Last November, thousands of students around Australia sacrificed a small part of their formal education to go on strike for climate change. The action was student-led, grassroots and inspired by a fellow student from Sweden, Greta Thunberg. At the time, PM Scott Morrison called for 'more learning and less activism' in schools, and Resources Minister Matt Canavan claimed the strikers will only learn 'how to join the dole queue'.
I found it interesting that our highest officials responded in the way they did given that in their own document, signed by all education ministers around the country, they committed to in the goal of developing active and informed citizens, including a goal for young people to develop 'national values of democracy, equity and justice, and participate in Australia's civic life' (Melbourne Declaration on Education Goals for Young People (2008).
Despite this criticism the next School Strike for Climate is happening this Friday 15 March. Since November, however, events surrounding the students of Covington Catholic High School following the March for Life in Washington have hit the headlines raising questions as to the place advocacy has in schools — particularly Catholic schools — and relevant guidelines.
Unlike the US, student involvement in advocacy in Australian schools has been fairly small, local, often on school grounds, and with limited collective networking. In recent years, some action occurred in some schools around the country through Detention for Detention actions, coordinated through an informal network, ERA for Change. This action called for all children who are seeking asylum to be removed from detention. This has finally been realised for children in off-shore detention.
Students have been present at public events such as the Lantern Parade in Brisbane and the various Palm Sunday Rallies for Refugees around the country. But the numbers have been small and incidental to the overall gathering. Nothing has galvanised the collect student imagination in recent memory like Thunberg's protest for climate change.
Advocacy is a very Catholic action. Catholic Social Teaching (CST) challenges us to work for the dignity of all creation, to work for each person's ability to participate in the life and decision-making of our society. To amplify the voices of those unheard in our society, including the very planet we live on, itself is a Catholic response to the call of the Gospel. The Australian curriculum also emphasises participation in society and the teaching of skills that enable this such as citizenship