Andrew Clennell in today’s Sydney Morning Herald points us to an interesting trial mooted by NSW Premier, Nathan Rees.
Ethics classes will be introduced in NSW schools, offering an alternative to religious studies for the first time in 100 years, the Premier, Nathan Rees, will announce today.
Beginning next year, and with the assistance of the the St James Ethics Centre, the trial will be held in 10 primary schools.
Judging by the rest of Clennell’s piece and discussion held this morning on Sydney’s ABC 702, it appears there is little real opposition to this idea from a battling Premier, who is clearly looking to (re)establish his ‘cleanskin’ credentials.
Update: Anglicans are taking issue with the plan.
Trialling special ethics classes was also a vote of “no confidence” in teachers, he said. Bishop Davis said the Government should realise that values of truth and honesty were modelled each day by teachers in the class room.
“Is there such an ethical hole in the current system?” Bishop Davis said.
“If so, then teach it as a part of the curriculum rather than allowing a non-religious group to enter the realm of the special religious education system.”
Bishop Davis said scripture had been taught in NSW schools for more than 120 years and provided a valuable link with local religious institutions.
“I can’t understand why the Premier doesn’t value that,” he said.
Phil, it’s hardly Rees’ idea. The St James Ethics Centre and P&C Federation have been campaigning for it on and off for 7 years, and recently re-submitted a formal proposal to Verity Firth, the Education Minister.
Still, good on Rees (and presumably Firth) for agreeing to it over the noisy objections of some reactionary church folks (not all – the Uniting Church supports it).
Shorter Bishop Davis: Dangerous precedent…non religious to enter the realm–The respective church’s institutional abuse of kids; 120 years of lying for Jesus and the kids might just find out that theism does not have a monopoly on morality.
Listening to a bite of Bishop Davis on ABC this evening, he also remarked that another failing of the initiative was the bringing people into the school environment as it also undermines the teachers and is therefore problematic.
I’m a little confused as to why this does not then apply to the various persons of faith who currently wander into schools to take the religious studies classes.
As to why Davis ‘can’t understand why the Premier doesn’t value that” – perhaps the question should be directed to the students and their parents – in some NSW schools as many as 85% of students do NOT attend the classes.
And we wont even get started on why any religious organisation has any access to the classrooms of a supposedly secular public education system. As these people could have chosen to send their children to a religious school but have opted for the public system, I would like Bishop Davis to logically explain why he thinks he has any right to assume those children should be pursued by god-botherers in their classrooms.
I can’t understand why it took so long for ethics to be taught in schools. The bible-bashers should be overjoyed by this development, instead of fighting this perceived threat to their empire. Perhaps the churches themselves believe they would have much to fear if they had to start acting ethically? They might even have to start paying taxes. The horror!