From The Age:
A high school textbook that teaches Victorian VCE students that the United States and Israel have been linked to "state terrorism" has sparked outrage and a demand from the Federal Government that it be immediately withdrawn from classrooms.
It's not just one sentence in Power and National Politics:
The book used by about half of Victoria's 700 politics students, is being criticised for playing down the threat of terrorism and containing flawed thinking and ideology.
A furious federal Education Minister, Julie Bishop, has called on the Victorian Government to withdraw the book.
"It is inconceivable that information is being taught in schools which claims Australia is 'reaping the harvest' of our foreign policies and our 'Western imperialism'," she said.
"Of greatest concern is the claim in the textbook that the Howard Government is deliberately using the threat of terrorism to keep Australians fearful and thus supportive of Government policies and actions.
Wow. Who knew the NDP had taken over the education ministery in Victoria?
Seriously, the author is high scool teacher Paul Gilby, a member of the Victorian Association of Social Studies Teachers Committee:
The VASST committee has given exemplary service to our members. They are an innovative, thoughtful and dynamic group. I offer them my sincere thanks for all of their time and effort in this last year. It is very exciting to see such strong teacher representation on the committee. I thank Julie Dyer for her work as editor of Ethos, she has maintained the quality production of our flagship journal. I also thank members and committee for their contributions to a range of activities. In particular those who authored or co-authored text books requiring many hours of thoughtful writing and research. This contribution has been tremendous.
Yes, a tremendous job. No doubt the family of the Australians murdered in the Bali attacks have a different opinion.
Well, Gilby is shocked. Funny how people who can't recognize terrorism are always shocked at those who can:
The author is Northcote High School teacher Paul Gilby, 35, who says he is "very concerned and distressed" at the furore surrounding his work.
He said he had written the book quickly last year for a new course, but that he had tried to present all viewpoints in good faith and felt the book was being subjected to "a very decontextualised attack".
He rejected the claim he played down terrorism, but acknowledged that the terrorism section was "problematic" and said it was being revised, along with other parts of the book, for the second edition for next year.
Thankfully, te Australians don't seem to be willing to put up with excuses.
