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Contact us as below or comment on articles in the press about children and religious instruction:
Direct E-mail: victorianhumanist@gmail.com
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Postal address: GPO Box 1555, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia.
Or talk to Stephen Stuart, ph. (03) 9857 8318.
HSV Committee of management, 2017
President: Rosslyn Ives, ph. (03) 9857 9717
Vice-president: John Russell, ph. (03) 9846 3989, JR38@optusnet.com.au
Secretary: Stephen Stuart, ph. (03) 9857 8318, secretary@vichumanist.org.au
Treasurer: Peter Hotchin, ph. (03) 9885 4729
Ordinary members: Leslie Allan, Mary Bergin, Ann Johnson, Parijha Selvan
Membership Secretary: Stephen Stuart
I would like my 11 y/o daughter to attend a secular school but her current one is sadly catholic. I would like her to have the choice not to attend religious classes or activities, but when she made this request to her teacher she was told that they are mandatory. Her mother is not religious and is also unhappy about this compulsion. What can we do short of changing schools? Is it even legal for a Victorian school that is almost certainly receiving substantial government funding to force students to attend religious activities and classes? I will write her a note to give to her teacher(s) if I feel I can make it sufficiently persuasive to ‘put the fear of god into them’. I wonder how long this compulsion would continue if during religious classes my daughter started ‘innocently’ asking some of the countless extremely uncomfortable questions about catholicism, and indeed religion in general, for which it has no answers. I have questions I doubt they have even dreamed of in their worst nightmares.
I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your sites
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Hello,
I’m currently researching possible topics for my PhD next year, and the introduction of ethics courses in primary schools is of interest to me. I have been searching on the www for empirical evidence that supports (or otherwise) the usefulness of ethics training. I haven’t been able to find anything at this point, and was hoping you could point me in the right direction.
I believe research and evidence-based practice speaks volumes when making a decision about a programs efficacy, not to mention when making ones case against the status quo. If it is an under-researched area, then I will give great consideration to undertaking my PhD in this area. Do you know of any empirical studies?
Regards,
Rachael Sanders