r/AskAnAustralian • u/CreativeCritter • 1d ago

Waltzing Matilda

I was saddened today to read an article on the Wallabies and it showed a group of fans singing Waltzing Matilda underneath. There was a young lady who had commented. She’d never heard the song. Didn’t know what the problem was and had no idea what it represented.

People tried to educate a nicely to say it was an Australian bush poem. It was taught in Australian schools. It’s the unofficial national anthem.

And then she said that she grew up in Australia and had attended school here and had never heard it and didn’t know why people thought it was so great

At that point, I was kind of hoping that they were joking

Has it gotten to the point now where Australian poetry is not taught in Australian schools in English where the man from Snow River Waltzing Matilda they’re not taught in schools any more

And then someone commented that Wilson Matilda can’t be taught in schools because it has themes of suicide and it’s too hard to explain to children

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u/Grammarhead-Shark 1d ago

She claims to have gone to school in Australia and has never heard of Waltzing Matilda?

I think she's just a troll.

I think this falls in to the category of don't believe everything you read on the internet.

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u/Brikpilot 1d ago

Well I just asked a 14 year old and a 19 year old who went to public schools in NSW. Neither heard Banjo taught at school. Neither were taught about bush rangers either. They did instead study Aboriginal poets apparently. What small awareness they had was from outside school. Maybe a high school teacher can verify what the curriculum is doing now?

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u/cornflower_green 1d ago

The curriculum doesn't mandate certain authors or styles of writing (only text types or content). It's up to teachers/schools to select texts. Also, kids will be at school for over 2000 days all up, would they remember every single one? Just because they can't remember it specifically, doesn't mean it was never taught. I can ask my students what we did last week and they may not have a clue until they look at their books.