I don't think my OC education did much at all for my spiritual formation. I had to go from a wonderful primary school with grass ovals, surrounded by bushland and walking tracks, and with lots of friends (Yowie Bay), to Sutherland Primary for my OC education. I used to walk to my original primary school, but the trip to Sutherland was by train, and the playground was wall-to-wall bitumen. While there were endless trips to Museums, there were also endless hours spent doing projects on weekends while my former friends were out playing. In fact, these were some of the most miserable years of my life. So I suppose you could say it was destructive of my spiritual formation.
In fact, I don't think an OC education did much for my intellect also, unless you think that learning 13 - 19 times tables by rote is an intellectual feat. On the other hand, it deprived me of the social experiences I should have been having then. When all of us OC kids caught up in high school with the intelligent ones who didn't take the OC option, I don't think we had any advantage at all. Of course, this was 1964-65. Hopefully things have changed since then. - Greg > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > On Behalf Of Amelia Koh-Butler > Sent: Wednesday, 20 October 2004 10:55 AM > To: 'insights' > Subject: Evolution or Formation - Nature or Nurture? > > I can't resist... > (Although this is going to sound like a very late-night contribution...) > > Does spiritual formation through an OC education result in spiritual > radicals on an insights list some 25-30-ish years later? (i.e. we were > supposedly trained to think outside the cube or the sphere - are we evolving > into a 4th dimension?) > > Research question: > Just how many OC-ers are out there? > Reunion Roll-call... > > - Clare (were you at Artarmon?) > - Greg > - Amelia (Chatswood) > - ? > > Further question: > How do you think your Upper Primary education has influenced your spiritual > formation? > > In my case, OC ed at Chatswood Primary (1975-1976) was in my pre-christian > days. At the time, my teacher was a pre-christian Communist (I'm not sure > how many times we studied China and we had a Re-education strategy for > behaviour management). Interestingly, this teacher is now a very active > member of one of the congregations I visited recently. Maybe our social > justice conversations in the 70s have EVOLVED into a later spiritual > articulation? > > - Amelia > > > YW Amelia Koh-Butler > Associate Director ELM (Education for Mission) > Board of Education - NSW Synod > Uniting Church in Australia > 16 Masons Drive, North Parramatta NSW > > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ------------------------------------------------------ > - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] > - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body > 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) > See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm > ------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
