At 07:18 PM 22/2/99, Dee Elliott wrote: >Rod, > >re your brawl with vic ed... are there schools in Victoria which teach >Aboriginal dreaming or other religions apart from the Christian one(s)? My >objection to my children receiving religious education has been not that >Christianity's belief systems shouldn't be shared, but that other religions >deserve equal airplay. > >I am particularly interested in whether and how Aboriginal dreaming is >taught in primary schools, re our work on North Stradbroke/Minjerribah and >policy suggestions for the school. > >Thanks, > >Dee > My own concerns are much the same as yours. Aboriginal religious beliefs receive some discussion in the course of social studies style courses. Essentially Aboriginal (and other non christian religions) however are generally treated as things that "others" may follow. They are the province of the "outsider" , those different people that "we" look on from afar. My concern is with the "Christian Religious Education" course which all state primary schools in Victoria must offer (apparently in accordance with a turn of the century piece of legislation). This sets it up as the "us" religion, as opposed to the ones followed by "them". Like you, I am of the view that other religions (in fact, other belief and value systems generally) should receive equal time. Inevitably, given the difficulties inherent in fitting just about anything into an already overfull curriculum, this would lead to a reduction in the amount Christian Education taught. I've only just started to look at the issue seriously over here. Parents can "opt out" their children from CRE if they wish to, but , at my daughters school this means that she and a couple of other kids in her class essentially sit around getting bored doing their homework while the others are actively engaged in CRE. This almost amounts, in my view, to punishment for non-conformity. I leave it up largely up to her whether she decides to go to CRE or not each year, but the situation seems to me to be quite discriminatory. I'll keep you posted Cheers Rod Rod Hagen [EMAIL PROTECTED] Hurstbridge, Victoria, Australia WWW http://www.netspace.net.au/~rodhagen ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
