A Public Shaming

Like a caricature of an evil conniving politician Christopher Pyne flashes his smug pearly whites as criticism for abandoning the Gonski reforms wash over him like water off a duck's back.

I may have a bias here, I went to public schools and have only just ceased working in a public school for the last seven years. The only time I've been on private school grounds is when we were playing footy against them, and losing so badly it was hard to walk out with your head held high. Their team had a coach, they trained regularly, their players were fit and skilled, their players belonged to strong local clubs with good coaches and their ground was level and immaculate. We had me and a teacher who liked soccer. We weren't even playing soccer.

I don't want to bag private schools because they obviously do so much right. For example, they valued their footy team enough to invest in it properly so that those players could reach their full potential. And the parents value their child reaching their full potential hence they paid to have their child attend a school which offers them the best opportunities. But they don't do everything right either.

Our school like any had a litter problem but it was next to nothing to what I saw at one private school this year. When the students who were watching the game from the boundary (and might I add sledging our players more ferociously than we'd ever consider sledging someone, there was some racism present too); when they went back to class, the rubbish they left strewn in their wake was akin to a music festival. I felt righteous indignation at the time. We had copped abuse, some of it way too inappropriately personal and we had been thrashed on the scoreboard but we, we were still better people than these toffee nosed privileged barbarians that would leave such a mess behind for low payed workers to clean up after them. That's what I was thinking, that's how I felt. And I was the School Chaplain.

I am very protective of those under my care and to those I've built a relationship with. We all get protective of our tribe and my tribe has been a bunch of misfits made up of those that ranged from overweight to aggressive to fearful and shy and to students shaped like sticks. I do not want to paint a picture of a rabble however because in that tribe we did care for each other and through whatever scars and bruises everyone brought some special skill or character or insight to the group – they brought themselves. And we were led by a teacher and teachers that passionately cared about inspiring young people to grow and reach for their full potential.

The music teacher who did amazing things getting students who would barely raise a squeak to sing or perform in front of hundreds of people. The art teacher that praised creativity and hung it high on the wall for all to see. The woodwork teacher who helped students to learn skills and create something that they were proud to show their family. The English teacher that got a students poem published and the staff member that would make lunch for someone who had no money and nothing to eat and would protect that persons privacy. For many students a public school can be a safe haven from home. It is a place where the messages they've been told about themselves that they will never amount to much are challenged with messages that they are more than what they think they are and that they are valued.

For the last couple of years I was working closely with a student with cerebral palsy. He has an incredible support structure in fantastic parents and his presence brought out the best in the other students in that they chose to support him too. In spite of all this he still saw himself as limited as to how he could contribute to this community because of his disabilities, fair enough. I loved challenging him though and helping him to run for a spot on the student executive council. We had to level the playing field for him a bit but he got there on his own merit and I loved watching his picture of himself change as he revelled in his new responsibility. And watching him challenged and inspired me because in a sense we are all somewhat disabled when we carry around and energetically maintain the picture we have of ourselves instead of breaking out of the box and growing to our full potential.

I love my public school and I love that they love the students. And with every school being it's own little tribe then it's probably the same within every school community. But therein lies one of the problems – a tribal mentality. It seems the privileged suits and blue ties of the Government haven't grown out of their tribal mentality looking down on public schools with Christopher Pyne critising the quality of the staff as the reason behind society's ills. Staff that I have seen work their backsides off in oversized classes, staff that may not have been half as effective if they hadn't received funding from the previous government to rebuild the music department so students didn't have to sit in boredom for hours waiting for their turn on the old donated acoustic guitar.

Gonski is an attempt to level the playing field so all students get a fair go. Here are two excellent articles helping to coherently cut through the confusion of what is going on.

from the canberra times -inequality at the heart of rejection of gonski program   
from the guardian - Australia's schools are underfunded, undervalued and, yes, unequal 

Does a level playing field scare the upper classes because then they would have to face up to the reality that society's ills are not because of the poor, that the poor are a just a symptom of society's ills? Maybe they would have to look at themselves. And that is what happens in a tribal mentality, we project on to the other claiming they are at the root of the problem so we don't have to question our part in the problem. I do this. I say I believe that all people are equal and deserve human rights and dignity but I still fantasise about Pyne, Morrison, Abbott, Murdoch and Rinehart being put in a chaff bag and dumped into the sea leaving the world a sudden utopia.

But it is not our beliefs or our ideals that make the world a better place, it is our actions. They say that what we value is something we do most of the time. I believe that I should buy fair trade products at every opportunity over products from companies with a dodgy history of looking after its employees and the environment. But how much do I truly value that belief when I go and buy another jar of non fair trade coffee? Obviously not enough but at least I question my own hypocrisy and am a work in progress. If you say you believe in climate change, if you say you believe in human rights, in everyone having access to the best health and education we can offer, that we should care for the poorest in the world...If you say all these things and your actions say otherwise then it is not a value.

It seems no matter the issue, whether it is climate change, asylum seekers, gay marriage, health, education, bushfires, the economy etc. that this regressive Government refuses to listen to experts in those respective fields and instead adopts its tribal mentality, taking their supporters who have been whipped up into fear, into the need to protect their tribal identity with them. What worries me is that I hear no one with credibility championing their ideas as worth pursuing. Though it may seem so at times, they are not stupid but they do not want to face their own demons, they are wilfully ignorant, projecting onto the other the imagery of horns and a pitchfork. And in so doing, in this case in particular they are saying 'we do not value equality and we do not value public education.'

They are saying to a generation that we don't care about you enough to invest in you properly. There is no place for you, you will not amount to much. And then we wonder why our young people are plagued with depression and anxiety, suicide, self harm and attention disorders. We just go on creating more problems for our future. If we value everyone getting the best start in life then we should invest in it, we should go above and beyond what even the Gonski reforms offered us because it is a smart investment and because it is the right thing to do. But no, what do we really value? We bitch and moan about a billion dollars towards education and we subsidise mining companies with tax breaks and cheap fuel to the tune of four billion dollars a year. We need to ask not just of the government but of our ourselves as a nation what it is we believe that is fair and just. We need to ask ourselves why we don't value education as much as we should.

If the educators go on strike, I'll stand with them and I'd encourage everyone with a progressive bone in their body to stand too because all schools and public schools in particular need our support. They are at the core of communities and at the core of helping people discover that they are more than who they think they are, that they can reach their full potential and we can all have a better future.