The Coalition wants ‘discrete’ First Nations content in schools. But children must be taught to critically assess concepts such as national pride

‘The Aborigines Protection Act 1886 was legislated to quash the renewed vitality and political organisation among Aboriginal people incarcerated on reserves and missions,’ Tony Birch writes. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

On Saturday in a speech to a major education conference, the shadow education minister, Julian Leeser, said he had asked for a copy of Australia’s constitution for his 10th birthday (I wanted a yo-yo).

I have no doubt that Leeser is a man of serious intellect. He states that one of his goals is to improve the standards of Indigenous education and the delivery of Indigenous history and culture in schools. He wants to remove the current practice of embedding Indigenous curriculum as a cross-curricular priority across disciplines. He wants to shift the delivery of Indigenous curriculum to “discrete, carefully planned topics that fit properly within geography or history or science classes”.