Ethics classes to be investigated and not celebrated

The O’Farrell government has been ‘persuaded’ by Fred Nile to establish an inquiry into ethics classes. A committee will investigate “the stated objectives, curriculum, implementation, effectiveness and other related matters pertaining to the current operation of ‘special education in ethics’ being conducted in State schools, and whether the Education Amendment (Ethics) Act 2010 should be repealed.”

Fred Nile says “This will be the first time there has been a formal investigation into the ethics classes“. Does he know that the classes were evaluated formally only last year when they were trialed? They’ve only been running for a year since then. Of course, evaluation and investigation is all good and ethics classes have nothing to hide. However, SRE classes have been running since the 19th century with no formal investigation at all. Why has Nile not called for a similar investigation into SRE classes? The inquiry will be expensive, surely, with several people working on it over the next half year. If they are going to the trouble and expense of an inquiry into the ethics program, it would make sense to include SRE.

The government is also bringing in an annual celebration of SRE classes to acknowledge the efforts of SRE teachers. Sounds like a great idea, but why only SRE? The Christian Democratic Party web site says this celebration will “recognise the effort of special religious education teachers who have provided long years of service and have contributed significantly to our education system. They provide a valuable service and they should be celebrated.” So special religious education is to be celebrated but not investigated after many years while special education in ethics is to be investigated but not celebrated after its first year.

Why is Nile doing this? He says he is concerned about the fact that “The ‘Special Education in Ethics’ is a philosophical course that presents children with complex social situations, asks them what action they would take and why. There are no right and wrong answers.” Well, of course there are no right and wrong answers. There never are. This is life, life is complex and situations vary. We have to make decisions that guide our actions based on circumstances. At some point in our lives we have to learn how to decide what is the right course of action and what would be the wrong course of action. Learn how to decide, not learn what to do, because the right thing in one situation could be the wrong thing in a slightly different situation.

Another concern Fred expresses is that ethics teachers are “putting their own personal values in the minds/mouths of the children.” So they are asking children what action they would take and why, and they are not giving them answers, but at the same time they are imposing their own personal values. It seems unlikely that they could be doing both. I coordinate ethics classes at my local school, and I have heard the ethics teachers in discussion with the children. They do not impose their personal values, and the suggestion from Fred Nile that this happens is insulting to ethics teachers. Before making such unfounded statements he should perhaps visit a few ethics classes and hear for himself.

If Nile is concerned about the imposition of values, I wonder if he is aware of the extent to which this has been an issue in SRE classes. Catherine Byrne, a PhD scholar at Macquarie University, has conducted surveys of scripture teachers, parents, school teachers, children and principals as part of her research on religion in education. According to some of the quotes from her surveys, children in some SRE classes are being told : “God gets angry at men who marry foreign women”, and that people from overseas have “disgusting customs”. Catherine Byrne says :
Most Christian SRE volunteers in my survey thought that children should be taught the Bible as fact and not given a choice about belief in God. 80 per cent thought children should not be exposed to other religions. One teacher noted that children were threatened with burning in hell if they did not “believe in Jesus.” In several schools children were being told that “the earth is 6000 years old” and that “man and dinosaurs once lived together.” With no oversight, volunteer instructors can say and do almost whatever they like. In one school, young children were told that “Hindu’s are cows” and a retiring teacher recalled that she had heard an SRE volunteer invite a child to “hop up on old Charlie’s knee and give him a sloppy kiss.”

So, yes, evaluate ethics classes by all means, but it would be negligent, irresponsible and discriminatory to carry out this evaluation without including SRE classes. A big yes, too, to the annual celebration, but don’t limit this to SRE teachers.