Chaplaincy

The Gillard Government has taken the middle road in making changes to the national school chaplaincy program; $222 million has been committed to extend the program until 2014. But now schools can elect to have non-religious person fill the role as a secular worker and still use the $20,000 grant scheme.

Chaplains have really become budget student counsellors under the program. Since 2006, it has been rolled out to 2681 schools, 28 per cent are public schools. While the school applies for a chaplain to DEEWR, the funding is administered to a third party employer, in most cases a Christian organisation like Access Ministries who then engage a person to be a chaplain at the school. 

Chaplains have a set of guidelines from the Government which prohibit proselytising, which they adhere to by signing a code of conduct. 

Continue reading "Why the Christian right don’t like Gillard" »

My sister enrolled her son in primary school this week, and wrote ‘No’ on the enrolment form next to ‘Scripture’, boldly letting her share of the $165 million tax dollars used to fund the National School Chaplaincy Program gurgle godlessly down the plug’ole. Atheists are so wacky.

As nobody had volunteered to run non-religious ethics classes at this particular school, my sister was advised to perhaps just sign her son up for the general scripture classes, because “the little ones get upset when they’re pulled out of class”.

As opposed, of course, to how they feel when they’re being taught about eternal damnation, and the implication that Mummy and Daddy will spend it sipping sulphur in Hell’s hottest nite spot (which isn’t actually Minsky’s, very surprisingly).

Continue reading "School kids should walk the dog, not walk with God" »

When 14 year old Philip attempted to commit suicide with a drug overdose, it was not a surprise to some teachers and students, but it was still a shock to most.

He’d been rather quiet and serious of late, but was a bit like that anyway. One teacher said later that he had thought, after one particularly sullen period, of suggesting a talk with someone but never found a chance.

Suzie’s distress was more obvious. She had been seen crying with her friends on several occasions, but still seemed to be keeping up with work and participating. No one was aware that at home her mother was seriously ill with cancer.

Continue reading "Most school chaplains are dangerously unqualified" »

In the 2006 census, almost 14 million Australians said that they had some sort of religious affiliation - more than double those who chose not to answer combined with those who answered no religion.

Despite the numbers, there’s a push to kick religious education out of public schools.

And why not? I mean it has been over two centuries since the French Revolution established the principle of the separation of church and state. It can’t possibly make any sense for children educated by state institutions to be influenced in any way by the church.

Continue reading "Religious education is not mindless indoctrination" »