“To see the soul of a nation, look at their education” – thus my friend claimed on the weekend. Given some of the recent events on our shores and beyond, it seemed good to me to see if this apparent GK Chesterton quote had some merit.

My mind went to the 2023 IPA report, penned by Colleen Harkin and Bella d’Abrera about our national curriculum, called De-Educating Australia. In re-reading it, I came to this part of their conclusion:

It is clear from this report that the bureaucrats at ACARA have deliberately jettisoned the acquisition of knowledge and replaced it with pure, unadulterated emotion. They have created a curriculum that will elicit feelings of guilt about the past, anger about the present, and sheer terror about the future. It is noteworthy that these activists who are pretending to be educators and who are in control of shaping young minds, talk an awful lot about ‘empowering’ students and giving them a ‘voice’. What they are actually doing is disempowering young Australians, making them voiceless and depriving them of the vital skills they will need as adults to navigate life’s real, rather than its imaginary, problems. (p. 29)

If this is also happening in the USA, could this explain some of the responses to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, which was properly mourned but also worryingly celebrated? Or more locally, why do we have people calling for death of others in our streets? Or is this why we are currently less united as a nation than previously? Is this why our government successfully creates alarmist narratives of the state of the Earth so that it can take more control of our economy, work, and families? Is this why alternative belief systems are being given a free reign through our immigration program, such that we no longer know what our common values are? Is this why human life in all its forms is less valued now than previously, and why respect for authority is sliding and sinking into the sands of our land?

Bella d’Abrera’s subsequent report on Teacher Training (later in 2023) concluded that such shifts are possible, and it has occurred in Australia:

The analysis reveals the extent to which education faculties in Australia have been captured by progressives and indicates how critical pedagogy—and the consequential politicisation of children—has replaced the classical liberal education model.

Her comments in 2023 about proposed reforms also seem to apply to the latest 2025 announcements from the Federal Education Minister. He has announced a merging of at least three government departments into one commission. This is after negotiating with the States for them to be more explicit in their instructional methods, in contrast to the currently dominant process-oriented approaches where teachers are ‘facilitators’ rather than, well, teachers. Here is the 2023 critique from d’Abrera, which is still apt in 2025:

While the ‘back to basics’ concept is a step in the right direction, it will not address the fact that teachers are being schooled in an ideology which is not only incompatible with the notion of traditional education but seeks to tear it down. As long as woke courses dominate teaching degrees, teachers will continue to be ill prepared for the classroom. This does a disservice to both student teachers and their future students.

From where do these ‘woke’ ideologies come? One historical shift was the separation of values from facts. A reason for this artificial breakdown was when philosophers suggested frameworks for truth that abolished the need for any absolute beliefs about who we are as human beings. Jonathan Haidt talks about these under the rubrics of the moral values, such as sanctity of life and respect for authority. Haidt noted that those considered on the more conservative side of political discourse still affirmed these core values – those more on the progressive side, not very much.

Another dynamic at play in understanding this difference is considering what ‘progressive’ means. In the Communist Manifesto, the flavour of ‘moving forward’ is as follows:

The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution… (p.96, The Manifesto).

So, progress in this mindset is the inevitable historical process of tearing down that which is, and to replace it with something else. Of course, the nature of that ‘something else’ is currently what is under debate, but the winner at the moment seems to be critical ideology, focused on individualist, emotivist, relativist critical identity theory which spawns chronic victim/oppressor categories of worthwhileness. 

It seems my friend was correct – when we look at the soul of our nation, the leading educational commitments use the disguise of ‘progress’ to tear down the Christian history which built the universal respect and love of life that we have enjoyed, while on its way to an unknown utopia of undisclosed spiritual, social and economic costs.

Given the impoverishment of our educational souls, the message Jeremiah passed on to the Israelites as they were going into slavery is still relevant for us today: But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (Jeremiah 29:7, ESV)