The Church and the Schools in Sydney with David Hastie

Speaker: David Hastie BA (Hons), PhD From the earliest days of the British Colony, Anglicans have been central to Australian schooling. Throughout the often bitter arguments leading up to the Public Instruction Acts of the 1880s, Sydney Anglicans have provided two fundamental pillars in education: a direct role in the founding and continuance of Public schooling; and the much smaller denominational private schooling sector. In the last 40 years, however, these long established roles have radically shifted. Anglicans now experience an increasingly troubled relationship with public schooling, but have seen an expansion in the private schooling sector. What role the Anglican church plays in education and society moving forward, remains underexplained, in contrast to the huge influence of it.