The ANZAC Day Charade
ANZAC Day is one of those days that usually passes by and I never really notice. I’ve been a student for so long that any holiday, and consequent piss-up, that I may have received was never much incentive to get excited (aren’t we students always on holidays? HAHA). But this year’s been different – my daughter’s school teacher was in the Aussie Defence Forces for over a decade and she has a very different perspective on this most morbid of days.
This week my daughter (eleven years) was asked to put herself in the shoes of a soldier in Gallipoli and write a letter home to their family. Interestingly, this letter had to explain the individual’s experience with the death of a close soldier friend. I was shocked to hear that such content is allowed in an upper primary classroom, but when my daughter told me of this I was under the impression that she and her fellow students would know little of the details of war. I was wrong.
The ideology present in my daughter’s letter reflected the disgusting perspective of her teacher. The letter reflected ideas such as ‘war is the only reason that Australia is a great country’, ‘there should be more war’, and personal values such as ‘it’s wrong to feel sad when your soldier friend dies’ and that ‘perseverance in the face of imminent death is praiseworthy’. I could go on and on but one interesting feature of my daughter’s reflections upon her teacher’s classes where what was omitted. Never have the children been told what World War One was about, where World War One was fought, when World War One was fought, nor even where Gallipoli happens to be. Further, both the female and male students all wrote their letters from the same lower to middle officer, male, perspective.
The only content that is being taught in this classroom is current military ideology. The students aren’t learning about World War One, or what ANZAC day is about; they are learning only about a particular ideological perspective of what it means to be a soldier, and consequently, what value the military should have in contemporary Australia.
Oh, and if I’m allowed a single ad hominem attack then let it be this – my daughter’s teacher told her class that ANZAC is more important and more special to her than her own daughter’s birthday. It makes me sad to have my daughter under her influence.
One last note. I’m posting a link here to an essay by Joanna Sampford, written in 2003 while still a high school student. It provides a much better account of the themes of ANZAC day and slightly vindicates Australia’s education system. The essay is “We Will Remember Them“.
Simon, thanks for linking to the post, but Joanna’s essay is actually titled “We Will Remember Them”. “Lest We Keep On Forgetting” is the title of the post in which I reproduced the essay.
Thanks for that Paul. I’ve updated the post to reflect Joanna’s actual title.
id like to fully thank al the anzac soldiers for what they did i personaly would not have the guts to do what they did they fought for al our futures and the life we live now without them my life would have been much different so thank you to every soldier
Remember the idea behind the this war was to “stop all wars” Yes these Soldiers did invade the Sovereign Country of Turkey who defeated the Australian an New Zealand invaders. I understand the sacrifice but do not understand how Howard managed to turn it so easily into political jingoism. Current Australians who are not prepared to pay 2-4% of GDP for a carbon tax to save all the best Aussie Mammals Birds, the Murray, the Great Barrier Reef, our Rainforests, and farmland for future generations all rock up to ANZAC day Beer in Hand with a flag wrapped round their head, and drive home in there iconic V8 carbon spewer, did we get the message about sacrifice?
The main problem that I have is not with contemporary Australians’ remembering the actions of previous individuals, armies, governments etc. but with the ideology and ritual that is employed on ANZAC day. For example, why do we need to use much of the Pagan ritual incorporated into Christianity in ANZAC day ‘celebrations’, in effect designating ANZAC soldiers as Christ like figures?
Like you point out Noel, remembering can be very important. But ANZAC day illustrates the problems when remembrance shifts to worship.