In 2020 I served as school captain at one of Sydney’s all-boys catholic schools. This position took me to the forefront of resisting the left’s seemingly endless march through our educational institutions. Some of what I saw on the journey alarmed me, however, my success also gives me great hope for the future. 

I was elected by fellow students, who were told to vote again because the woke teachers resented their pick — I won the second vote by even further. I’ll explain why I believe I won later, but first, I want to explain what I campaigned on and what I did in the role. 

I promised that I would bring back the national anthem to assemblies (it had been abolished a couple of years prior) and that prayer would come before the Acknowledgement of Country at all school gatherings because in a Catholic school God must come first. Of course, all politics is local and there were a few school-specific promises as well. Having seen the popular swell of support behind me, the teachers quickly caved and sure enough, every assembly began with a prayer, then the anthem, then an Acknowledgement of Country. Regrettably, I am reliably informed this order has been discontinued this year after my graduation with the anthem once again absent, and the acknowledgement preceding prayer — a timely reminder that our resistance to the left must never cease because as soon as there is no resistance they gain ground eroding our culture.

If I thought my early-term success had defeated the woke teaching establishment, I was sorely mistaken. One day, I noticed on the calendar a scheduled upcoming visit for Year 9 students from an independent drug education company. Immediately I was suspicious. I did some basic research and noticed this company had been to a few other schools with like-minded school captains (I was far from the only conservative student elected across Sydney last year). I had them ask their students about the talks from this company. What they discovered was worse than I’d ever feared. 

The talk was heavily favourable on drug-taking. Its highlights included:

• “Ecstasy is 45 minutes of dancing and 15 minutes of sitting.” (Tell that to Anna Woods’ parents.)
• “The worst thing that can happen to you with weed is getting caught with it.” (I would have thought psychosis was pretty bad.)
• A 10 minute tutorial on how to safely pick magic mushrooms (as if that’s even remotely possible).

I naively thought the school had made a genuine mistake, so I went to the executive excited for some praise for my detective work, for saving the school (which already complained about its vaping problem) from this lunacy. I was swiftly told they knew what was being taught, and would continue with the scheduled visit. My protests fell on deaf ears.

Unfortunately for them, I don’t accept defeat that easily. As Captain, every month I spoke at a parents and friends function, so I thought I’d use my monthly speech to tell these parents what their 14-year-old sons were going to be taught. As I laid it all out to these parents, the outrage was palpable and the parents made their views clear immediately. The very next day the company was uninvited.

Legally, teachers don’t seem to be able to suggest illegal activity like this is acceptable. However, these “independent” groups can seemingly come in and do what they like. It’s a slick trick the industrial left uses to sidestep what flimsy measures that governments are taking to stop the left’s march through the educational institutions.

I want to give a key message to all parents: If your children attend school anywhere from kindergarten to year 12, talk to them about what they are learning every single day. You have the greatest power to prevent them from consuming and believing this indoctrination. I’m certain there are many other companies out there, on a range of topics, teaching similarly harmful things. 

Now, don’t worry, It’s not all doom and gloom.

Generation Z is fighting back. Why was I, and many other like-minded captains across Sydney, elected last year? Well, it’s not that students were passionately behind messages like “God comes first at a Christian school”. Instead, they just wanted to stick one up the woke teachers.

This exact phenomenon is described by internet commentator Paul Joseph Watson, who says “Conservatism is the new punk”. It’s a reaction to the woke left’s takeover of the orthodoxy in education, media and art. When an orthodoxy establishes control and silences dissent, the naturally rebellious nature of young people will immediately seek to resist and dissent from that orthodoxy. Just as punk rock rebelled against the stale religious conservative orthodoxy in the 1970s, modern conservatism is rebelling against the woke political correctness of our modern world. In short, being politically incorrect has become cool.  

My election and actions as school captain is an early example of the political results and leadership you can expect from my generation. However, don’t just take my anecdotes for evidence, there are statistics to back this up. A British study recently found that on a range of issues including gay marriage, marijuana legalization, transgender rights and tattoos, 59% of Gen Z had self-described ‘conservative’ or ‘moderate’ views. 

What’s more exciting is that, as any reputable political scientist would tell you, generations become more conservative as they age. This is logical. socialism sounds nice in a textbook, however, once you start working for a living and raising a family, suddenly high taxes aren’t so appealing. This gradual slide towards conservatism will only be accelerated if the left continues to advocate for policies that have a disproportionately negative impact on today’s youth, including endless lockdowns and mountains of public debt. 

The challenge for today’s centre-right leaders is to harness these favourable conditions by showing sufficient difference from the left on these critical issues. Boris Johnson and Ron Desantis have done this with their exits from lockdown once it became safe. If they both hold firm on their current stance, I make one prediction: they will both win national elections in 2024, with 60%+ of the vote from 18 to 24-year-olds.

The ball is in your court, Scott. I may be one of the few, but I still believe in you. Don’t let me down. Don’t let my generation down.