catholicweekly.com.au 17 5, July, 2020 E ditorial & letters Dorin’s World Send your letters to:
[email protected] By the post: The Editor, Level 13, 133 Liverpool St, Sydney NSW 2000 AUSTRALIA Silver lining for education in COVID’S dark cloud S chool life pre-COVID-19 may have been somewhat predicable. How- ever the emergence of the virus has essentially forced school communities to rethink their respective learning ecosystem and academic care gener- ally. School leaders and teachers have been challenged to think about their contemporary definition of “normal” and basically author a “new normal” of learning and school life. Amongst the maze of information about the pandemic, school commu- nities have had to navigate a path of evolving education and health policies whilst striving to ensure quality learning and teaching. The return to classes has been wel- comed by teachers and support staff. The wonderful daily interactions shared between staff and students has sorely been missed. This is one of the reasons why schools are essentially a human relationships organisation. In a school, the quality of human relationships is paramount for student growth to occur. The challenge for school leaders and teachers will be to learn and grow from the experience of COVID-19. What new pedagogies, systems and routines can they learn from the experience in order to create a “new normal”? Simply returning to school life as it was before lockdown would be an injustice to our learners and their families. In the new normal, there has been an odyssey of exciting, fun and transforma- tive pedagogies, alongside school prac- tices which should become part of our educational bandwidth. The increased and varied use of applications such as Zoom, Screencaster, YouTube and so much more has enriched learning expe- riences. Students commencing school later, finishing earlier, increasing use of blended learning, and being on campus sometimes, rather than all the time, has provided added ingredients to our new normal. There is no question that COVID-19 has provided many challenges to school communities. However, the pandemic has also presented a series of opportu- nities to educators to break the shackles off any ‘industrialised’ approaches to schooling and implement heightened creativity and innovation in a myriad of areas within schools. Frank Chiment Principal Leader, Patrician Brothers’ College, Blacktown NSW The cruel fate of widows in developing countries M ost people can’t cope and come to terms with the devas- tating loss of a partner. Women in developing countries who lose their partners endure a long-term struggle for their basic needs and dignity. In many places widows are often de- nied inheritance rights, have their prop- erty appropriated after the death of a partner and can face extreme stigma and discrimination as perceived ‘carriers’ of disease when their husbands die of HIV AIDS. They are much less likely to have ac- cess to old age pensions than men, so the death of a spouse can lead to destitu- tion for older women. Poverty, violence, health issues and conflict-related issues exacerbate the agonies of widows. The pain and sufferings of widows should - and can be - ended. Govern- ments should institute policies that alle- viate widows’ poverty, enabling them to have access to their full inheritance and their children never be denied access to basic education because of issues such as the cost of school fees. Handsen Chikowore London UK Would protesters measure up to their own criteria? W e are asked for support of the movement to desecrate statues, which celebrate the exploits of historical figures. The justification for this neo-icono- clasm is the racial attitudes and practices of these revered personages. We are told that many of them even kept slaves. But this display of supposed virtuous and moral indignation is a two edged sword. Howmany of these self-appoint- ed guardians of politically correct social memories would have the racial actions of their own forebears exposed by foren- sic ancestral examination? To protect the racial purity of the pop- ulace, those who failed ancestral scruti- ny, would have to be punished by confis- cation of their various digital devices for eradication of photos and memorabilia of extended family. Kevin Rowney Towradgi NSW Nation’s Indigenous need our voices O ne of the major stains onmodern Australian his- tory, its politics and its national culture is the his- torical treatment of our Indigenous brothers and sisters. The shameful treatment of the nation’s In- digenous obviously began with European colonisation and the greed for land and wealth which characterised it. Part and parcel of early colonisation was the assumption that In- digenous Australians were nothing better than savages who could be enslaved and killed and their culture and knowl- edge extinguished. The legacy of this ignorance and arrogance was an on- going generational indifference – to suffering and the de- struction of history and culture – which came to continually characterise Australian life at almost every level. Despite the fact that the Catholic Church engaged in wonderful works of healthcare and education for Indigenous Australians in the 19th and 20th centuries, it’s little wonder that Indigenous Australians could only treat the general version of European ‘Christianity’ and culture they experienced with cynicism. We Australians - all of us - need to face up to our history and, rather than attempting to erase its reality, agitate to do something about it. Part of the tragedy of this country is that it often seems unlikely the resources needed to begin to seri- ously and effectively address our national shame will be as- signed. Indigenous Australia is not a ‘sexy’ issue for the shal- low and vapidmedia of the nation, obsessed with sex and diets and reality TV, nor for the bourgeois suburban activists who will march to prevent the felling of trees but have been shamefully silent in the Age of Protest on their own compli- ance in Australia’s treatment of Indigenous people. Com- pounding the problem is that in an increasingly febrile and social media-driven era of transient mass hysteria politics, government has largely ignored the people whose history stretches back tens of thousands of years. Despite themalaise of Australia’s treatment of its Indige- nous, there are some signs of hope. National media this week described the proposed newClosing the Gap agreement to be discussed by Federal Cabinet as an “unprecedented” move to hand power, responsibility and funding to improve health and education for Indigenous Australians back to the nation’s first people. Key goals of the reported proposed agreement include improving the life-expectancy gap between Indigenous Aus- tralia and the rest of the nation, increasing the proportion of Indigenous who have completed a tertiary qualification, in- creasing the proportion of Indigenous youth in employment, education or training, increasing general Indigenous em- ployment rates and reducing the rates of incarceration which, for Australia, are shocking (inWA alone, more than 1 in 20 In- digenous adults are in jail). Suchmoves are a sign that progress is possible. They should be lauded and encouraged, yet they are not enough and should not be accepted as such. Muchmore is needed. The depths of poverty, social and personal suffering which somany Indigenous experience, and the repeating forces at work in their lives which perpetuate such patterns of disloca- tion fromone generation to the next and result in far higher rates of horrendous outcomes such as child suicide, extreme violence, addiction, incarceration and family breakdown can only be addressed with great sensitivity, great respect and perseverance over generations. Onemissing element fromofficial responses is to recog- nise the fundamental importance of family structure and to find ways to break the patterns which have been so destruc- tive. Shoring up and strengthening Indigenous family life is not an act of imposing white bourgeois values but a recogni- tion of the universal importance of the family in determining patterns of future relationships in individual lives. Australia’s commitment to reaching out to our Indigenous brothers and sisters should therefore not run fromone budget to the next but be squarely aimed at neutralising as far as possible neg- ative patterns and forces, creating spaces and opportunities so that individuals can achieve personal fulfillment through work and relationships. It goes without saying that this nation’s Indigenous Aus- tralians do not need our paternalismand our political cor- rectness. But they do need our solidarity, our friendship, our respect – that in our eyes they really are our unique brothers and sisters who are naturally our equals. This has not been the case for the overwhelmingmajority of Australian history and it is this stain on our past and our present that is amat- ter of national urgency. What do we need to do? We need to show our Indigenous brothers and sisters that we want to help themdetermine their own future and that in our eyes they are worth every last inch of the effort required. LETTERS Got something to say? Throw your brickbat or bouquet? Write a letter to the Editor at the above address.