Tuesday, December 30, 2008

christian jewelry,A news story from today

News article taken from: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24752539-601,00.html

A QUEENSLAND father of five has taken action in the Anti-Discrimination Commission after his four-year-old daughter was asked to help make a replica of Noah's Ark at the local state school.
Ron Williams, who has five children under the age of 10, is opposed to religious instruction in state schools.

He said he was taking action because he did not believe students should be "exposed to superstitious mumbo-jumbo, presented as fact, in an educational setting".
Mr Williams complained that his daughter, Kathleen, now 5, was asked to make the "sizeable" replica of Noah's Ark during her prep class at Gabbinbar State School, "despite the fact that Queensland Education bans prep children from taking part in religious education programs in state schools". Mr Williams said the Ark replica was later pinned to the classroom wall, and the teacher showed his daughter a DVD "with a Genesis theme and a book about Noah's Ark".
The school denies the claim, saying the children were shown a video of Evan Almighty -- a comedy about a man who builds a replica of Noah's Ark -- and a book about the Ark as part of a unit of study on animals and the noises they make.

Mr Williams has withdrawn his daughter from Gabbinbar State School.
Besides taking action in the Anti-Discrimination Commission, Mr Williams intends to sue Queensland Education for the cost of having his children educated by distance education or some other, secular alternative to the state school program.

His two sons still attend Gabbinbar. His two other children are not of school-age.
In taking action against Kathleen's teacher, Trina Savio, and the school's principal, Greg Brand, Mr Williams said he was standing up for a "significant, disgruntled underbelly of parents" who do not want Christian stories taught at state schools.

He said Australians lived in a society with a separation of church and state and he was therefore protecting Kathleen's fundamental human right: freedom from religion.
Mr Williams's complaint said Christian groups had been emboldened in their efforts to "spread the word" in state schools by a Howard government program, launched in October last year, to fund chaplains in state schools.

Under the $90million School Chaplaincy Program, schools can apply for up to $20,000 a year to employ a chaplain to mentor students. An evangelical group called Scripture Union has placed 500 chaplains in Queensland state schools in the past year, including 40 per cent of primary schools and 80 per cent of high schools. A spokesman for Scripture Union, Mark Badham, said chaplains had been largely welcomed by parents.

Mr Williams last year removed two of his children from Middle Ridge State School, also in Toowoomba, after it decided to employ a chaplain. He re-enrolled the children at Gabbinbar State School in part because it did not have a chaplain.

Mr Williams said he had made it clear to the school that his children should not be "exposed to supernatural stories".

In a statement to The Australian, Queensland Education said there were "no references to 'God' or the biblical story of Noah's Ark made in Kathleen's classroom".
"Through negotiated planning, students began studying animals and used the book Trouble in the Ark as reference material," the statement said.


This blows my mind on many levels. As some would know until falling pregnant with Bethany I went in to schools and taught RE. I live in Queensland the state in question and I taught prep classes so that is a fact that definately needs more reaserch. I doubt I would have been permitted to go in and teach weekly for a term if it was against the law. Also children are not in the class room if they have written letters from their parents asking for them not to attend RE, I would assume that Mr Williams wrote these letters and made his wishes clear.
I have also been asked by many class room teachers to incorperate Noahs Ark in my lessons when they are doing animals and have seen the book Touble in the Ark they use. Of course I teach it from a religious stand point but most teachers see it as complimentary to their classroom lessons. My biggest problem would be 4-5 year olds watching the movie Evan Almighty.

How sad that this man now has his 15mins of fame, this is a national story here. It is a story that may impact the future of RE in this state, we are the last state with weekly RE.

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