Australian culture
Jim Ayling ("Abolish private schools" Your View, September 22) suggests private schools should be abolished.
Australia has done well with a mix of both private and public schools, but the jury is out on whether students achieve better results in the private or public system.
It is about time parents took a lot more responsibility for their children's education. It is well known and accepted that children who have more books in their house, or are read to by their parents as young children, achieve better results at school.
Education, manners and good behaviour begins with the first teacher: your parent/s.
Australia was built on Judeo-Christian culture, and that culture has served this country well for the past couple of hundred years, and will also see it flourish well into the future.
It is the very reason why those that are fleeing conflict from failed Islamic-run countries and dictatorships are not seeking out other Islamic countries where they will integrate easily. They are seeking out western countries built on Judeo-Christian culture.
I wonder why Jim Ayling thinks that is? Is it because those predominantly white European people or "Anglo-Celts" — whichever the case may be — are so "unwelcoming"?
To assert Sutherland Shire, because of its "Anglo-Celtic mix", is not noted for welcoming strangers is off the mark.
Any time I go to the beach or the supermarket I see people of all different races and colours, and I do not see anyone being "unwelcoming" to them.
Furthermore, Jim Ayling should take a drive around the Sutherland Shire and take note of all the different restaurants with a worldwide choice of cuisine, or visit a local high school that has many sister school arrangements with other countries.
Protecting one's own culture is the recipe for a peaceful unified cohesive society which no one should be ashamed of.
Sid Bream, Cronulla