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Alison: Thank you for sharing your experiences with your children and their school. As a father of a four-year-old, I'm just beginning to face some of the contradictions you so fully point out. I wish our Catholic schools here in Upstate New York were as liberation aligned! Thank you. Gerald ----- Original Message ----- From: "Alison Croggon" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2002 10:23 PM Subject: Re: Ah well > At 12:31 PM +0100 14/2/02, Martin J. Walker wrote: > >It may be > >(I'm very hesitant about this, but the subject keeps coming up on the list) > >that the "disappearance" of poetry is related somehow to the outbreak of > >vicious scapegoating mechanisms (though Nazis "liked" poetry ~ of a kind. > > It's hard to avoid that suspicion. My feeling that there is a > connection, or a series of connections, both direct and indirect. > But the need to boil complexities down to a simple "this or that" is > common to both the rejection of poetry and scapegoating. Muriel > Rukeyser had a bit to say about that in her comments on the > "corruption of consiouness" in The Life of Poetry. And kind of > sideways, I recently read this essay on a famous poem of Frost's, > which amused me, and also suggests a close relationship between > nationalistic sentimentality and the refusal of close reading - at > http://thescreamonline.com/essays/essays08-01/poetry.html > > At 11:32 PM +0000 14/2/02, Jill Jones wrote: > >But that wasn't the point. I also know a lot of Christians whose views are > >similar to mine, in fact even more 'out there' at times, and if they can say > >those things that must be said, as Alison outlined, then I'm pragmatic enough > >to applaud those efforts. It doesn't mean I want them to bring back the > >inquisition (our methods are fear and surprise, etc). > > I too find all the contradictions fascinating. My kids go to > Catholic schools - when my eldest child grew old enough for school, > it was the time when Kennett was disembowelling the State system, > closing around 300 schools as I recall, and I really didn't feel that > he (or I) could cope with the subsequent insecurity. The only > alternative for a sole parent like I was at the time was a Catholic > primary school and so, a little dubiously (remembering horror stories > about nuns) I enrolled him. As opposed to a class size of around 30, > Josh started in a class of 18 in a tiny school of about 100 pupils. > Intriguingly, of those 18 kids, 11 came from sole parent families. > At the slightly larger school my kids attended later, of about 200 > students, they had 40 different nationalities, and included among the > children Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and pagans like us as well as > Catholics. > > The ideology of this school - in the Western suburbs and so face on > with the various social ills here - came straight out of Vatican II > and Liberation Theology. It is also kind and practical. I like it, > and I like the effects it has had on the children. There is nothing > wrong, for instance, in learning how to say sorry to your friends > when you've done something wrong. They can sort the rest out later. > There is a significant difference between grassroots Catholicism (how > many religious Catholics have 16 children these days in the West?) > and the heirachy, and it leads to really interesting schisms and a > kind of practical subversiveness. > > But I have seen a definite turn to the conservatism since Archbishop > Pel (who, Jill, is actually an official on an organisation that used > to be known as the Inquisition), and that is filtering down to the > primary schools. So I was upset when my youngest child was being > taught about Hell, for instance, which never used to be mentioned, > let alone taught... And it leaves the (very) liberal priests of the > Parish in a dilemma, which it is quite painful to witness. > > The older children are now in secondary schools, again staunchly > Catholic, but also with amazingly explicit ideologies of social > justice; and in particular, very strongly motivated towards > recognition of the injustices done to the Aboriginal people (all the > letterheads and a sign outside the schools acknowledge the people the > land the buildings stand on belonged to). The school newsletters, > for instance, come home with messages from the principal saying that > true Christians do not turn away the homeless and the needy, and that > the current treatment of refugees is disgraceful; and the daughter of > a friend of mine (in year 7) insisted her mother vote Green in the > last election. They tolerate their students dressing like Goths or > looking like Kylie Minogue. And of course the Presentation schools > were formed originally as hedge schools in Ireland, when the English > banned Catholic children from learning to read or write. So behind > the Catholic is the small-c catholicism, alive and well, and the > subversive humanistic message of the Gospels pokes through, despite > the hierachy. Long may it continue... > > Best > > Alison > > -- > > > Alison Croggon > > Home page > http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/ > > Masthead online > http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/ >