For international readers Compass is a program that examines religion, mostly in Australian society.
This weeks program focused on Christian Schooling, last weeks was on Muslim schooling in Australia.
For more information, the program website is here. You may also be able to watch the program for free over the ABC’s iview website.
The comments thread in their guest book has some interesting points of view also.
Essentially the show focused on 4 schools, 2 of the more liberal Christian schools being the Catholics and Anglicans and two fundamentalist schools that displayed worrying trends and articulated some very backward ideas.
The Catholic and Anglican education was pretty much that which I experienced, they teach what is essentially a state curriculum with good science, english and history coverage and probably turn out more agnostics and atheists, if my family is anything to go by.
I will focus on the other two schools which frankly scared the hell out of me.
The Tasmanian Experience:
Community Christian Academy in Launceston.
This innocuously named little gem grew out of a home schooling arrangement by the current principle ( I wonder if he has any teaching qualifications?) and now caters to 100 students.
It promotes the Accelerated Christian Education(ACE) system of learning imported from the States. This system has been criticised by any educator worth their salt:
"If parents want their children to obtain a very limited and sometimes inaccurate view of the world – one that ignores thinking above the level of rote recall – then the ACE materials do the job very well. The world of the ACE materials is quite a different one from that of scholarship and critical thinking"
and speaking from experience, Julie Hay writes in comments section of the Compass website :
I am a 59 yr old divorced woman, with two adult children, one 31 and one 24, both of whom spent 8 yrs in an ACE school,
I have absolutely nothing good to say about it, quite the opposite, these schools are very destructive, negative, extremely punitive & abusive, separating, isolating, inculcating, indoctrinating, brainwashing, dogmatic, aggressive, arrogant, misogynistic, racist, they destroy self esteem, self respect, demonise the world outside of themselves, they are elitist whilst at the same time being sado-masochistic……
and if one truly thinks about all the adjectives I have used and their meanings, well I can only warn people to stay away from these terrible prisons, these places of mental and physical abuse,I cannot begin to tell you just how it almost destroyed myself and my children….anyway, that’s about as much as I can bring myself to say at present. [source]
"Teacher" education in the system is a 4 day course.
Children sit in cubicles facing the wall, and are shielded from their compatriots – wonderful no doubt, for controlling students and keeping them focused (particularly when your teacher only has 4 days training).
They summon the teacher using the Christian flag (pictured above), the Australia flag is used to summon subordinate help (teachers aids etc). What could a child conclude from that I wonder?
That this type of school could receive government funding is outrageous, forget arguments about having a choice. This system is abusing and hamstringing a child’s education. There are issues of child protection and protecting the national interest I think.
Parents were also required to sign an agreement forbidding them criticising the schools methods and teaching curriculum.
The most worrying feature of this school was their lovely little plan for training youth proselytisers:
At Community Christian Academy students not only make commitments to Jesus Christ, they’re encouraged to share their faith with others. The school chaplain has started a group called the Anti-nowhere league, where student volunteers learn how to pass on their beliefs.
Alan Greenwood (principal)
"It’s been a huge success in just getting kids to focus on their relationship with the Lord. We’ve got around 15 to 20 students who have been discipled one on one and are now keen to pass that on to another student.
The mission statement of Community Christian Academy would be to make disciples of each student who leaves from this place. Just as Jesus sent his disciples out. We would see ourselves as being modern day disciples"
The anti-nowhere league, [forgive me I am pissing myself laughing here] I sincerely hope a third grader came up with the title. The implication of course, the message that you are placing in young minds is: if you are not with jesus, you have no direction, no meaning, you are going nowhere, and perhaps you are a nobody?
I don’t tend to agree with Dawkins on his label of religion as child abuse, but with this example I am inclined to agree.
The Victorian Experience:
Chairo Christian School
This school was older, more refined and less likely to wear its fundamentalism on its sleeve. As heard in the narration:
At Chairo Christian School, where the Victorian state curriculum is taught, the approach is different again. The Biblical account of creation is definitely included in science subjects, but students are also exposed to ideas about evolution, as just one theory to explain life on earth. [source]
Let me guess you are reinforced with christianity every class of everyday and they teach you this alternative theory called Evolution. Which one is going to stick?
Most concerning was the singing of the national anthem with altered lyrics that focused on Christ as being lord and saviour. How various state and federal education departments are not embarrassed by this I will never know.
So there you have it? Christian fundamentalism in education is on the rise in Australia aided by the state. Preference for religion through the back door.
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Wow, interesting! I wish I had seen this.
