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When I
first received an enquiry about my availability to come and talk at this
school, I was naturally reluctant. After all, this school has little to
recommend it in the eyes of the wider community. Historically it has been
simply a machine for the transmission of inherited privilege.
It is a
place where boys from middle class backgrounds are sent to improve their
material prospects and to reproduce the values of their class, or where the
boys of insecure parents are sent to fulfil the distorted ambitions of their
fathers.
When I
think of Scotch College, what comes immediately to mind are the values and
actions of its most prominent Old Boys. I think of the scene I saw on
television after Scotch Old Boy Jeff Kennett used his power and his philosophy
to close down the only high school in the state specifically dedicated to the
education of young Aboriginal people. How students from that school came here
and stood at the gates and how your Principal went out and told them to go
away.
I think of
your old boy, David Kemp, the federal education minister, giving millions of
dollars of public money to enhance the marketability of schools like this one,
justifying his actions with statistics and arguments that he refuses to apply
to the needs of the 70% of Australian families who CHOOSE to educate their
children in the democratic and equitable environment of government schools.
I think,
too, of the newspaper reports of the violent behaviour of some of your students
and the quick readiness with which these boys were defended and excused in the
courts by their adult class allies.
For these
reasons, I was initially reluctant to come here. On the other hand, I thought
ell, all this is hardly the fault of the current crop of students?
It is not
your fault, after all, that your families decided to institutionalise you.
It is not
your fault that your mothers and fathers elected to place you in the
emotionally distorting and educationally deficient environment of an all-boys
school.
It is not
your fault that your parents lacked sufficient confidence in your personal
maturity and ability to respond to the opportunities offered by government
school education, and Australia has one of the best systems in the world, by
the way, despite the relentless propaganda to the contrary by the vested
interest of the private school lobby.
Right now,
you are the victims.
Later, of
course, society will be your victim, and will suffer from the attitudes with
which you are indoctrinated here.
But who
knows? Just as prison does not always break the spirit of all who are
incarcerated there, perhaps you will not turn out to be a burden to society.
Perhaps
when you leave here, some of you will even manage to contribute to the
wellbeing of this country.
I
certainly hope so.
But just
to hedge my bets, I will be donating part of my fee today to the campaign for
public education.
Good luck
with your studies and thanks for having me.
Shane
Maloney, August, 2001 | 
