Bring On The Guilt

It makes students in Australia resentful:

High school students resent being made to feel guilty during their study of Australia’s indigenous past and dislike studying national history in general.

History Teachers Association of NSW executive officer Louise Zarmati said her experience teaching in western Sydney was that students were resistant to learning about Australian politics and, in particular, indigenous history.

“This is a somewhat delicate subject but they don’t like the indigenous part of Australian history,” she told a hearing of the Senate inquiry into the academic standards of school education in Sydney yesterday.

“The feedback I get is they’re not prepared to wear the guilt. They find it’s something that’s too personal, too much of a personal confrontation for them.

“I think it sparks a lot of racism; it certainly did in my classroom. It makes it an unpleasant learning experience.”

From personal observation, the guilt in Australia on the aborigines is suffocating. Every time the aboriginals are mentioned the equivalent of forelock tugging takes place. So the solution is to teach history in such as way as to “spark a lot of racism”? Maybe they should re-think the guilt trip.