Rita Panahi: Daniel Andrews’ sexist toddlers as real as tooth fairy
FORGET about tackling the crime wave or falling academic standards — the Andrews government is focusing on another “crisis” — sexist preschoolers, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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FORGET about tackling the crime wave, crippled justice system, looming energy crisis or falling academic standards in our schools — the Victorian government is focusing its energies on a real existential crisis: sexist preschoolers.
Showing the same arrogance it displays in promoting the deeply flawed Safe Schools program, Dan Andrews’ government has found another vehicle to push radical gender theory — The Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships program.
KINDER PROGRAM TO STOP SEXISM IN FOUR-YEAR-OLDS COMES UNDER FIRE
It’s indoctrination by stealth.
These programs may have innocuous names, but take a close look at some of the material being taught to children and it’s clear that both deviate wildly from their original briefs. They are not teaching tolerance or tackling destructive attitudes that could lead to violence; instead they accept highly contentious feminist dogma as fact. Children as young as four are the target of ideologically driven material built on junk research that paints every boy as a potential predator and every girl as a perpetual victim.
The respectful relationships program was introduced this year and will ultimately be taught to children from preschool to VCE; that’s a lot of social engineering for any child to bear. Early childhood educators will be taught to stamp out heinous hate speech such as “boys will be boys” and to eradicate gendered norms and sexual stereotypes by implementing “reflective practice to critically evaluate their work with children using anti-bias approaches specifically regarding gender bias”.
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The Victorian Education and Training Department’s tender document also states: “Research shows that children become aware of gender expectations and make efforts to fit within these gendered norms by the time they are in kindergarten.
“As young children learn about gender, they may also begin to enact sexist values, beliefs and attitudes that may contribute to disrespect and gender inequality.
“Therefore, the early years are a critical time to challenge gender stereotypes and to help children develop a secure sense of self and healthy, respectful relationships.
“Educators who understand the development of executive functioning, social and emotional skills, the drivers of gender-based violence, and who are able to critically reflect on these aspects of learning and the subtle ways that gendered roles and stereotypes are reinforced are in a better position to provide learning experiences that support respectful relationships.” We are talking about preschoolers here. Misogynist toddlers are about as real as the tooth fairy.
Four-year-olds aren’t sexist and there’s nothing dangerous about boys laughing about girl germs or girls poking fun at boys. We are spending millions of taxpayer dollars tackling a problem that does not exist and schools are spending valuable time on fringe topics that have no place in the classroom. We must allow kids to be kids and not become hysterical because most children naturally gravitate to “gendered toys”.
Children should be given the freedom to choose without educators fretting about the prevalence of girls playing with dolls and boys opting for trucks.
In their efforts to combat the scourge of domestic violence, the government has embraced toxic identity politics. The respectful relationships program pushes the theory that a lack of gender equality is at the heart of violence against women, ignoring the non-activist research and statistical data that shows the problem is far more complex. Poverty, mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction are all contributing factors and the rate of violence against women is significantly higher in certain communities, including among indigenous Australians where it’s at endemic levels.
This preoccupation with social engineering distracts from what schools should be focused on: reading, writing and arithmetic.
Perhaps if there was less time spent on trying to force teachers to indoctrinate children there would be more time for academic pursuits and Australian students wouldn’t trail those in Kazakhstan in maths and science.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist
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