Azaria and Education


I remember vividly the day that Azaria Chamberlain disappeared and the conjecture began about what had happened.  I was in my father's work truck driving to a delivery site somewhere in the heart of the Central West of NSW and the AM radio was crackling with the news, the talkback points of view and the 'breaking news' as it came to the radio DJs in Young or Orange, whichever station gave us the best reception.  This case had it all, and despite being quite young, I can still feel the power of emotions as they cycled through me, through talkback radio, through the family conversations, at the front of the Catholic Church on a Sunday as the dilemma dragged on and on and on.  Everyone had an opinion, even me, not yet in double figures, and everyone had 'authoritative' sources they could draw on to support theirs, argue against others or plead emotionally to fence-sitters.

It is hard to believe that this was about 30 years ago now and the arguments will still be held in pubs, loungerooms, corridors, water-coolers, golf-courses, Church gatherings from here on in.  While reporters view this as the final chapter in a very famous/infamous story in Australian history, it is a real lesson to those of us in education of the power of a strong story and controversy.

The Azaria Chamberlain case had it all:

• tragedy
• strong opinion
• conflicting sources
• sheer raw human emotion
• allowed debate across all sections of society 
• was open-ended (until today) and was relevant (newsworthy) for a long time
• had multiple themes (family, the power of law, public opinion in the pre-social media age etc)
• strong characters/protagonists
• many secondary sources from which to draw
• could be revisited with new eyes
• moral/ethical/legal issues
• strong research ties
• allowed for a breadth of scope from the case itself to religion in Australia, to discussion of families, to hypotheticals, to tourism and to legal issues, not to mention the fringe issue of statehood for NT

In no way do I wish to belittle this whole case or its participants in any way.  But in reflecting on my own strong feelings about this case and to listen to today's commentaries on the Azaria Chamberlain case, I was struck by the power of my memory about almost every detail of this case.  I didn't obsess about this case, never scrapbooked the clippings, nor investigated it for some curriculum offering.  No, I was struck by the ingredients of this story, the ingredients above.  

And in looking at this list, I am again struck by the role of the educator in creating, having students create and develop learnings and problems in a similar vein that they may remember them some 30 years later.  I don't recall a lot about my early education at this time, I was in the middle of my primary years at the local Central School, but I do remember this case and all that it offered to me as a young man.  I don't remember ground-breaking lessons, sure I was taught well but I don't recall anything quite as vividly as this from my education.  And in looking at this list, I am questioning my ability to offer learning experiences to my students that have the above ingredients.  Have I offered them activities with these ingredients and how can I do it more often?  Will they remember a significant deep learning experience they can recall several times during the course of their lives from my classes?

While I am glad for the participants of this story that there seems to be some justice finally done, in many ways the Azaria Chamberlain case will continue to have an impact on me, despite the closing chapter ending, as I seek to take the ingredients of this episode and apply them as best I can in my pedagogy.