The headmaster of elite all-boys college The King’s School in Sydney has criticised the media and the government for creating a “victimhood culture” hinged on “wokeness” and “virtue signalling”.
Tony George, the principal of The King’s School in North Parramatta, penned a piece in the school’s journal Leader, published on Tuesday. His article, titled A call to empathy: Educational Leadership at The King’s School, accused the media of creating “clickbait” stories to “deride” boys’ private schools in Australia.
“Instead of acknowledging and celebrating the significant achievement and contribution of independent schools to society, sections of government and the press seem intent on deriding independent boys’ schools with any story they can concoct,” George wrote.
The headmaster suggested terms like “toxic masculinity” have become a “memetic cliche”; that is, a cliche used to generate internet memes and jokes.
“To be clear, any kind of toxic behaviour is bad, whether by males or females in single-sex schools or co-ed schools,” George wrote.
“However, the practice of linking toxic behaviour to masculinity is to malign all males, just as linking oppression to the West maligns all western countries as oppressive.
“In sporting terms, this is to play the man and not the ball.”
‘The underlying agenda’
George noted how criticism from parts of the media and the government of single-sex schooling is exclusively targeted at elite all-boys’ schools, while private girls’ schools and government single-sex schools have “seemed to avoid criticism”.
“The underlying agenda against the strawman of white privileged males has fuelled the creation of the term toxic masculinity and the religious fervour it subsequently generates,” George said.
“Rather than lambast men, boys and males with the same tarred brush of paranoia, we need to aspire to the formation of men who are empathetic leaders, ready, willing and able to bring optimism and hope as they seek the betterment of others.”
The headmaster next criticised “wokeness” and “virtue signalling” in the media and society in general, which to him has generated a “victimhood culture”.
“Importantly, we need to distinguish between the legitimacy of victims experiencing genuine suffering and abuse and their need and rights for justice, as against the illegitimacy of victimhood culture that seeks to use the genuine suffering of others to validate its own ideological agendas,” George wrote.
The result of the “age of victimhood”, George suggested, is the degradation of the press, which nowadays presents news that interests the public – in other words, “clickbait” journalism – as opposed to news that is of the public interest.
“A functioning modern society relies on truth telling and transparency on matters in the public interest, together with a commitment to critical thinking and discourse,” George said.
“However, the advent of social media and clickbait has no doubt fuelled the shift from reporting and commenting on that which is in the public interest to that which is merely interesting to the public.”
The headmaster’s comments come off the back of shocking allegations made public in the media against conduct in an elite all-boys school in Sydney, Cranbrook.
An ABC Four Corners investigation, led by journalist Louise Milligan, found former female staff members at Cranbrook in Sydney’s eastern suburbs have been blackmailed, harassed, wolf-whistled and more by male students. Some complaints by staff were also dismissed by male colleagues and superiors.
Following the report, Nicholas Sampson resigned as headmaster of Cranbrook, following further revelations that he allegedly kept a teacher employed who he knew had sent multiple graphic emails to a former female student.
Earlier this year, parents at another all-boys private school, Newington College, staged a protest outside the school gates, following a decision from the college to become co-ed. One parent was worried the decision was “all part of this sort of woke, toxic masculinity type palava”.