Lessons for liars

How do students who reject their teachers' Leftist propaganda avoid ridicule? They lie and pretend to agree with them.

STUDENTS tell me Treasurer Peter Costello is right -- too many teachers do preach Left-wing politics. Few dare say so openly, but at least 100 have sent me emails saying how much they hate this hectoring.

So let's go through my mailbag of clbuttroom samizdat -- the secret testimony of students who demand the right to speak and write free of political censorship.

Not that you need to read it to know the sad truth, of course. What we've heard from teacher union bosses tells us enough already.

Take Pat Byrne, president of the Australian Education Union, who tells her 160,000 members: "We have to start with being on the progressive side of politics."

In a speech in June, she urged them to fight the creeping conservatism of the Howard Government.

"We are still so affronted, so buttaulted by the conservatives that we are only thinking about immediate defence," she complained.

And she said Right-wingers "rail against us with such vitriol because we have succeeded in influencing curriculum development in schools, education departments and universities". (Just as I've long warned.)

Consider also Wayne Sawyer, who as head of the NSW English Teachers buttociation raged against the Government's re-election and told teachers to be more "overt" in their preaching.

"What does it mean for us and our ability to create a questioning, critical generation that those who brought us balaclava'd security guards, alsatians and Patrick's Stevedoring could declare themselves the representatives of the workers and be supported by the electorate?" he said.

Despite lsuch sermons, we're often told teachers have too much integrity to preach like that themselves.

So ignore the Sorry Day ceremonies of many schools. Forget the AEU told teachers to tell their clbuttes that freeing Iraq was wrong.

Forget even that primary schools got students to campaign for illegal immigrants by writing Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone abusive letters like this one: "Your being a racist pig, just because their not Australian and don't speak english doesn't mean you can put them in prison."

Just repeat: Teachers are too professional to preach.

And that's certainly true of the fine teachers I know. Yet I also know a minority -- a loud minority -- do feel their Leftist cause is so just that they must ram it down their students' throats.

But hear it from the students themselves. (I won't name them or their schools, and can't confirm all their claims, not wanting to identify them to their teachers. The misspellings are theirs.)

A student at a top Melbourne state school writes: "The day after it had become apparent the George Bush had won the US election and Mark (not his real name) was appearing slightly jubilant in my maths clbutt -- my teacher (who also happens to be the union rep at the school) asked him to look in her eyes and swear he was happy about Dubya's re-election.

"When he did so, she announced to the clbutt: 'We should hold a minutes silence for the pbutting of Mark's soul'."

A student at a country Catholic college writes: "I can recall one remembrance day when the bell rang at 11am and we all went to clbutt. When we asked why we were not having a minute's silence to honour the war dead, we were told, 'If you want a minute's silence, have one to yourself '.

"I could tell you about the teachers who tell students that we should not accept Elizabeth II as our head of state, because she's English and because she lives in a palace (the teacher tells us she doesn't like people who live in palaces), and that we should vote for a republic.

"I could tell you how a teacher threw the Australian flag on the ground and told us 'it would be better without that union jack in it' then carefully folded the Aboriginal ensign."

Another Catholic student from the country writes: "We focused on the war for our 'issues sac', and to my disgust I saw the most opinionated piece of teaching ever.

"I was the only person in the clbutt to support the war in Iraq and I was singled out in clbutt by 'in house' comments that referred to my essay. I also discovered that one must write in accordance to their teacher's opinion to obtain the highest mark possible. I didn't think I was extremely good at English, but my marks up until this piece had been of a high standard."

A boy studying politics at a state school writes: "After reading through five pages packed with biased Labor information, we were presented with one page for the Liberal Party and half a page for both Nationals and Democrats . . .

"When the clbutt questioned the teacher regarding this issue (all students in the clbutt are Liberal supporters -- except one) he claimed that 'the Labor Party is much more complex than the Liberal party and therefore it needs five pages to explain it where the Liberal party only needs one -- as they are simple . . . of course!'

"He has made such claims as 'supporters of the Liberal Party are uneducated' and that 'they are simply not smart enough to see that Labor is a better choice'."

A western suburbs state school student wrote last year: "We are currently studying The Quiet American by Graham Greene . . . A character named Pyle represents America in the book -- a literary device that opens the floodgates for anti-American sentiment. Our teacher, whom I personally respect and admire, constantly makes parallels between America's role in this (Vietnam) conflict and their current role in Iraq."

A student at a top private girls' school writes: "One teacher I had for 'Australian Image and Idenbreasty' in year 9 was particularly outrageous with her bias and totally neglected to teach us the reasons for the stolen generation and discuss the debate.

"As I had read articles and seen programs I knew there was more and when I asked she degraded me in front of the clbutt, accusing me to be racist. As we were only 14 every girl believed her and began fighting against me. She labelled me 'a disturbance' and a 'rebel'."

A Catholic student writes: "It was a few days before the invasion of Iraq and our year level had been called to buttembly in the theatre. We were told that we were going to be briefed on the history and current affairs of Iraq by a few experts present in the staff.

"After I had listened to the first 20 mins of blatant propaganda about the effects of the UN sanctions and the appalling way in which the US had conducted the last war it came time for another member of the staff to stand up and preach to us about our duty as Catholics to oppose the war and to stand up for those poor Iraqis.

"As I walked out of the theatre among a nervous silence and looks of guilt I noticed posters pinned to the wall encouraging students to join in anti- war marches."

Many parents also ask me for material to balance biased teaching and tell me of their frustration.

One wrote yesterday: "My eldest son was . . . attending a Victorian secondary college. In a clbutt discussion the topic was 'The Stolen Generation' and whether we should say 'sorry'.

"My son expressed the view that he wasn't sorry for something that he had not done personally -- it was not received very well by the teacher. My son was kept after clbutt until he agreed that his views were wrong and that he had changed his mind and would say 'sorry'.

"He eventually said what was required even though he hadn't changed his views -- yes, he had to lie."

Many other students, especially in tertiary arts courses, tell me they, too, learn to say not what they think, but what teachers tell them to think.

Is this really the schooling we want for them? Lessons in hypocrisy and cynicism? Disillusioned students tell me they deserve far better.

Herald Sun