JOHN HOWARD CLAIMS HISTORY CURRICULUM BIZARRE
Source: Compiled by APN from media reports
Former Prime Minister John Howard has launched a scathing attack on Australia’s national history curriculum, labelling it “unbalanced” and “bizarre”. The new curriculum to be implemented in most States by 2013 also ignores the importance of British influences, Mr Howard told about 800 people who recently attended the inaugural Sir Paul Hasluck Foundation lecture to mark the legacy of the former WA politician and governor-general. “Choices have to be made in any curriculum and of course it’s impossible to satisfy everybody, but my fear is that if this curriculum remains unamended young Australians of the future will be denied a proper knowledge of our nation’s history,” he said.
Mr Howard said it was good the subject would become compulsory to Year 10 and that it would place more emphasis on indigenous and Asian history. “Beyond those praiseworthy features there is much about the curriculum that I find unbalanced, lacking in priorities and in some cases quite bizarre,” he said. Mr Howard said the conspicuous absence of Australia’s western heritage from the curriculum reflected a growing retreat from self-belief in western civilisation. “It is as if the West must always play the villain simply because it has tended to enjoy more power and economic success than other parts of the world since 1500,” he said.
