An Open Letter to our Online Critics, from the SRE Teaching brotherhood

One commentator blogged this online today:
"your church leaders have set up a system...to make it difficult for people of minority/no faith, to opt-out....this system that seeks to put your religion as an official part of the school program."
And now to set the record straight...

I'm wondering if some Christians have peeved some of you with their posts on blogs or facebook. I apologise for their insensitivity if they have. But the Special Religious Education system in our NSW schools is not set up to 'position' ANY one faith group to have an official place in the school program. You have addressed your critique to a Christian who wants to teach the bible in his/her classes. EQUALLY muslim teachers, Bhuddist teachers, Hindu teachers & Bahai teachers are entering MANY primary schools, to teach out of their authoritative books. Same freedom, issuing from the exact system you are criticising.

Lest you get carried away with the Christian person who peeved you, try to remember that NSW schools need to keep the SRE system the way it is, to allow Christians to teach biblical material, and ALL those non-Christian religious groups to teach theirs. Are you, honestly, equally keen on seeing all of their teaching slots revoked, or exposed to disadvantage?

The Christians (of which I'm one) bang on a bit - and sorry again about that. There are some of us who don't want to fight back and forth with you non-faithies. All me and my minister buddies are advocating for, is an accountable arrangement for SRE, where the current "no disadvantage" principles are honoured. Those anti-disadvantage protections uphold ANY RELIGIOUS TEACHING session in a public school, so that teachers come in and teach dogmatic truths to the enrolled kids in their courses. It's OK to me, if an ethics course appears on the scene. But it's more than a little suspicious and in some trial schools, scurrilous, that some players are actively seeking HARD, for the St.James course to BELONG in the SRE slot.

I am a tad cynical, and I've been round the block with NSW school politics... It is too hard to believe that its introduction into the time-honoured SRE slot in school life, is purely about poor non-scripture kids who may be bored with what they're doing
(it's a bit hard to see how much they actually suffer under those conditions, when an engaging scripture class is available to attend, even as a dissenter... kids suffering in non_SRE group? Not likely.)

What we ARE LIKELY seeing unfold here, is a gesture made by Nathan Rees on his political death bed, to throw left-wing constituents a bone. Several highly controversial "leftie projects" were signed off by Rees, in the safe knowledge he would never be bearing the public's reaction to them. Well, we are now in debate, and we the public are working through our reactions to his deeds. You know, it doesn't matter if an Ethics Course is installed into NSW schools through all of that silliness. It's an enriching thing.

But it's the shift of powers and permissions around religious education that is so suspect... there is NO solid or robust reason that the time-honoured dogmatic teaching slot for religion is the ideal place to put an ethics course. Do some people WANT an Ethics Course to sit squarely in the time-honoured religious education session (which is time-poor as it is)?
Oh yes, some people want it EXACTLY to be that way. Look into the actions of the Baulkham Hills North School principal during their ethics course dry run (which he is TEACHING by the way! Something that would NOT happen in an SRE class, which is required to be peopled by appropriate volunteers.) People like him want things to reflect the world as THEY WANT IT. Why should they just get it, and take down a system that largely does no harm to kids, enriches many with values and builds faith? I reckon it's just a bit selfish to insist on disadvantage to that slot, when Ethics training doesn't have to run that way in a school.

A Little Q & A:

Question: Why didn't Nathan Rees launch an Ethics Class program in his FIRST WEEK as Premier?
Answer: It would have been defeated through controversy, solid discussion in public and inability to meet the needs of whole school communities.

Question: Why DID he do it in his LAST week?
Answer: Because he could.

AH