Apology for the so-called Forgotten Australians / Teaching Material for the English language by the author Sean Banville

All lessons are based on stories currently in the news. The lessons are downloadable in Word.doc and PDF formats. Classroom handouts are readily reproducible and teachers can easily copy and paste the parts of the lessons they want to use. Listening files can be downloaded in mp3 format or subscribed to via a podcast.

Article

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized to half a million citizens on November the 16th. The 500,000 people are the so-called “Forgotten Australians”. These are children who found themselves in Australian orphanages between 1930 and 1970. Included in them were 7,000 child migrants from Britain. Institutions changed the children’s names and told them their parents were dead. This erased their personal history and created a loss of identity. There are thousands of stories of how the children suffered abuse, sexual assault, poor health care and poor education. Children were told they were bad and worthless. They grew up without any kind of love, which makes it difficult for them to form relationships today.

Mr. Rudd said his country "looked back in shame" that so many children were assaulted, abused and neglected. He apologized for their decades of pain. Rudd added that the “Forgotten Australians” were now the “Remembered Australians”. Frank Golding, who spent ten years growing up in care homes, applauded Mr. Rudd. He said the apology was a “powerful thing” for those who grew up frightened and alone. Australia’s Human Rights Commission agreed that the Prime Minister’s words were healing. Spokeswoman Cathy Branson said: “Saying sorry on behalf of the nation will assist many individuals and their families to look to the future, and to put behind them this dark chapter in Australia's history.”

The teaching material (listening, podcast and communivative activities) for free download on the topic of the week

Click here

If you like the material and would like to help this site continue, please consider making a donation: 

Click here

Buy the book "BreakingNewsEnglish 1,000 Ideas and Activities for Language Teachers by Sean Banville.  

Click here

More information on

www.breakingnewsenglish.com