During the 1970s, a large number of acronymic groups surfaced in Queensland and drew attention to themselves through their expressions of opinion about educational standards and the teaching of social behaviour. The groups shared membership, ideals and tactics in their efforts to persuade the government of Joh Bjelke-Petersen to adopt their points of view.
Each group saw itself as the ultimate judge of curriculum offerings, standards of excellence and of proper behaviour, with the right to have non-conforming educators punished. This, they held, was their God-granted status. The leaders of each group gained momentum and attention through press releases, attending any public meeting that dealt with educational issues, sending newsletters to any who might assist their righteous cause, organising writing groups to write to members of parliament, visiting Parliament House to engage an unused ear, and receiving support from at least one member of parliament who was keen to make his temporary presence felt. They were critics on steroids.
They borrowed articles from US groups such as the Heritage Society, John Birch Society, Moral Majority and Educational Research Analysts; and the one-term MLA borrowed from England’s Black Papers. The prose was punchy; and readers trusted the documents because they came from overseas.
The most conspicuous Queensland group and the one that influenced all of the others was the Society To Outlaw Pornography / Committee Against Regressive Education STOP/CARE. This moral campaigning, amoebic combination was led by Mrs. Rona Joyner, whose determination and persistence were most successful in having courses, books and programs banned during this period. A powerful person, she made the Bjelke-Petersen Cabinet of the time dance to her tune. In January 1978, a primary school social studies course, Man: A Course of Study, commonly referred to as M:ACOS was suddenly banned from all Queensland schools. It was soon joined by the secondary course, Social Education Materials Project [SEMP] as well as some books and projects all respected and popular with schools and parents, but not considered appropriate by Mrs. Joyner and fellow critics..
Minister Val Bird held the Education portfolio [1975-80] during the M:ACOS debacle and controlled its banning. There was a welcome respite when no-nonsense Bill Gunn [1980-82] was in charge and then, the extreme right-wing lobbies welcomed the appointment of Lin Powell [1982-87]. Mrs Joyner had both Bird and Powell where she wanted them, and the Queensland Teachers’ Journal depicted her control in a cartoon by David Hinchliffe showing PremierJoh in the background looking pleased.
Man: A Course of Study [M:ACOS] was organised around three questions: What is human about human beings? How did they get his way? How can they become more so? Schools who purchased the course lauded its effects on having pupils appreciate the nobler aspects of humankind; and parents were appreciative of the ways in which their children were learning how to treat others. The presentation of some thought-provoking exercises disturbed the moral campaigners, however. In one section, a film on the courting ritual of seagulls disposed Mrs. Rona Joyner to state that the course “…could lead to talking about sex.”
At a regular gathering of Brisbane West Region’s Principals at Oxley Golf Club, Ray’s short ditty noted this.
STOP! CARE!
[Tune: "Daisy"]
Rona, Rona,
Tell us the latest, do.
Grim brimstoner,
What can we ban that’s new?
You flattened that course of Study
With seagulls in the nuddy,
So go, girl, go,
Full speed with Joh
On a steamroller built for two!
[A detailed account of this period and the efforts of the campaigners mentioned above can be found in Phil Cullen: BACK TO DRASTICS: Education, Politics and Bureaucracy in Queensland 1975-1988 Memoirs of an Advocate. Education History Series, Faculty of Education, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba 2006]
