Comments for Secular Education Network (NZ)

Comment on Contact Details by Valli

Thu, 28 Sep 2017 00:43:43 +0000

Thank you so much for taking the time and making the effort to do what you are doing. I think it is kind and sensible that children are not indoctrinated. But rather encouraged and supported to find their own truth. Christian teaching I experience as indoctrination. I respect peoples right to believe. Not their right to fill innocent minds with their perception as though it is the only reality. When for many it clearly is not. Let children be taught in a way that lets them become more conscious and aware. Not taught what they should, or have to believe, and how they should think.

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Comment on Contact Details by R Fox

Wed, 27 Sep 2017 08:08:28 +0000

I saw NewsHub’s coverage of your protest against religious instruction programs in schools this week, and am deeply disappointed in it. Their tone struck that same playing-the-victim, “religion is under attack” note that I’ve come to associate with American religious fundamentalists, not a mainstream news/current affairs show in our own country.

I’m glad to hear that you’re taking on the Ministry of Education over RI programs, but we may have a more uphill battle in keeping the public informed on this issue than we might have thought.

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Comment on Contact Details by Frankie Herrington

Wed, 27 Sep 2017 06:27:41 +0000

Kia ora
Really happy to hear about this group on TV3 News tonight. My partner and I don’t have children but I want to be part of a society where all people have freedom of speech, choice, thought, and belief. Indoctrinating impressionable, unaccompanied children is not ok. Keep up the good work!

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Comment on Religious Instruction has no place in New Zealand public schools. by Jack

Tue, 17 Nov 2015 23:18:53 +0000

Could you perhaps send those to me?
I really enjoy annoying religious instructors at my school with Richard Dawkins quotes, Bible verses that show extreme prejudice, etc. this would help a lot.
(year 9)

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Comment on Contact Details by senadmin

Sun, 08 Nov 2015 23:45:51 +0000

Thanks for your comment. It is great to hear that a lot of schools are moving to a more inclusive model and removing Religious Instruction from class time. Our organisation is run by volunteers and the information we have linked to is the only data available on the running of Religious Instruction in New Zealand primary schools. We would prefer that this data was available from the Ministry of Education, but so far they have declined to provide it. If we have enough volunteers available we will be updating the survey in early 2016. In the meantime, I will ask the volunteer who has provided the information to note that Haumoana school are no longer running Religious Instruction.

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Comment on Legal Challenges by Tim Robertson

Fri, 11 Sep 2015 01:53:14 +0000

The covert smuggling of religious indoctrination in to schools is despicable. A child should not have to opt out but opt in. What nonsense. If all religions are not being taught fairly by an impartial educator then none should. Do what you want in your own time at your expense but keep my family and my money out of it.

I cannot believe NZ is so backwards on this subject. I remember the fight I had trying to opt myself out at 7 years old and being told by my principal if I am not one of the short list of alternative religions she could think of on the spot “then I am a Christian”! Even at 7 I heard the crazy in her words. Not all kids have that presence of mind though. Imagine a person in a position of authority making such a statement to your child about any other subject, you too would be livid.

We are told a belief in religion makes its adherents happy. Just not until everyone else believes the same religion apparently.

Time to move forward on this NZ. All religion taught equally or none at all!

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Comment on Parents and Caregivers by iwonder

Thu, 20 Aug 2015 04:08:30 +0000

I wonder where the now compulsory Maori language and cultural education in our primary schools sits in this dialogue. The Maori sessions at my child’s school begin and end with prayers. My primary school children are presented with displays of taiaha which are weapons of war and, like the haka, represent the glorification of a violent culture of fighting and warfare. How is that for values teaching. The ministry of education states on it’s website that Maori language instruction is not compulsory but read any recent ERO report and you’ll get an idea of the kind of pressure schools are under to include this and cultural instruction, in their curriculum delivery, in every part of each school day. How close to religious indoctrination is the imposition of such aspects of the Maori (spiritual and otherwise) world view on our children??

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Comment on Human Rights Commission by Philip Muir

Tue, 18 Aug 2015 04:45:28 +0000

Hi. I was wondering when the “Religion in school, questions and answers” will be updated from the 2009 version.

I am appalled that my 5 year old can walk into a room in a school at lunchtime and be taught “Christian Values” in a “Supakidz” club by one of her teachers!

What about what our family beliefs?

Thanks

Philip

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Comment on Contact Details by Haumoana Principal

Sun, 09 Aug 2015 01:51:20 +0000

Please remove Haumoana School from your outdated data sheet. Our school does not have Religious Instruction and has not done so for a few years. To have this outdated information in the public domain has the potential to cause unnecessary concern. When surveyed we clearly explained our BOT was currently reviewing provision through a community survey and would act accordingly.
Perhaps you could extend all schools the courtesy of a review of information.

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Comment on Religious Instruction has no place in New Zealand public schools. by Serenity

Sun, 26 Jul 2015 23:57:50 +0000

I fully agree. I’m 16 now, but last year, at 15, I noticed the translation on the Karakia -an opening one and a closing one- that we are REQUIRED to do each Monday during what we call “Huiata” (which is basically a short whole-school assembly in which notices are read out) has religious terms such as “God” and “Amen” etc. etc. and as an atheist, I was pissed off. I then refused to attend any longer -which I got in trouble for on multiple occasions- until my parents had to declare that I didn’t have to associate with this, although believe that I should’ve definitely been allowed my own beliefs, regardless of what my parents think. Freedom of Religion? Luckily, my parents have similar ideals to me and refused to bow down when the school tried telling them to “talk to me” to make me “see reason” and I was no longer required to attend. But they weren’t done. Instead of remaining upstairs in the classroom that my year group sits in regularly while totally unsupervised, I was now required to walk down the stairs and sit in the adjoining room (where I could hear every word) and walk back up with the rest of the school when they went back to their classes. Not really a big deal, but frustrating all the same, and a measure that I’m sure was meant to be some sort of ‘punishment’, because I wouldn’t just do what they said and sit through their religious crap. The entire process was just frustrating and made all the more difficult by the teachers and staff that just didn’t understand that *gasp* people might believe differently to them.

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