billrider2013

 

 

My host in Canberra is an old school mate.  He and I are part of small group, some of whom, go back to pre-school.  Others in the group became friends in Infants and Primary School.

My host’s wife has kept all of their family photographs.  They are filed and recorded, archive style.  She also managed to retrieve and file photographs of his pre –marriage days   These include photographs from Primary School.

Looking over the old photographs has led me to reflect on our early school years and our school friends.  Our school serviced the inner Canberra suburbs of Turner, O’Connor and Acton.  Like most of Canberra, the demographics of these suburbs was mixed.  The occupations of the children in the school included; public servants of all levels, professionals, tradesmen and clergymen  etc.

The children in our classes came from families with parents from a typically wide range of occupations.  These include: the Medical Head of Canberra Hospital, a leading Economics Professor, Plumbers (me and at least one other), a Quantity Surveyor, leading Scientists, a House Painter, a successful Artistic Painter, and low, middle and high level Public Servants.   Also, included in the classes were children from single parent families where their fathers had tragically died at young age.  The income levels of the families were also varied.  This variation was not as wide as it probably is today.  However, the variation was significant.

What I think was really important was that, irrespective of our family backgrounds and the incomes of our families, all of the children were in the classes based on their abilities.  Everyone was given an equal chance to succeed.  The mixture of the backgrounds of the children provided each child the opportunity to experience social contact across very different families.  This is one of the great advantages of the Public School system.

I have had the opportunity to see the experiences of my daughter and stepsons at one the most expensive Private Schools in Sydney.  The cost would put them among the most expensive schools on the planet.  As would be expected the students at that school are typically drawn from families that are well off.  While the range of incomes is broad, all the families would have above average incomes.  Some of the families have extremely high incomes, putting them among the richest families in Australia.

Attendance in Public Schools has been on the decline across Australia.  I understand that this trend has also occurred in Canberra.  Critics of this trend point to the development of a ‘two tiered’ system.  The Private Schools are being very well resourced and the Public Schools are being slowly starved of funds.  A dichotomy is also developing in backgrounds of children that are attending the schools.  Children of the Private Schools come from the higher income earning families and the children from the Public Schools from the lower income families.   The two groups rarely mix.

It also appears that the advantages conferred on the children from the Private Schools extend to their career outcomes later in life.  Conversely, the disadvantages conferred on the children of the Public Schools extend into their lives, irrespective of their abilities. I believe that our nation is poorer as a result this development.

One bloke that does not appear in the photographs below is trying to address this problem.  He was in the year below us, but played in the same cricket and rugby teams as us. He has received a bit of publicity recently following the announcement that he will be gifting $A50 million to the Australian National University.  This money will be used to provide scholarships the talented students.  Let’s hope that 7 to 10 years’ time, children from Turner Primary win some of those scholarships.

Flickr Photos

Turner Primary 1964 – 67

https://flic.kr/s/aHskMbvJpJ