial coverage

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