MAKING ANZAC DAY OPTIONAL?

Last week the parents of the kids at Sherwood Ridge Primary received an email from the principal telling them that attendance at the school’s Anzac Day service, planned for April 10, was optional.

Sherwood Ridge Primary was established in 2004 at Kellyville in north-west Sydney. It educates kids from Kindy to Year 6 and its motto is: “from each their best”.

The school is clearly conscious of its own brief history. Its website highlights that it was built on the site of an old settlers’ cottage, dating back to 1883, “built by Frank Sherwood and Jim Armstrong, who cut their own timber and built it out of slab and clay”.

A couple of weeks ago the school celebrated Iftar (the meal Muslims have at sunset to break their fast after Ramadan).

And that’s a good thing, fostering unity and celebrating diversity.

But, after a small group of parents requested that their kids be “exempt” from commemorating Anzac Day, apparently on religious grounds, the school decided to make their day of remembrance optional.

As you’d expect, this has sparked the usual reactions from both ends of the spectrum.

Let’s take a more measured view. One of the corner pieces of the jigsaw that makes up what it means to be an Australian is an understanding of the meaning and significance of Anzac Day.

It doesn’t glorify war. Quite the contrary. It’s a day of reflection on the sacrifices made by so many to preserve the liberty which all Australians enjoy today. The spirits of those who made the sacrifices live on in each of us.

The Shrines at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, the Anzac Memorial in Sydney’s Hyde Park and on Melbourne’s St Kilda Rd all represent this reflective gratitude.

To understand where you’re heading, you need to understand where you’ve come from.

 Sherwood Ridge’s school pledge reads:

“I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people,

Whose democratic beliefs I share,

Whose rights and liberties I respect,

And whose laws I will uphold and obey.”

 Surely it makes sense for all the kids who pass through Sherwood Ridge to understand who gave them the “liberty and democracy” they pledge to respect and uphold?