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1. These parents have forgotten why religious schools exist. Most of these schools maintain a high cultural, ethical and principled environment for children to learn in, which is then carried over into each successive generation.
   They act as a educational and social beacon to the secular society, particularly when things go wrong in theirs. I am aware that they use us as a model to get back on track.

   Posted By: Anna Dominguez Smith

2. If parents object to their children studying religion, whether for external exam purposes or otherwise, why do they send them to Catholic schools? And why were they accepted? Was there no consideration of their motives? Did they lie at the interview or in response to the enrolment application questions? Catholic schools are not just another business, needing to maintain and increase 'market share'.

   Posted By: Poppenhauer

3. Why are the parents upset? After all they are Catholic schools, aren't they?
   It proves a point I had seen so often in my years of teaching RE as part of my teaching load in Catholic Schools. It was difficult as often you didn't have the total support of the administration. (Sorry to relate.)
   I applaud Bishop Barry Hickey's direction. If the parents are not happy, then let them move their children out of the system so other committed parents can enrol their kids.

   Posted By: Gavin

4. Sadly it is typical of The Sunday Times to mislead and sensationalise by telling half truths. Yes all students in catholic Secondary schools in WA are required to study the Religion and Life courses of study. Those who wish to use their results to count towards university entrance must necessarily sit exams. But it is totally erroneous [and dare I say either ignorant or deliberately misleading] to suggest that all students will have to sit an exam. Those doing Religion and Life at level one: 1A/1B in Year 11 and 1C/1D in Year 12 are not required to sit exams but neither do their results count toward university admission.

   Posted By: Ern Azzopardi

5. The parents have not all 'forgotten why religious schools exist'. The reality is that the issue is much more complex. We are not talking about parents objecting to students undertaking religious education. We are talking about students being forced to take it as a TEE subject, and all the strictures that that involves. Even prior to this decision, Catholic schools already allocated equal time to RE as to all other academic subjects. The new course is content and knowledge-based; its focus is not about evangelisation or faith formation. Faith formation activities - liturgies, prayer sessions, faith-based camps - are specifically excluded from being counted as part of the course (and the time commitment to the course). For these to take place, further time allocation is required. That is, they need to be done outside the RE course. The reality is that there is simply not enough time in the school calendar to allocate both to the course of study required by the Archbishop and the faith-based activities that are so essential to young people. Previously, the tie allocation to RE allowed for both content/knowledge and faith formation. The reality is that the Archbishop rejected advice from Religious Education teachers, school leaders, system-based consultants in imposing this decision. It is a shame that - as neither expert in education nor highly experienced in working specifically with young people in faith formation - he declined to listen to those who are both.

   Posted By: Mary

6. Why should students be accepted at Catholic high schools if they have no knowledge at all of christian or Catholic ethics and principles?
   Surely this should be the real motivation for parents to pay higher school fees - not just as a future status symbol for their offspring!
   School entry forms etc should include questions to reveal this parental motivation - a reality check!
   We don't need to narrow the entry to RC only but certainly make room for genuine christian youth as opposed to social climbing adults.

   Posted By: Sandy

7. What Anna Dominguez Smith, Poppenhauer, and Gavin, said. As for Mary's comment: What?

   Posted By: Bob Evans-aka Metsguy

8. There is no evidence that Catholic school children have been spending anywhere near too much time learning their religion.
   Archbishop Hickey should be commended for his action.

   Posted By: Ray

9. It is about time that Catholic Schools in WA asked more of its students. I taught in a Catholic Secondary School and I was appalled when students who had been in the Catholic school system for a number of years had such a poor knowledge of and attitude about the precious heritage that could be theirs whether Catholic, Buddhist, Hindu or whatever - the heritage that has often influenced most the sort of society of which we are proud to be part of.

   Posted By: Pauline Masters

10. It should be encouraging to all Catholic parents to know there are teachers in Catholic schools competent to prepare and examine students in the knowledge required to support and develop a mature faith; and that Bishop Hickey is taking this initiative in an area vital to a genuinely Catholic school ethos. Minimally, it may help disperse the Dawkins et al-fuelled myths that faith and reason are mutually exclusive, and that religion is a merely private affair.

    Posted By: John

11. Mary! The archbishop (who does he think he is?) has had the effrontery to 'reject advice from Religious Education teachers, school leaders, system-based consultants in imposing this decision.' Would these be the same 'experts' who have presided over the most comprehensive and catastrophic failure to transmit the faith to a new generation in the history of Christianity?
    The 60s fallacy that faith is all about my feelings and has nothing to do with the part of us between the ears only encourages youth who are stretching themsleves with calculus, physics, history, languages, to treat it with disdain.
    The message to parents should be: get serious about faith or get out.

