CATHOLIC schools teaching atheism and queer gender theory are in “dangerous territory” and risk losing public funding according to a senior NSW MP.
The Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta this week announced atheism and LGBTQ identity theory were to be included in its 2021 religious curriculum.
Western Sydney children aged between 11-13 years are to be targeted.
NSW Catholic Schools CEO and Liberal Party factional player Mr Dallas McInerney was not available for comment.
The move is part of a radicalisation of Parramatta’s Catholic curriculum that “aims to be inclusive” of non-Catholic students, according to reports in this week’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
According to those running trials, the changes will make Catholic religious studies more “enquiry based”.
BOREDOM
“We’ve been able to remove the boredom of religion,” said Xavier College Llandilo principal Michael Pate, whose school was involved in trialling the new curriculum.
Parramatta Catholic Diocese education director Greg Whitby said while he expected controversy among devout Catholics, the changes were necessary to engage students.
“There will be critics of this approach,” he said. “But I believe we can defend our proposition.”
NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham, however, said the planned curriculum changes were “dangerous”.
“Schools are becoming political indoctrination centres, it’s not education, it’s indoctrination,” he told 2GB’s Ben Fordham yesterday.
“I’m sure there will be a whole stack of Catholic parents paying their school fees in Parramatta thinking why am I doing that?”
The very existence of Catholic education, the NSW MP and former federal ALP leader said, was to provide a moral and religious alternative to government schools.
DEFUND
“But if they are just teaching the way government schools do – without that moral content and alternative – well the parents will think they’re wasting their fees and they might as well go to a government school,” Mr Latham said
“I’ve got to say this is very dangerous territory for the Catholic system. They’ve lost control of the Parramatta Diocese, which is off with all sorts of Left-wing nonsense.”
Mr Latham said this decision would fuel the political argument to defund non-government education.
“It’s dangerous because there will be an argument to say that if the Catholic schools are teaching stuff no different to government schools, why fund them at all?” he said.
“And it’s only a matter of moments before the Greens start mounting that argument.
“There are plenty of people who want to get rid of funding for non-government schools and they are playing into that trap with this type of nonsense.”
Meanwhile, the latest PISA education rankings re-confirm Australia’s declining school standards.
RANKINGS
Reflecting results from 2018, the latest Programme for International Assessment (PISA) shows Australian students recording their poorest results since international comparisons commenced.
Australian students placed 16th in reading, 29th in mathematics and 17th in science.
China then Singapore topped the rankings, with Australian 15-year-olds trailing 18 months to 42 months behind them.PC
MAIN PHOTOGRAPH: Parramatta Diocese Catholic Schools Education Director Greg Whitby (l) and Xavier College principal Michael Pate.
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All those in this current comment section have absolutely no ability to think about whats in the best interest of your children. Im a student at Xavier College and up until now reilgion was regarded by almost every single kid for the last decade as their least favourite subject because of how boring and usless it was. To see you all spew this backwards, sexist ‘back in my day’ nonsense, its just the same stuff you’ve been complaining about since we’ve started school. You like to call our generation sensitive and yet we even mention more then two genders and you all seem to start crying taking it as a personal attack, why dont you all relax pick out a nice nursing home and pipe down before all your complaining gives you a early stroke.
It seems that Latham does not remember, or know of what happened with the Catholic schools of Goulburn in 1962 when defunding was threatened. What a repeat in history that would be if Paramatta catholic schools engineered a closure that would see the public schools scrambling for resources when the students turn up at their doorsteps on the following Monday morning.
Thank God for Mark Latham and Kevin Donnelly. Liberals and Labor are hell bent on indoctrinating our children with loopey left ideology.
It is a blatant attempt to corrupt children’s minds by bringing in ambiguity on the existence of God, sexuality and making sexuality and spirituality open to options. Apparently it has already been trialled in several schools and has had the approval from the Parramatta Bishop Vincent Long.
Schools are falling behind because of the political agenda of the left to bring in their indoctrination of gender and culture. There is not enough time in the day to get the 3 Rs taught effectively, with the difficulty of different language and class sizes. Children leaving class 6 are well behind those who left primary school in past generations.
The culture is lost when even the Catholics go in for this woke rubbish. Apparently Catholicism (at least in Parramatta) no longer believes that it is true; just one ‘belief system’ among many.
All sorts of changes are being allowed now by the religion that appears to be turning to the left from the top down. The one thing that they won’t change, for some unknown reason, is to allow the religious including priests, brothers and nuns, to marry in heterosexual relationships. Perhaps, the way things are heading the religious may one day be allowed to marry someone of the same sex, if not someone of the opposite sex.
It is time for the Pope to knock a few heads together and explain what the Catholic faith is about.
Simon Kuestenmacher said that “The brand of the church has been tarnished and (they need) to modernise”, well he is entitled to his opinion. The Catholic faith is not a brand.
If students need to learn; “How does social media construct sexual identity?”, they have already lost the plot.
With a little planning and lateral thinking, a good Teacher can so easily make any lesson interesting!
Religious Studies should never be boring and the vacuum that is atheism, should of course, rate a very small segment before a full launch into the fascinating study and comparison of all world religions; a study which our wonderful Catholic Schools have always thoroughly undertaken.
As for queer gender theory, that is definitely not a religion and again, rates a small (lived percentage-based) segment in sex education studies. However, I’m a huge believer in all things sexual being seriously imparted by senior family members.
Again, Mark Latham is spot on, we’re slipping! Educators must stick to the important subjects, stop wasting precious time tripping too far down side – (or woke) – alleys!