I am often researching all kinds of issues and cultural shifts. Not because I am a pastor but because I believe it is my duty as a citizen – especially a Christian one – to be as well-informed as possible on matters that affect human beings. Some of my findings, for some reason, you will never see reported in the mainstream media, even though the information and data is quite discoverable. I have my theories on that, but that’s another story.
Some of my recent research has been into education systems in Australia. The more I dig the more dismayed I have become. One of the experiences I have had in this research has been moments of realisation when my findings mirror not just double-standards demonstrated by authorities but the abuse of human rights that is fuelled by arrogant left-wing politicians and bureaucrats. I have said before this current state of affairs has not occurred overnight. In Western education systems, for example, wokeist, left-wing agendas began their march through the institutions way back in the 1960s. Today the colonisation is complete. It began in small ways with the dismantling of modernity and its key assumptions such as, objective truth, the overarching story of humanity, scientific reason and evidence-based public policy. In the post-modern era, there is no such thing as objective truth anymore only my truth, or your truth, or anything else we want to be truth regardless of facts. But, I digress.
There has been much new social policy and legal frameworks developed by governments to rightly combat child abuse in the last 25 years. This has been absolutely necessary. And, while that pendulum has swung out a long way, and still remains out there creating a variety of injustices, the overall results are welcome. In my view, and I am not alone, child abuse is defined in quite narrow terms. If a parent is seen in the eyes of a social worker to be harming their child with over discipline, for example, or is infringing the child’s human rights, there can be serious consequences. For serious offending there should be consequences. But I have formed the view that in many ways state education systems are fostering other forms of child abuse. Sound harsh? Let me argue the case.
Our education systems have morphed into institutions of woke influence. Numeracy and literacy, how to think critically and independently and so on, are way down the curriculum list. The key issues in education now revolve around how young people ought to understand themselves, their families, their country and the world around them. And the leftist social agenda defines all of the curriculum content. According to research by Dr. Bella d’Abrera, under the ‘National Quality Framework’, all Australian childcare services are legally required to follow the government-approved Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) for 0-5-year-olds, which is called, “Belonging, Being and Becoming”. The title says it all. It’s a far cry from “Reading, Writing and Arithmetic”. Her analysis of “Belonging, Being and Becoming” found that it is entirely based on divisive Critical Social Justice theories such as diversity, inclusion, gender diversity and equity. But there’s more. According to materials recommended by the federal government childcare regulator, the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), social justice in early years is an ‘exciting’ opportunity to explore issues around gender diversity, sexuality, race, culture, and our environment. I ask the question: what right does any government think they have to subject any child to such wokeist, leftist indoctrination? If the same child was in some cult where they were being comprehensively indoctrinated, the Department of Health and Human Services would immediately be on the doorstep. Oh, but there’s more. Two new principles - ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Principles’ and ‘Sustainability’ - have been embedded into the EYLF. Early learning centres must now teach 0-5-year-olds to become ‘active citizens’ in the journey of reconciliation and ‘support children’s commitment to social justice’. It’s compulsory. You can just imagine what’s included under “social justice”.
Among ACECQA’s recommendations are that children perform a daily Acknowledgment of Country and for both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags to be displayed in all settings (the Australian flag is not required). Key words in the “Belonging, Being and Becoming” curriculum are Diversity (91 times), Equity (25 times), Inclusion (17 times), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (87 times), Sustainability (35 times), Identity (32 times), Critical Reflection (24 times), Cultures (22 times), Reconciliation (9 times). The words Parent, Mother, and Father are not mentioned once. The state now indoctrinates our children without any consultation with parents or parent representative bodies. And children cannot even bring their health workbooks home to show their parents.
Ideologues, bureaucrats and faceless public service boffins are shaping children and thus will, ultimately, shape the future of this country. This is nothing new, historically. It is new in Australia and it is aggressively reinforced. Great political and cultural movements of history have always understood this strategy. If you want to change society, you don't start with adults, you start with children. The abuse here is as real as any other kind of child abuse – just not as obviously or immediately damaging. The education system no longer just imparts knowledge to a child, it brazenly indoctrinates the child with values that are often very contradictory to their forming family values. When the state removes parents as the primary moral authority in a child’s life (which is mostly what “Belonging, Being and Becoming” is about) for political reasons, and attempts to form the child it wants, that’s abuse. But then the radical left has always sought to do this – it is far easier to get to children than adults.
Conservative Christian families, by contrast, have traditionally taken a different view. We have tended to believe that childhood should be protected from political indoctrination. Children should be allowed to develop and be encouraged to form differing views than parents sometimes, and all in a respectful environment. We think that we should shield them as their cognitive capacities are developing which is wise and gentle nurture. Our education system is not that. Adult concerns have now become children’s concerns (recent evidence of this was teachers in some schools encouraging children to aggressively engage in Pro-Palestine marches and events!). If a child is to do well, it must toe the curriculum line. One leading psychologist said recently, “… alarmingly, when they (the children) are distressed (about what they are being taught), that distress is now often treated as evidence of ‘awareness’, as evidence that they care, that they're engaged. It's a moral virtue.” It isn’t. It’s child abuse. She went on to say, “I don't think it takes a psychologist to know that emotional distress is not something we should celebrate in our children … children need hope, and they need security and they need faith that the adults around them are capable of managing these problems. And quite frankly, they just need to learn to read and write.” I agree. Children are no longer taught to question the world in any sensible, reasonable way. Not anymore. Under the “Belonging, Being and Becoming” curriculum framework they are indoctrinated to question everything through the lens of ideology and diagnosis and grievance and oppression before they have had the chance to simply develop, or learn to tie their shoelaces. That is not right - it’s abuse.
Christian parents must become as invested in the proper development and shaping of their children’s minds and characters, as are radical left ideologues and state systems. Many are not, and are happy to leave it to the system without question. This aids the abuse.
Deuteronomy 6:5-9 (NIV)
“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
That’s not child abuse. That’s blessing!
Ps Milton
[Sources: “Mindless” (new book) by Dr Bella d’Abrera; Child and adolescent psychologist and IPA Adjunct Fellow, Clare Rowe, in a speech in Brisbane, July 2nd; Research document, “Government-mandated Early Learning Frameworks forcing radical doctrines in childcare”, June 2024, Institute of Public Affairs website. Copies available by return email @ miltonc@ rechurch.com.au; other internet sources during research; Education Department of Victorian website.]