Outrage over 'emotionally abusive' Stolen Generation history lesson
A Sydney catholic school has been accused of emotionally abusing students after telling them they were being taken away from their parents as part of a lesson on the stolen generations.
Students at St Justin’s Catholic Primary School were distraught after being told the Prime Minister had written a letter informing the school that their parents would no longer be looking after them.
It wasn’t until the end of the day that the class was told it was part of an Indigenous history lesson.
They were then instructed to write down how the exercise made them feel, with emotional students eventually returning home in tears.
Tim Gilmour, assistant to the director of schools in the Catholic diocese of Wollongong, which oversees St Justin's defended the controversial lesson plan.
"This was intended to give students experience of a scenario that was part of our nation's history," Mr Gilmour said.
"We wanted to ask them how they would feel if we did that now.
"I understand that it was not done as well as it should have been in one class."
Despite the school's apology, critics are condemning the exercise entirely.
“This is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen happen at a school, I don't care what they were trying to do, there were kids in tears,” 3AW radio personality Tom Elliot told Sunrise.
“Children are not meant to be subjects of experiment, if this happened to my daughter and she is 7 and a half, I'd remove her from that school. It is ridiculous.”
Commentator Jane Caro said it was imperative students were exposed to different types of learning but conceded there were better ways to go about it.
“One day the blue-eyed children were superior to the brown, and on another day the brown-eyed kids were superior to the blue eyes, and it was all to design and show the kids the difference between races,” Ms Caro added.
“Now it’s considered to be one of the greatest educational moments ever … and the kids in the class have gone on to say how it changed their life.”
The education board of NSW is said to be investigating the matter.
Newsbreak - June 29
