Girls can play football, can be doctors and can be strong. Boys can cry when they are hurt, can be gentle, can be nurses and can mind babies.

These personality and employment options might seem like common sense to most but they are an incredibly important message being communicated to children under the new Victorian curriculum.

As we reported last year, the new ‘Respectful Relationships’ curriculum in Victoria was developed to stamp out gender stereotyping amongst children. That curriculum is now ready to be rolled out throughout government schools in Victoria.

The new Victorian curriculum

The Respectful Relationships Education Program was introduced to educate students on building healthy relationships, appreciating the differences between individuals and rejecting negative prejudices and discriminatory attitudes. It will become mandatory for all government schools from 2017 and is also being tested in a number of Catholic and independent schools.

Key age-appropriate learnings of the Respectful Relationships curriculum include:

• the basic names for a persons ‘private parts’;
• reporting abuse;
• challenging gender labels;
• the impact of insults based on sexuality;
• gender literacy, including terms like transgender, cisgender and gender-fluid;
• the difference between gender and sexuality and different sexuality preferences;
• understanding diversity, including the fact that some students can have same-gendered parents; and
• the dangers of pornography.

The ultimate goal has consistently been to eventually prevent family violence by building respect and understanding from the ground up.

Respective Respectful Relationships Programs

An approach similar to the R-lliterative Victorian program has been taken by the Queensland government, in response to the Domestic and Family Violence Taskforce’s Not Now, Not Ever report. Similarly to the Victorian curriculum, it challenges attitudes on gender construction and violence, promoting equitable and respectful relationships through best-practice educating.

In NSW, the Years 7-10 PDHPE syllabus includes specific lessons on gender issues, while senior students learn about respectful relationships and protection against violence as part of a mandatory 25 ‘Crossroads’ course.

In Tasmania the state government has made a commitment to develop a new Respectful Relationships Program to be delivered within the next few years.

Others have not responded as quickly or effectively. In Western Australia, the Youth Say No! campaign aims to raise awareness among young people about family and domestic violence and to educate them about respectful relationships. However, there is no requirement for schools to include respectful relationships content in their teaching plans.

South Australia’s Keeping Safe child protection curriculum (also implemented in the Northern Territory) has a focus on respectful relationships but is outdated by the recent Senate Inquiry into Domestic Violence and the COAG Advisory Panel of Reducing Violence against Women and their Children. While resources on domestic violence and respectful relationships exist, there is again no requirement to implement them.

There doesn’t appear to be any movement in the Northern Territory or the Australian Capital Territory on the matter.

Schools in other states and territories that have not implemented a variant of the Victorian curriculum may want to refer to NAPCAN’s Respectful Relationship Programs, while they wait for their respective governments to catch up with Victoria.

The Trump Connection

The Sydney Morning Herald recently described these positive attempts at changing attitudes as introducing a “minefield of sensitivities about definitions and levels of responsibility”. Many would argue that this is a minefield a certain US Presidential Republican candidate has strayed into and repeatedly detonated. The US Presidential campaign is dominating online media at the moment and teachers are likely hearing students discuss the candidates in class.  Consequently, students may be debating some of the controversial aspects of the campaign and teachers may be forced to address them as well.

In a 2005 video recording released by The Washington Post, Donald Trump discussed his attempts to “pursue” an anonymous married woman, using what has been described by the media as sexist, vulgar and demeaning language unacceptable for any individual, but most clearly so for a person in his position.

More recordings have subsequently been released from a series of radio interviews.

Despite releasing an apology, Republican Party figures have condemned Mr Trump’s comments, with some withdrawing their support for his nomination.  The comments have also caused a furore of activity in the media and on the internet, with millions of women sharing their experiences of sexual assault.

It’s never too late to learn

These two stories might not seem linked at first glance, but they reveal stark contrasts in approaches to social issues. They show that, despite how far society has progressed in terms of cultural and gender diversity, there is a perpetual need to return to basics. That the old adage “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” isn’t really an appropriate way to view the world anymore – if it ever was in the first place.

The attitudes reflected in Mr Trump’s comments are sadly not unique or special. They reflect a broader endemic perspective in society that there are marked differences between genders and sexualities which can then be exploited. And with a lack of proper guidance through parenting and education, being constantly exposed to these stereotypes can cause them to be passed on and developed in children at an early age.

But what the Republican candidate is learning, and we are all being reminded, is that there are consequences for holding and broadcasting sexist, prejudicial or discriminatory views. In the cosmopolitan technology age in which we find ourselves, the delineation between public and private is fading considerably. It is no longer sufficient to simply rely upon private conversation as justification.

What role do schools have to play?

Even if we ignore for the moment the serious psychological issues that comments like these can cause, there is another concern for which schools have a significant role to play: the impressionability of the youth.

Research suggests children are aware of ‘gender’ and its norms and expectations, very early on in life. Without proper care, this can lead to stereotyping and sexist values, just like these, which are considered precursors to prejudice and violence.

In implementing the Respectful Relationships Education Program, schools across Australia will be making a significant step towards shifting these attitudes and preventing Australian youth from developing similar prejudices to those exposed in the Presidential race. In doing so, they will be improving the interpersonal relations of an entire generation.

Students in Victoria, and across Australia, might have a thing or two to teach the Republican candidate in a few years’ time.

Is your school planning on implementing ‘Respectful Relationships’ into your curriculum?