All of us concerned with the education of Aboriginal children must be concerned also with the attitudes held by non-Aboriginal Australians towards Aboriginals. All of us who teach in schools teach about Aboriginals. Our own attitudes will be revealed in what we teach and how we teach. Do we in the schools help to perpetuate the ancient and modern myths discussed below by Mr. Spalding?

How can teachers in small remote schools develop a meaningful and attractive program for their pupils and for the Community? How can they help their pupils to develop self-confidence and self-esteem?

In the following article, Mr. Manwarring puts forward a number of very insightful suggestions.

The Maitland Area School on central Yorke Peninsula, about one hundred miles from Adelaide, caters for students aged from five to sixteen or seventeen years. Of the five hundred and seventy students who attend, approximately eighty are part-Aboriginal children from the Point Pearce community some twelve miles away. About half of these are secondary students.

Two years ago a secondary student from Point Pearce spent a year at a Maori college in New Zealand and then returned to Maitland to complete his fourth year P.E.B. Certificate. He is now undertaking his matriculation studies in Adelaide. Because of the obvious success of this project, the scheme is being continued this year. Although some very generous support has been given by various airline companies and other organizations, the Point Pearce Aboriginal community has a major responsibility in raising funds to cover the cost of the student’s board and other geheral living requirements.

Earlier this year, in April, as a result of an idea of one of the school staff members, it was decided to arrange a public fashion parade by the secondary Aboriginal girls as a fund-raising activity for the New Zealand project. The girls and their parents liked the idea and planning commenced.

The Carpentaria Kindergarten is the Community Preschool Centre at Normanton, in north-west Queensland. It was established in 1970 under the auspices of the Anglican Church with financial assistance from the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Canberra. Of the fifty children enrolled approximately 80% are of Aboriginal descent. All children in the town are encouraged to attend after their third birthday. The younger children attend three afternoons a week, while the older children attend five morning sessions a week. In most cases children have two years of preschool education before they enter the primary school.

The preschool is an instrument of integration in this community which has a 50% Aboriginal population. It is recognized that the principle of community integration is based on the movement of different types within a community together, with each group making a real contribution. Consequently the Aboriginal people must not disappear in a process of absorption, but move into the total community with a definite identity. The preschool plays a very real and definite support role in this process of integration in the following ways:

Several readers of the Journal have asked for reports on overseas projects which would be of interest in Australia. Mr. Amery agreed to provide such a report on the Bough Rock Demonstration School in Arizona. Rough Rock has been cited as one of the most dramatic attempts “to achieve community control in a school serving a disadvantaged, largely uneducated minority”.