Hooray!
Beautifully put and articulated.
But are you talking about integrated schooling, along the lines of New Zealand and the UK? Where faith schools are public in every way except for their faith character?
There is no doubt we need to relook at how we currently divide up our kids in schools, but the trend at the moment is to create ever more layers of schools - specialist behavioural schools in the public system, for example, as well as specialist academic, sporting, performing arts etc. We put girls with girls, muslims with muslims, jews with jews, smart kids with smart kids, rich kids with rich kids and poor kids with poor kids - some by choice, many by default. This is consumer driven and is inevitable if you take the view of schools that it should be driven by an amoral and indifferent market.
The consequences, as you make clear, could be profound and -forget social justice- risk impacting very negatively on our future global competitiveness by undermining social stability, cohesion and, of course, the potential for all kids to develop their talents.

I concur wholeheartedly with the article.

Though I suspect we'll hear from a few 'separatists' who disagree...
I can see what the objections will be - either a) they're not separatists or b) they are separatists, because the educational foundation is rotting.

I would say that if people genuinely believe b) then perhaps they should fix the problem instead of splitting society.

And no... god isn't the answer.

“On the one hand, there is growing support for policies aimed at integrating our diverse population into the “mainstream” Australian community”, claims Mecurius.

There is no such support. If there was, we would have thrown out the divisive policy of multiculturalism. Even Howard bottled out on doing that, so what hope is there of integration with the Rudd Government. The ALP actively preaches difference.

Social cohesion? We have that only because most of us still abide by the law, and most of us don’t have anything to do with self-separated tribes that Fraser-enforced multiculturalism and a totally inappropriate immigration programme has landed us with.

Come to think of it, we don’t have social cohesion; we have good luck, so far.

Mercurius is always full of bile against anything representing something he feels he is not. “Well- heeled families”, for instance, have “precious darlings”, a nasty put down if ever there was one. Either that or he doesn’t think the not so well off value their children as much as the ‘wealthy’ do.

Mercurius seeks to “clarify” that his piece is not about public versus private schools.

No. It’s about envy. But he still can’t help knocking private schools by suggesting that they are not really private or independent. Like all people keen on the welfare socialist state, he skirts the real situation on funding ‘differences’ between state and private, and in doing so, perpetuates the myths people like him want us to believe.

The author reaches lunatic pitch when he comes up with “separatist”, and carries on about “mass cultural suicide”, and undermining “… the stability and fairness of the society on which so much of Australia’s success and prosperity rests?”

This, when the multiculturalists have been hell-bent on doing this since the 70’s? Private schools, from the wealthiest to the humble parish school, are going to ruin Australia’s stability and just about everything else?

Continued…

….continued

Mercurius Goldstein is a good example of an academic so narrow-minded in his pursuits that he thinks the entire universe revolves around him and his particular discipline. Of course “separatism” is bad. But to start looking at the very narrow area of education when multiculturalism has spread the ‘disease’ in every area of life, is petty and ignorant.

Neither I nor any of my family went to private schools, incidentally; but I would encourage anyone who can to send their kids to a private school to do so

If the teachers in public schools are so good, then how come they don’t want performance pay?

If the public schools believe in “inclusivity “, then how come the teachers don’t want a common curriculum?

If the public schools believe in the public, then how come the public has almost no say about what goes on inside a public school?

If you want to be a face in the crowd, you attend a public school.

If you want to be regarded as a second class student, you attend a public school as a boy student.

Yes, it is seperatist, that is what happens when public standards fall below those of a large part of the community. Get used to it.

The immediate post war generations did not have anywhere near the level of drug abuse, family dysfunction and plain psychosis, all wrapped up in a casuist ideology that is used by parents and some teachers to justify what is actually a form of culpable parenting and culpable teaching. And consequently, there was no need for seperatism.

This is simply no longer the case. Children of almost voting age can kidnap, torture and apply cruel and degrading punishments to a disabled person and get away with a bond. They can sell products to each other that have a very high risk of serious injury or death and get a caution. Private schools won't completely insulate our children from those influences but at least we know that the other parents gave a suffient damn to make a sacrifice, an effort.

This seperatism is a response to a set of conditions that were not created by us, were not condoned by us, and are not acceptable to us. And to then turn around and blame us for the resulting social dislocation is a good example of the intellectual limits of those who, by omission or commission, created the problem.

You made your bed, sleep in it.