40 per cent of primary school children in Toowoomba are educated by religious institutions and almost 60 per cent of secondary school children. I think that this is inappropriate and I’ll tell you why.

I went to a Catholic primary school, and from my own experience, religion pervaded every single day. From Grade One we prayed before meal times, we prayed at weekly assemblies and on parade. There were school masses and class liturgies each term and every time someone was introduced to us, we would say, ‘Good morning, God bless you’. Religion in primary school isn’t simply taught as another subject like mathematics or geography - which was discussed for an hour and then quickly forgotten when we all went out to play football at lunch - religion is a way of life at school, a way of talking to children.

But please don’t misunderstand what I am trying to say…

Despite being an atheist, I have no issue with adults choosing to practice a religion; be it Catholicism, Buddhism, Islam or even Scientology. I also understand that religious influence can teach our children to have good values; that God loves them no matter what, to be thankful for what they have and to forgive (among others). All great values, all great lessons. However, I am suggesting that children can and should learn these values without the religious stories that go with them: Noah’s Ark, that God created the world (correction, universe, after of course science discovered the universe. Sorry, cheap atheist shot) in seven days, eternal sin, limbo and ‘no’ to female disciples.

There is of course a lot of philosophy/ethics theories that we could employ to teach children to develop good values. Let’s teach children the inherent worth of every person (including themselves). Let’s teach children that happiness comes from within rather than from having ‘things’. Let’s teach children that they can decide if an action is wrong or right simply by thinking about it - What are the consequences? Who is disadvantaged? How does that make them feel? How would you feel if things were reversed? What would happen to the world if everyone made this choice or did this action?

When writing this article, I was reminded of an ethics lecture I was in a few years ago at university. Our lecturer told us something that I will never forget. When we think about our ‘responsibility’, it is always thought of negatively; something to be done, a chore, a duty, a job. It isn’t! A responsibility is our ability to respond. When a person says something that you find sexist, racist or just rude, you have the ability to respond however you want, but how often do we politely say, ‘I found what you said to be a little inappropriate’. That is your responsibility; your ability to respond. We must realise that with our guidance, children can make the right choices using reason, and religion isn’t needed to decide right from wrong.

I think it is unacceptable that children, from as young as five years of age, are taught religion five days a week, 40 weeks of the year. I think religious school are outdated and no longer relevant. I agree that religion teaches children good values but suggest that these values could be taught without all the religious stories. When did we accept that children being educated by religious institutions was acceptable? Surely religious beliefs are something that should be taught at home and leave the teachers to teach math, english, science, ethics, art, sex education, budgeting, physical education, media literacy (and everything else).

I would like to conclude by admitting that if I was deciding where in Toowoomba to send my children to school, I probably would choose a religious private school, simply because what I am debating here - an ethics-based primary school - doesn’t yet exist. And yes, that makes me a massive hypocrite.

Would you send your child to a non-religious private school that teaches values using ethics theories and reason?

The opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of ourToowoomba.com.