Religious Education in Australia

sandramcd · 30-06-2009, 10:50 AM

I just wondered if I'm the only person who is not happy with how "Scripture" is being taught in Australian schools?

I was an RE teacher in the UK a long, long time ago and I'm a practicing Christian, but I'm horrified by the fact that kids are being given an education that would be far more suitable for Sunday School. I'm not opposed to having RE but I am opposed to people with an agenda teaching children what they should believe. I strongly believe that RE should be an academic subject, taught by the class teacher, or a specialist RE teacher in High School, in an objective way, giving children information about different faiths and beliefs. I just don't see evangelising as part of the school curriculum.

Any opinions?

jenny79 · 30-06-2009, 07:59 PM

i can't really comment about how it is taught, since i don't live there or anything... however, having been there quite a few times, i feel that the solid basic foundation is mostly lacking at home too. hardly anyone i spoke to over there (including my bro & sis-in-law) understand the meaning of baptism! how's that for a start?

(ps, i'm not trying to imply that your kids lack basic foundation from home, mine is a generic comment)

**ali** · 30-06-2009, 10:55 PM

My daughter was at high school in the UK for 4 months before coming to Aus and had very little RE education and also very little here too. Australia has no 'official' religion, I don't know if that is one of the reasons or an influence on how people are viewing baptism etc., although they will still have a 'naming day' but without the religious content.

One-And-Only · 30-06-2009, 11:32 PM

In Queensland at least, it seems to be only the private schools, ie Catholic and Anglican, that teach RE. I was taught a lot about religion in the UK, but very little in primary school in Australia.
A lot of state schools don't offer RE as a subject (mine doesn't), but we do have chaplains, who are usually fully booked up. Students in general learn little about other people's religions or even their own from school, which makes it harder for them to learn to respect other people's religious beliefs.

Quoll · 30-06-2009, 11:40 PM

Not happening in state schools. Unless you are learning about other cultures and religions (definitely not Christian!) then it isnt something that will venture past the classroom door. Catholic and Anglican schools of course do their own thing as do the Islamic, SDA and various other varieties.

sandramcd · 30-06-2009, 11:52 PM

Thanks for your replies.

My experience so far has been well-meaning ladies from a very conservative evangelical church coming in to tell my kids that God literally made the world in 6 days and that this is what everyone should believe. As a theologian (and my DH a Prof of Theology) I just feel a sense of despair. Surely in such a multi-cultural society RE should be taught properly to explain why people behave the way they do and to teach children to treat others, and their beliefs, with respect (I do see the irony about what I have just said btw!). The thing is that despite years as an RE teacher, I can't offer to teach here because we aren't yet members of one of the Churches that have been OK'd by the NSW Gvmnt Education Dept!

My DH is setting up one of the first Theology Depts to be in a secular uni context in Australia and is finding the lack of any kind of theological knowledge very frustrating.

Is it any wonder people think Christians are nutters?!

ps thanks for letting me rant!

hazeotoole · 01-07-2009, 12:00 AM

Well I am of the opinion that if you want your children to have a specific teaching of religion to send them to one of the catholic or anglican schools as mentioned above as public schools dont seem to have an ethos over there, I understand what you mean that it should be a subject as in to learn about all religions but that is something I have been teaching my kids at home, there are so many different religions and ethnic groups that schools (public) probably like to just sit on the fence and teach nothing for fear of offending someone, or maybe there is a lack of qualified people to teach, not sure really why.

Phoenix · 01-07-2009, 12:04 AM

My PoV on this matter is as an atheist, I don't mind religious concepts being taught in schools, I actually had a fairly Christian upbringing, and I recall that Christian faith was a fairly common concept that I was taught to the exclusion of any other faiths, so I don't have any problems with faith being taught, I actually quite welcome it as we live in societies where faith is as much a cohesive as it is divisive issue

But I will absolutely draw the line at someone dictating what my children will believe, and for every ounce of Christian rhetoric my children are taught I will present the PoV on the matter as its seen by Muslims, Buddist, and of course the factual evidence that that science has to add to the issue

andyhus · 01-07-2009, 12:06 AM

The church i attend train people to teach RE in the local schools, Isn't it better to have people teach who are passionate about there subject. I know my most memorable teachers at school were the ones who liked what they were teaching rather than the ones that could read out of a text book.

sandramcd · 01-07-2009, 12:09 AM

Thanks Hazel, in the UK I taught Re 2x a week in an Essex state school to every kids in every year in the school. We looked at signs and symbols, Science and religion, indiginous religions, ethics, philosophy aswell as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism and Judaism. What I believed was not relevant and RE was taught from an objective point of view to give kids an understanding of where other people are coming from. We often invited people in to discuss their faiths with the kids to make it a bit more "real" to them.

We teach our kids what we believe at home and are looking for a church with a Sunday School to do the same, but I just don't see that that is what I should be finding in school. I have a friend who, as an atheist, has been very upset by what her son has been told at school about her beliefs!!