An end to Special Religious Education in public schools

[DanDare]

An end to Special Religious Education in public schools

By Glen Coulton - posted Wednesday, 15 December 2010

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SRE teachers can go further. A couple of years ago, my six-year-old grandson came home from a Scripture class to defy his mother with the obviously coached formula, “Anyway, you are not the boss of me; God is the boss of me”. Within a week, I heard a Victorian mother on a Four Corners program complaining that her young son had begun defying her using exactly the same formula. Presumably, the high-profile church involved had developed teaching kits to ensure that all defenceless Australian children in their purview would know that they owed their allegiance not to their parents but to an invisible, all powerful spirit.
In no other subject in the curriculum would teachers be allowed to exhort students to believe such baseless “truths”. Why are SRE teachers allowed to peddle them?
For readers unfamiliar with the Ethics controversy in New South Wales, parents have finally rebelled against an arrangement under which schools are not allowed to teach the non-Scripture students anything useful while the SRE classes are in progress. This is to ensure that children are not tempted away from SRE by the availability of a more interesting option. In 2010, against the vigorous protests of the Anglican and Catholic Archbishops of Sydney, the government allowed a trial of an Ethics class alternative to SRE in a handful of public schools. Very recently, the government announced that it would allow the Ethics class alternative to SRE to be implemented generally from 2011. The protests continue.


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In an IQ Squared debate conducted after the trial program but before the government announced its decision, two of the speakers for the Ethics class alternative stressed that they were not opposed to SRE and, indeed, hoped that it would continue to flourish. They were arguing only that parents who did not want their children to attend SRE should have a worthwhile alternative. They were probably being politically astute and realistic but many of us feel their position is wimpish.
We can see very powerful reasons why children should be taught about what the various religions believe and what is in their religious books. As prominent atheists insist, it would be unfair and stupid not to teach children about the Bible, say, as ignorance of it would leave them unable to take many of the cultural references in western literature and art. A similar observation could be made about the major non-Christian religions and their holy books.

Read the full article at Online Opinion

[Darwinsbulldog]

I gotz 100% for RI in school, gave me a little bump in my grade average.

[DanDare]

Originally Posted by Darwinsbulldog

I gotz 100% for RI in school, gave me a little bump in my grade average.

It cost me lots of points in my grade average because I ended up at war with the Inter School Christian Fellowship at my state school in NSW. We battled for years and the admins were on their side.

[Darwinsbulldog]

Originally Posted by DanDare

It cost me lots of points in my grade average because I ended up at war with the Inter School Christian Fellowship at my state school in NSW. We battled for years and the admins were on their side.

Of course, I was a woo-monger then, so if I took the test again.....

[BlueDevil]

Originally Posted by Darwinsbulldog

I gotz 100% for RI in school, gave me a little bump in my grade average.

I got to stand outside the vice principals office on a regular basis for not doing my RE homework. What a rebel I was!

[Darwinsbulldog]

Originally Posted by BlueDevil

I got to stand outside the vice principals office on a regular basis for not doing my RE homework. What a rebel I was!

Yup, I [and my backside] had a few conversations with the principal and his cane. I got good grades, and frankly was bored with the material, which was rather basic.

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

Originally Posted by BlueDevil

I got to stand outside the vice principals office on a regular basis for not doing my RE homework. What a rebel I was!

I just got lots of detentions for "blaspheming" and "swearing" lol.

[Made Of Stars]

We can see very powerful reasons why children should be taught about what the various religions believe and what is in their religious books.

If there had been a 'comparative religion' option at my kid's school he'd have gone to that. Instead he gets to crow about watching educational videos while other kids are being brainwiped in SRE.

He's turning into a great little skeptic (he's 7, and in the last few weeks has declared that he doesn't believe in Santa, the tooth fairy, or Jesus), although we had an interesting conversation at dinner about how not being able to see something doesn't mean it's false...

[Bolero]

I would dearly love to see an end to religious "education" in public schools. Fight the apathy, folks!

MoS - I am envious of your situation with your child.

[Mentally Saturated]

I just happened to have met the author of the OP's article on Monday nite for, as it turns out, the second time. I'm joining a group he's involved with. Thoroughly nice and knowledgeable gent he be, and I do rather like his writing style. He may be "officially" retired from his career, but he ain't lying down yet. More to come from this bloke, no doubt !

Gary