    Posted By: PM

12. Excellent idea, after all the greatest scientist scholars, doctors and teachers were all catholic and followed the teachings of Christ some were even his apostles like Luke.
    Pity about some parents they have no idea what’s best for their kids, Why send them to a Catholic school? Sorry to be so blunt, but surely these people would have to be hypocrites.
    

    Posted By: pat

13. This includes the prophecy of St Mallachy 1139 which predicted the future Popes correctly and which says that after Benedict the last Pope will be Peter the Roman after which the seven hilled city will be destroyed. Look it up.

    Posted By: Keith

14. Schools should be able to teach knowledge, and hopefully foster faith. The Catholic laity needs to be well-educated, particularly if it is going to be active in Church leadership in the future. While some parents might pull their children from Catholic schools, they cannot be parents who are full committed to a Catholic education. In the long run, this will be a move that will strengthen individual Catholics and the Church as a whole.

    Posted By: Jenny Carroll

15. Religious education and the involvement in a community that supports and fosters the faith of our children is why we send our children to Catholic schools.
    The problem with an exam, however, is that it measures a student's ablity to write an essay, comprehend questions and the ability of a student to memorise facts and opinions for the exam. It doesn't measure faith or a students involvement in the church which is what sending your child to a Catholic school should be about.
    My children aren't great scholars but were involved in the church at parish and diocesan level as well in school ministries. They continue to be heavily involved now they've left school. My youngest graduated two years ago so my experience is fairly recent. The student who won the academic award for RE for year 12 when he did year 12 proclaimed to be an atheist. It is a well-talked about fact that only a small percentage of the students in our catholic schools and their families attend Mass every Sunday. Having to pass RE ensures they do the work but where is the fairness and what is the message that is given to those students like my children who despite living their faith would most likely score poorly in the TEE as they have learning difficulties. Often these students are very intelligent and are often made to feel inferior by some teachers and many parents and students of the more 'academic' as they are doing vocational education and training and not TEE. When they most likely fail the TEE RE exam how will they feel? What message does it give them?
    Faith is caught, not taught.

    Posted By: Marie Perth

16. If Archbishop Hickey is so intent on evaluating students on their faith, maybe students should be given a card to have stamped every weekend when they attend Sunday Mass and for membership and involvement in Youth groups and other parish groups.
    This can go towards the student's evaluation and put the onus back onto parents who after all are the primary educators of children and the ones who choose to bring their offspring up as Catholic. They will have to get their child to Mass!

    Posted By: P Perth

17. Mary: In my experience teaching in secondary schools the 'faith-based camps' and so-called 'faith formation' could sit comfortably in most New Age agendas. On one such camp, students did 'massage' and 'clowning'. My experience is most of the teachers required to teach religious education had no understanding of the Catholic, or even basic Christian tradition. Knowledge-based courses taught by teachers who believe what they teach are very effective. At least if students walk away, they know what they are rejecting!

    Posted By: Cas

18. I agree with Cas about the poor quality of Catholic religious education in schools. I attended Catholic schools up to Year 12 and while I did get some nice Bible stories and religious education in primary, high school was a different kettle of fish.
    I was taught religion by a self-confessed atheist who taught the class among other things that God didn't create the world, Mary probably wasn't a virgin, that while Jesus may have existed he wasn't the Son of God, he was just a very nice man and a generic 'Be nice to other people' was enough to satisfy the requirements of the Catholic faith.
    I have since read the lesson plans my mother follows for her cathechist classes and am pretty sure that had I attended a public school with a cathechist once a week or fortnight that I would have received a better idea of my faith than attending Pastoral Care classes in a Catholic school.

    Posted By: M

19. Keith: The prophecies of Saint Mallachy are certainly interesting. However,I do not think there has ever been an official church ruling on the authenticity or otherwise of them. In fact, claims have been made that they were written some hundreds of years after the times of Saint Mallachy. Having said that, I still feel that they could be geniune.

    Posted By: John Tobin

20. Can we bury that tired old cliche that faith is caught, not taught. There is some truth in it, but it has become an excuse for abdicating the duty to teach. That other out-worn cliche - 'Don't worry, they'll come back' - with which parents are palmed off will apply only if they have something more the 'Jesus was a nice guy and we should all do our own thing' to come back to.

    Posted By: PM

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