Rita Panahi: School lessons in insanity starting young
AUSTRALIA’S literacy results are falling behind the rest of the world. And yet there is no shortage of ideological idiocy seeping into schools — including advice for teachers on how to give lessons in safe sexting, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
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PARENTS concerned about falling literacy and numeracy standards can console themselves with the knowledge that their kids are being taught how to send nude pics “safely” or create misspelt posters protesting mining.
If you thought indoctrination was only happening in our universities, then you haven’t been paying attention.
The proselytisation starts early and is part of the curriculum, official and unofficial, with activist teachers who think they’re entitled to inflict their politics on impressionable children.
SAFE SEXTING TO TEACH SCHOOLGIRLS HOW TO SEND ‘SEXY SNAPS’
CHILDREN CAUGHT TRAFFICKING DRUGS AT VICTORIAN SCHOOLS
In the space of a few days we’ve learnt of two examples that perfectly illustrate everything wrong with the education system.
Children as young as 11 are being advised on how to “safely” send risqué images of themselves via text or social media, thanks to an online learning resource developed for secondary educators. More on that insanity later.
Meanwhile, grade five and six children at an inner-north primary school were preparing to hold an anti-Adani protest last week that was thankfully called off after media outlets and irate parents started asking questions.
The posters the kids had created for the event contained worrying signs of illiteracy with June spelt “Jone” and Wednesday spelt “Wensday”.
Primary school children are particularly susceptible and tend to believe what authority figures such as teachers tell them. It is imperative that when teachers speak about contentious social or political issues in the classroom they get off the soapbox, put aside their personal biases and present a balanced picture to pupils.
It’s never been clearer that schools need to refocus on academic achievement and abandon social engineering efforts. Australia’s literacy and numeracy results are falling behind European and OECD nations with only Romania and Turkey scoring lower in education in the United Nations Children’s Fund report released last year.
Yet there is no shortage of ideological idiocy seeping into schools, including Rosie in the Classroom, an online “resource kit” which advises teachers on how to give lessons in safe sexting.
The website states: “Rosie is (sic) the Classroom has been developed for secondary educators, written by secondary teacher Briony O’Keefe, concept by the Dugdale Trust for Women & Girls”, and advises teachers that “education is about much more than learning skills in maths and English. It’s about personal and communal growth, development and understanding”.
It’s not clear how many teachers and schools have taken advantage of the “Art of Safe Sexting” program, but the contents have alarmed child psychologists, cyber safety experts, politicians and parents.
It teaches girls from years 7 to 10: “If you still wanna send a pic, try to crop out anything that makes it obvious that it’s you. So leave out your face, your favourite necklace and tattoos so, if you need to, you can deny that image is you.”
Education Minister James Merlino has been critical of the resource and labelled it “inappropriate”, but the program is still available and being taught at one Victorian school and possibly many more.
Shadow Education Minister Tim Smith has accused Merlino and Victoria’s Premier of burying their heads in the sand.
“On Daniel Andrews’ watch, children are being taught in a public school how to ‘safely’ send nude photos of themselves,” Smith said. “This is a seriously creepy development that normalises this particularly dangerous behaviour, and parents have every right to demand an urgent review into it.
“That needs to answer some very serious questions like how widespread are the ‘safe sexting’ lesson plans and resources? Which other schools teach this? Did parents consent to this being taught to their teenage children? Has the teacher at Fitzroy High School that taught and developed these lessons been disciplined?”
Child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg is concerned about tweens and teens unwittingly breaking Commonwealth laws as well as the emotional and reputational damage sexting can cause. “This (program) is waving a white flag and saying ‘They’re going to do it anyway’ … this is the digital equivalent of a safe injecting room,” he said.
“What happened to education? We should be teaching them the legal ramification of sexting.”
Former veteran cop and leading cyber security expert Susan McLean was also scathing of the program.
“Unqualified people giving kids advice about things that are potentially illegal is fraught with danger,” she said. “You can’t allude to there being a safe way to sext when there isn’t.
“I’ve seen headless nudes cause all sorts of troubles with boys playing a ‘guess the body’ game … cropping your head from a nude shot doesn’t help and it reduces a girl down to a body part.
Ms McLean is also concerned that the program, though poorly researched and ill-advised, is focused only on girls. “There’s been a marked shift in the past four years with boys being harassed for nude photos. Any program aimed at kids should be holistic and focused on respect,” she said.
The notion that “they’re going to do it anyway so we must teach them to do it safely” is a simplistic justification for the harebrained scheme. One can justify any program under the guise of harm minimisation.
What’s next? How to self-harm safely? After all, we know some teenagers are going to self-harm, so should we teach them where to cut and send them home with bandages and iodine?
Victorian schoolkids are already at the mercy of the most toxic elements of the grievance industry with the Safe Schools and Respectful Relationships programs brainwashing them with activist research.
The last thing they need is sexting lessons.
— Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist
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