Saying sorry for what?

The Brauer College disgrace was the kind of mistake made when ideology and fashion trump common sense and decency. By Beverley McArthur.

When we say sorry, it should be for a reason, and we should mean it.

 We should clearly understand what we are apologising for.

As a nation, we have said Sorry to our Indigenous peoples for past wrongs. In 2009 we also said Sorry to another stolen generation of sorts, those orphaned children removed from the United Kingdom and brought to Australia between 1930-70.

Despite the damage done and tears shed, both these social manipulations were borne of naïve, but good intent.

In 2021, we are observing the latest apology, relevant only to one half of the population.

Today’s sorry is from men to women, boys to girls.

They are saying sorry for simply being born male. It is an apology for something they have no control over, an apology for something – in most cases – they haven’t done. And unless they line up at the registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages to alter their gender, it’s something they can do nothing about.

I am not advocating a queue at the registry.

What I am advocating for – if possible – is common sense.

The hurricane of feminist fingers pointing in the male direction is achieving little other than fear and anxiety.  Unlike the decades and centuries gone where the feminist cause was indeed required to leap a chasm of inequality – the remaining opportunities for feminist advances in the Western World, or at least Australia, are less fractured and should proceed with minimal finger pointing. 

There are few, if any, legislative or legal holes to plug. It is now a cultural playground.

Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia: countries like these have massive opportunity to do better for women. The politically shrill mob that rallied in Canberra recently might try its luck with a similar march on one of these nations’ parliaments. It would be a brave move given they may or may not come home alive.

Last week, all the boys attending a Warrnambool public school, Brauer College, were forced to stand up and apologise to female students on behalf of all men who have hurt or offended women.

I have since met with concerned parent, Danielle Shepherd, who told me her 12-year-old son in Year 7 had no idea what he was apologising for.

“He’s upset by it – he now has this misconception that everybody looks at him and males as predators or somebody wishing to do harm to someone in a sexualised manner.

“The male staff were all made to stand up too. Some of the kids were confused, asking what offences their teachers had committed.  It just added to the total confusion,” she said.

After creating an international sensation, the school has since admitted it was inappropriate.

And so it should. Its self-absorbed spectacle was jaw-dropping in its overreach, sheer stupidly and offensiveness.

Will the damage done by this type of madness be the next National Apology we give? Will we see the Great Hall in Parliament House lined with chairs for a ceremony in 30 years’ time to ‘Say Sorry to the men of Australia for the hurt and damage caused by labelling them offenders and predators simply because they were born male?’

The Brauer College disgrace should be enshrined as a lesson for others.

Theirs was the kind of mistake made when ideology and fashion trump common sense and decency. The compulsory confession was a massive over-reaction when a simple classroom discussion might have been more meaningful, robust and even educational.

Collective guilt is doomed to have consequences. Worse than pointless, it could be psychologically harmful, a zealous zeitgeist that may bite these boys’ backsides in the years to come, or sooner.

Teachers should not usurp the role of parents. The current decline in students’ academic results in reading, writing, maths, science and so on should be enough to keep teachers fully occupied with ABC and one, two, three.

Schools should, of course, engage the highest standards for respect and discipline.

This was certainly the case when my twin boys attended Brauer College in Years 7 and 8 at a time when it was known for excellence in educational outcomes and student behaviour.

My strong preference is that schools stick to getting the educational basics on track, leaving parents to be the moral, social and ethical guides for their children. Research indicates that this sentiment is echoed by about 70 per cent of people.

When individuals like Danielle Shepherd speak out, those who agree in silence begin to feel less like an island in an ocean. The volume on the national common-sense button needs to be turned up.

Brauer’s blanket-bombing of innocence, and the innocent, should force us to sit up very straight.

While this sorry-example was exposed, it does leave one feeling somewhat queasy about what else schools are telling our children.

Are they really Safe Schools?

Beverley McArthur is a member of the Victorian Legislative Council.