I think the abuse/brainwashing spoken about would be dependent upon the actual school, and not the ACE materials themselves. I have been concerned with some schools that use this system and didn’t employ qualified teachers, for example. But I would say that the child’s experience would be based on the delivery of the materials, and not the materials themselves.
The ACE materials I saw a few years ago were also a bit outdated and not teaching the same grammar that was being taught in the public school system in Australia (perhaps it was current American teaching though.)
“great minds think alike”, or is it
“fools never differ”
Posted about the same thing today, but just added a link to your post.
I agree the CCA school was a worry. Did you see what the teacher Bronwyn said? That was very scary.
It’s all very depressing! It took that mom 8 years to realize the school was damaging her children??
Who the hell comes up with this kind of schooling?? *sarcasm*
I’ll have to look into the ACE curriculum. I’ve heard of it, but never investigated it. I’m afraid that I’ll blow a couple of gaskets if I start looking too closely, though.
Sue,
Welcome to the blog.
I don’t have the ACE materials in front of me so my experience is based on the Compass program and quotes form wikipedia (wonderful font of accuracy that it is).
I respectfully disagree on the brainwashing being dependent on the teaching/school.
The children are essentially learning from a workbook whose focus is christian/bilical. My impression was that each book contained a strong focus on biblical teachings/sayings (cherry picked of course)interwoven with the subject. There would be no focus on stoning unruly children I expect.
I see this as immersing the child in a particular world view and brainwashing them. Your definition may differ.
Add to this the fact that they don’t allow outsiders or those of different cultures to mix and the child is being reared in isolation.
I would love to examine the materials closely.
Chappy,
My impression is that it allows for basic skills development, basic literacy and numeracy, but that it falls down on development of critical thinking. So your kid may be able to read and write but might really struggle outside of a closed christian context.
Two things I picked up out of that, Sean.
One: I object to anyone stuffing around with the words to our national anthem. Unless it’s me. And I’m drunk at the time. And it’s funny (at least in my opinion).
I’m certainly not approving of anyone changing them for religious propaganda reasons.
Two: The problem with schools like this receiving government money is actually far more serious than you think – essentially, the state, territory and federal governments are propping up an unviable sector. The argument is that parents who send their kids to private schools, religious or otherwise, are still paying taxes for school usage. Which is utter rubbish.
To put this in comparison, if we apply the same criteria to TV, Seven, Nine and Ten should get the same amount of government funding as the ABC and SBS. After all, their viewers pay taxes for TV broadcasting as well.
Could you imagine what a public outcry there would be if governments reduced their funding to public hospitals and sent it to private ones instead? I’m not sure why private schools get special treatment over other private sectors.
As long as governments provide funding to private schools willy-nilly, this kind of brainwashing will continue to proliferate.
Dikkii,
I absolutely love the comparison drawn between commercial television and funding of religious schools
Dear Sean,
Even in the States, A.C.E. is notorious for the banality of its curriculum. It’s only purpose is to create new evangelicals, not anything else. Even programs like A Beka and Bob Jones are better than the A.C.E. curriculums.
John Weaver
Sean,
http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/nancy-alcorn.asp?cycle=08
Nancy Alcorn gave 2300 to Mike Huckabee, if this is the same Nancy Alcorn (Huckabee was the most radical rightist of our 2008 campaign).
I went to Chairo, and you nailed it exactly on the head. Every class is a religious session, except for one perhaps half an hour in year 9 science, where evolution is handled from a distance, with a peg on the nose, and with very long tongs.
The school itself creates a shuttered environment that means students are completely unprepared for the real world outside of the school, and now, with it teaching from kinder to yr 12, that situation can only worsen.
Teachers don’t (or at least, didn’t while I was there) need to have qualifications to teach, they only had to go to the right church.
This led to the situation of a VCE business studies class being without a teacher for the majority of a year, because the teacher concerned simply stopped coming- unable to deal with the pressures of handling a group of teenagers- even basically well behaved ones, like my year level. Although, to be fair, none of us ever told the school he hadn’t been showing up for classes, and used the time as a free period.
I found that the school, while preaching love and tolerance actually practised something from the opposite end of the spectrum. Closed mindedness, bigotry, elitism and promote fear and paranoia about anyone who might be different, or believe different things- Out of curiosity one day, I compared my experience at Chairo against a cult-behavioural checklist.
It scored frighteningly well as a cult-like organisation.
While I was at Chairo, there was no mangling of the national anthem. If this really happens, I am deeply ashamed of having attended Chairo. Well, more than usual, anyway.
I should have put inverted comments around “science”, come to think of it!
Commas! I meant commas!
(See how bad my christian school education was?)