Defence takes nuclear propulsion challenge to schools

Greetings,

A precautionary reply in response to your item above on the subject yesterday:

The move to introduce nuclear submarine training skills into the school curriculum needs to be approached with great caution (APDR, 21/6/23).

The question here is to what degree such a move would affect what is still, in essence, a progressive classical liberal arts education in our schools.

We need to be careful that our current progressive, socially responsible, approach to education is not damaged in any way by the proposed partial militarization of the school curriculum.

At the very least, this technical training for AUKUS submarine manufacture, if it is to happen, must ensure that enlightened humanities and scientific learning is strictly quarantined from the training for war in our schools.

Inevitably, there will be tension between the peace time values that currently prevail in education and those associated with war.

It’s a tension that must be resolved in a way that ensures that our current enlightened educational approach is not derailed by the demands of submarine manufacture.

We must ensure that our schools continue down a path of reason and humanity in education.

Regards,

Terry.

bluddy ridiculous – defence and cops seems to have access to school kids, but civil liberties defenders don’t – something wrong ??

Thanks, indeed, Terry – for a superb piece of diplomacy.
‘How submarines (especially nuclear-powered ones) work’ and ‘more capable’ are matters that can be considered by learning communities in terms entirely mechanical and, therefore, uncritical. I haven’t seen the materials which will be made available – but I’d be mightily surprised if they attended to a full eco-socially informed spectrum of ideas. As such, they will, in all likelihood, consist of exciting, informative, seductive propaganda.
Who would not look forward to a virtual journey in a submarine – driving around Sydney Harbour? But that’s nothing to do with ‘how submarines work’ or their ‘capabilities’. It’s merely a piece of expensive entertainment, another Disney/Pixar/et al version of ‘life’.
Any organisation with a message that they believe they have a right/responsibility to make attractively available to learning communities has an ethical responsibility to present a balanced and fully comprehensive eco-socially responsible account.
I’ll give you – since Ozzie’s love to gamble – 10 to 1 that the forthcoming contribution to STEM that is highlighted in your article comes not within a torpedos’s range of being that kind of material.

As if our generation hasn’t done enough to destroy the planet, we now want convince the next generation to follow the path to nuclear catastrophe. How about teaching about renewable practices and instilling values of peaceful co-existence in the young. No wonder the push for planting nuclear waste at Kimba is being followed. Conspiracy theory or terrifying reality, the nuclear industry is a powerhouse of propaganda and bribery. Protect our students, protect the planet!!

I am amazed that anyone would think that learning about nuclear power submarine manufacturing is an important priority in the school curriculum.

We are at a stage in human history where the pollution caused by fossil fuels has not only led to global warming with horrific climate disasters, but is also causing 12.6 million premature deaths pa according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

And this is not an argument for the so-called “cleaner” nuclear option. Germany is phasing out nuclear because of the high incidence of childhood leukaemia in populations around nuclear reactors. And there have been environmental health problems associated with nuclear energy wherever reactors are situated, but of course far worse in areas affected by horrendous nuclear disasters like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. And the industry doesn’t know how to effectively and safely store the very dangerous wastes which remain radioactive for thousands of years.

The authorities in Japan who are bereft of any solution for safe waste storage want to release the 1,145,694 cubic tonnes of highly active waste into the Pacific Ocean! This is the height of criminal negligence and environmental vandalism.

We need to be teaching young students how to produce about the production of the cleanest, cheapest and non-polluting renewable forms of energy and general care for the environment – eg effective recycling, reafforestation. safer storage of toxic materials, conservation of plant and animal species.

And in addition, we need to be encouraging young people about positive international relations – to respect all people and to work for international cooperation to bring about a more peaceful world where there is greater respect for human rights, social justice and cooperation between peoples to effectively counter the global problems we face from global warming, horrific weather events and deaths from pollution-related diseases, floods, bushfires etc.

And this approach will create many more jobs that will be socially useful for useful generations.

I am sick of seeing the rise and rise of media touting nuclear and peripheral wars lately. Why is war mongering as a economic benefit to jobs and GROWTH entering into the education sector? Haven’t we learnt since Hiroshima? War is a self perpetuating economic industry for war materiel and while defensive action might be required, submarines at great cost to the australian taxpayer will do nothing except benefit English and American industries. How about being honest over AUSKAS and letting people know the truth of the arrangements so quickly signed by Albanese upon being elected.

We should be doing SOMETHING to start mitigating the effects of climate change, providing affordable rent for students and homeless parents and children , consult with the public regarding the implications of war mongering for our young and learn from the peripheral wars that have provided a willing market for the products of an obscene industry producing death and destruction. Like Amnesty, Unions, Doctors against nuclear war the Graham F Smith Peace Foundation deplores the way Australia is putting war above essential human needs following the rising impacts of fires and floods as well as Covid over the past few years. It is ridiculous that our politics remains unfocused over creating a sustainable future for the planet.