Education Editor Sheradyn Holderhead
October 05, 2012
While many white Australians are fleeing the public
school system it would appear for the same motivations that drive White Flight
(Ho, 2011) are the exact reasons some Australians are staying put or opting to
change to the public education system.
In an article published in the Helald Sun 2012, radio
personality Amanda Blair explains her decision to send her four children to a
public school, like many Anglo Australians Ms. Blair was fortunate enough to
have a choice in school selection and initially opted to send her eldest to a
Catholic Primary School but once she heard Premier Jay
Weatherill, who was Education Minister at the time, speak about the innovations
in the public education system, the "penny dropped"( Herald Sun, 2012).
Aside from believing in and
wanting to support the initiatives that the public system was offering, she said another
key reason behind the move was that being part of the local school connected
the family to the diverse local community. "We want our children to have
an understanding of diversity - ethnic, social and religious - and our school
provides that” (Herald Sun, 2012). As Wilkinson et
al. (2004) put it:
“Public schools with diverse
student bodies are more likely to be effective in teaching tolerance and
respect for difference. For this reason, investing in the public sector is
liable to be a far more cost effective way of achieving social objective” (Pg.
73).
For Amanda Blair and many other Australians the decision to stay
put in the public system may derive from the need for ‘cross cultural
exchange’(Ho, 2011) and these interactions are more likely to occur in ‘micropublics’
(Ho, 2011) such as public schools. As Professor Tony Vinson commented, while chairing the
Vinson Inquiry into the Provision of Public Education in New South Wales in
2002, public education has ‘‘aspired to be a force for social cohesion, for
building mutual understanding between people of different ethnic, religious,
vocational and socio- economic backgrounds’’ (Ho, 2011 pg. 606).
It would seem many parents are attracted
to public education because of greater diversity and responsiveness to the
needs of the local community (Herald Sun, 2012), Gravielatos (2006)
even describes public schools as ‘‘the crucible within which democracy was
formed and upon which a vibrant, socially cohesive future is dependent’’.
Fostering ‘everyday multiculturalism’ (Ho, 2011) is imperative to ensure an
equality mindset within our younger generation.
Sheradyn Holderhead (2012) Education Editor:
Herald Sun
Christina Ho (2011): Respecting the Presence of Others: School
Micropublics and Everyday Multiculturalism, Journal of Intercultural Studies,
32:6, 603-619
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