This week I visited the Gloriavale community to discuss education issues. I am not a cult buster so I didn’t go there to expose the issues that continue to concern Child, Youth and Family or the Dept of Internal Affairs. I went at their invitation as a public critic of their curriculum in recent years. I had asked the Education & Science Select Committee to investigate the ERO rubberstamping of Gloriavale Christian School. There are many issues I would have liked to discuss, of course, from water quality management of their 2000 dairy cows to the track record of Hopeful Christian in terms of sexual abuse. However, my colleague and I from the Greens had specific concerns about girls education and we were invited to engage with other women on this issue.
Their hospitality was lavish and courteous and there was a genuine warmth when discussing home birth with midwives and mothers. From their perspective my one daughter and one grandson are a sad contribution to the population they seem intent on increasing. But the issue of education was fraught with the subtext of sexism, power and tightly defined roles. It was also an extreme example of the debate over education for work or education for critical thinking and expanding one’s understanding of the world. The young women were not concerned about no young women doing science in the last five years, as apparently it would be “boring and irrelevant” anyway. You don’t know what you don’t know I suppose.
My point remains that a broad curriculum is essential for everyone. My own childhood was infinitely enriched by a mother who had Honours in English Literature and who read us poetry and showered us in diverse philosophical quotes. The quotes at Gloriavale are the Bible. The part funding for the 3 early childhood centres and the $198,000 per year state contribution to the school ought to be tested by ERO. ERO ought to ask questions about the gendered classes and the lack of science and limited maths for girls. They ought to checking that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to a non-discriminatory education are upheld.
But they really don’t have to due to the tension between the Convention and the current Education Act and Law Commission findings on the rights of parents in private schools. One of the senior men at Gloriavale lectured me on the democratic right not to teach certain subjects and the right to teach religion. After some hours watching the children and speaking to the young women I felt sad that these super obedient children are being taught that biology is destiny and that women’s subservience is somehow to women’s advantage.
Gloriavale as a specific issue is a very small part of my education work and I have many other urgent campaigns supporting public quality education, supporting learning difference and challenging inequality in education. But I know I won’t forget these children who are being taught a work ethic of compliance with fundamentalism and whose potential is circumscribed by a rigid structure, and the state has nothing to say.
The Official Information Act documents about the education results of Gloriavale students are available from
https://www.greens.org.nz/sites/default/files/Gloriavale%20standard%20en…
https://www.greens.org.nz/sites/default/files/GloriavaleNCEAachievementb…
https://www.greens.org.nz/sites/default/files/Gloriavalerolldata.pdf
Catherine Delahunty is a Green Party MP and human rights activist
+100
+100 me too. I am an old male teacher, and feel rather depressed by this sorry state of affairs.
Thanks for this Katherine.
Frankly I think it is terribly sad that these females will never be exposed to the real world which would open up so many possibilities for them all.
However I am a bit puzzled by some of the stuff around the sciences, isn’t it correct that ‘girls’ who live there can ultimately become midwives if so they have to do biology and other sciences.
What sort of sex education do they have?
Yes but this subject has not been taught to girls ao that they can receive a credit for the past 5 years, I met one older midwife there, if they need more the Gloriavale managers will allow and support extramural study for more midwives
Some leave Gloriavale and are shocked at the level of love and support outside the community to help them with the changes and culture shock. They are told that it is all evil outside the community and this supports fear and lack of individual confidence.
They are told that outside the community dwells an ugly reality and if they leave they are not welcomed back. It appears to be a well functioning cooperative community ( in the physical world ) but I hear your concerns about young girls, possibly, being a bit brainwashed into accepting rules and regulations that they have no choice but to accept. That is unless they get a bit older and choose to leave and the fact that they are not welcomed back, if they leave, should speak volumes about the communities strict subtle brainwashing and this, I feel, is not healthy. Individual rights and free thinking choices have always been a concern of mine dealing with Gloriavale. I have been studying them for years.
Taking away choice and forcing a bias about the outside world can create robots. They mostly all act and talk ( and look alike ) and does that help support individuals that are healthy; well-rounded; free thinkers and confident people ? or subtly brainwashed robots repeating the same beliefs and judgments they have all learned ? Mental and emotional manipulation and possible abuse is an issue that should be looked at there but the chances of that are very slim.
I question also what goes on behind closed doors there with the older power elite men.
When a community is so overly patriarchal, as they are – there is an obvious imbalance and look at where a mostly male dominated ( worldwide ) governance and leadership has gotten us so far.
In essence, the “senior man” was advocating a 21st century version of a subtle form of slavery. Knowledge is power – and by denying knowledge, the power is kept from the girls and young women.
If these girls (and boys) were given a full education, with full information, they could then make an informed chjoice how to live their lives.
But then, they might make the “wrong” decision, thereby undermining the authority of the all-male ruling-clique.
It all comes down to power, under the cloak of religion. Same story, after all these thousands of years.
Question is; how does 21st Century humanity resolve the conflict of religious belief and the rights of children to learn; be educated widely; and make their own choices later in life?
If the two positions are irreconcilable, we may have to make some hard decisions in our society.
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