Faye’s Story

My two boys attend William Rose Public School in Seven Hills, Sydney, I opted them out of SRE when they first started school. I believe it is inappropriate to indoctrinate young children and that decisions about religion should be made by the individual, when they are old enough to decide for themselves. The classroom is not the appropriate place for religion or religious instruction, education should be based on fact and science-based inquiry rather than the supernatural and superstitious theory. If parents want their children to learn scripture they should enrol them in Sunday School, teach them at home or choose one of the many non-government faith-based schools. There are many options available that do not include forcing ones ideology onto others who do not subscribe to it.

My boys have a disability and due to the NSW government’s underfunding of special schools, teachers are already stretched to the absolute limit in terms of teaching time. This means that children with disabilities receive extremely limited time for therapy and very little access to an education. Under these circumstances it is all the more vital that every available hour of teaching time be utilised adequately. It is unacceptable and discriminatory that what my children are allowed to do (or not do) during SRE time is dictated by those who hold a belief system very different from my own and that of my family.

My children, and many other children with disabilities who opt out of scripture would really benefit from something meaningful in the SRE hour – such as physical therapy, communication-based learning or technology. They should not be forced to sit and do nothing, as they are now.

Children with disabilities in NSW are already very, very disadvantaged in terms of access to an education due to poor government policy and chronic under-funding, further disadvantaging them by denying them access to meaningful use of the SRE dedicated timeslot – because of blind ideology – is ironically, very unethical.

It seems that certain faith groups are completely unwilling to respect individual choices, we often hear the term freedom of religion, what about freedom from religion?

Faye Galbraith