Many parents and other academic writers such as Peter FitzSimons have asked the Australian Government to remove Religion classes from public schools. President Sharron Healy said her daughter's school, Mill Park Primary, had students from 42 different backgrounds.
''I'd rather see the kids learning about lots of religions together rather than one specific religion where families have to leave the class,'' Ms Healy said.
It raises a problem. Parents want their children to be treated as Australian in school, not members of religion. They argue that religion does not teach children about anything that will benefit their future employment. Peter FitzSimons also writes "there have been 10,000 different gods worshipped since the dawn of time. You have rejected 9999 of them as arrant and obvious nonsense. I counted up, and I have rejected just one more than you. Let the children make their up own mind as to just how many they will reject, but the state should have no part, one way or t'other." However, Dr Brian Rosner, a New Testament scholar and a Fellow of the Centre for Public Christianity (also a fan of Peter FitzSimons) disagrees with that idea. He suggests that Religion education, specifically Christianity, is a way of teaching children about humanities, an understanding of how the world is created in order to understand evolution and other theories. What brings this debate of whether have or not have religion classes so popular to today's topic? Is it because Australia is now considered as a multicultural country?
I reckon the answer is "yes". Ms Healy said that her daughter's school had students from 42 different backgrounds. They all have different views on religion. Wadham discusses about how culture is defined by the history as it frames the future. The Australian Government thus focuses on the study of Christianity (Scripture teaching) at public school as Australia is mainly known to be "Anglo-Australian" backgrounded. Parents think that they are just classes about religion and have nothing to do with the syllabus that is being taught at school. Therefore, many parents who want their children to be academically success refuse to let their children be taught in a Scripture class. There are a few other factors that influences people's perception of Scripture teaching. One of them is ethnic identity. We all have our own moral stands and ways of identifying ourselves. Why would someone totally different from another believe in the same thing as you? It comes down to whether having many different religion education or ethnic classes instead of feeling "ruled" by this Anglo-Australian way of education would fix this problem.
Public education being the first proper step of education in our life is rather important. Most parents want the best for their children. They want a broad range of education for their children in order to compete in a developed country. It is hard to make everyone happy as each one has a different view on religion, moral and other thing. Maybe a taste of everything would interest children at school and fix this problem?
Reference:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/does-a-belief-in-god-hold-back-students-20110813-1irrb.html
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/parents-shun-school-religion-20120803-23l7v.html
Public education being the first proper step of education in our life is rather important. Most parents want the best for their children. They want a broad range of education for their children in order to compete in a developed country. It is hard to make everyone happy as each one has a different view on religion, moral and other thing. Maybe a taste of everything would interest children at school and fix this problem?
Reference:
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/does-a-belief-in-god-hold-back-students-20110813-1irrb.html
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/parents-shun-school-religion-20120803-23l7v.html
Wadham, B. Pudsey, J. & Boyd, R. (2007). Culture and education. Sydney: Pearson Education.
Hi Jackie,
ReplyDeleteAn interesting topic. However, you have not referred to the Comaroff & Comaroff reading in the text. You need to do this.
Regards,
Kal
hey jackie
ReplyDeletereally good topic to talk about because from my personal experience i hated attending scripture, but my parents would never opt me outta class. they told me its good to learn about these religion as they teach you how to be a good person which is true. however, for all my years in primary school, i have only been attending anglican scripture which is probably why i found it boring. i liked it at first but as the years went on, it became repetitive, almost in a way where i felt like they were forcing me to agree and if i had any questions of doubt or disagreements, it would seem as disrespectful and rude. but because i was brought up in a chinese family, some ideas are bound to conflict, so i totally agree with you that a wider variety of religion classes should be provided.
living in such a multicultural society it is important to learn and understand other beliefs, you dont have to agree but like Ho's reading, there should be a certain extent of 'recognition.' i reckon that there should be a introduction of other religion classes instead of catholic and anglican being dominant and that it should be fair for students to pick which one they want to attend, or even have a compulsory rotating roster so all students learn about other religions fairly. of course there will be parents with strong belief practices that might disagree but it should be no problem as they can jst inform the school that their kids are to only attend a specific scripture. yet we are brought up in a free society so sooner or later, students will have their own opinions and own decision to choose what to believe in
hey edmonda,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. Ho did suggest that there should be a certain level of "recognition". However, like you said, everyone is different. How then, can certain groups of people or even an individual accept others? I mean, I am a Christian myself, and I know that gay marriage is definitely not right. Bur should I hate gay people? Certainly not! For us, it's not the people that we hate, we just hate the sin. I guess it is the same with any other religion, although we do do evangelism but it is up to them to decide whether they are interested or not. Others may support gay marriage, and there are even policies which protects gay marriages! What is this society going to do about it then? There are so many people with so many different views.
that is why i think it is not only about a matter of "recognition". It's about "acceptance". So many different belief out there. How would a strong muslim family let their kids to go and learn about something that is different and doesn't benefit their children? And i think the reason why scripture classes still exist is that Australia is still viewed as an "Anglo-Australian" country. We are White multicultural country (if that made sense). That is why we have harmony day at school, we get to be educated about different cultures and different languages. I mean, we had a choice to choose whether we wanted to study a certain type of language. Why not have a taste of everything at primary school first then go on and choose the one you like in high school?
I feel that because education is in a sense a public good that there is a need for it to be secular especially in the public domain. But it should not be ignored entirely due to its significant historical and cultural value, and in how it does promote awareness and multiculturalism in the classroom. By implementing scripture classes in schools, we confirm Christianity as the dominant culture, and as we acknowledge of ever globalising society this becomes an issue.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it would be most appropriate to approach theism not in a religious context, but rather as a more academic pursuit. Personally, I find the idea of tolerance problematic as it underlies a notion of dislike or disdain for something. As you have said ‘acceptance’, is probably a more appropriate way to approach it, but we there are limitations in what identity that students also take into the classroom and what they can choose to be.