GordonMoyes.com

John Howard’s decision that the Federal Government would supplement (up to $20,000 per annum per school) the fundraising of local communities and schools to have a chaplain of their own choosing fulltime in that school, brought out of the woodwork all the usual ‘Howard Haters’ plus all those who were opposed to Christianity and religion in general.

Some said they would rather have the money spent on other people being added to the staff such as counsellors, forgetting that trained chaplains are trained in all forms of counselling and would be helpful to students in whatever the situation. Others said it would start sectarian in-fighting between parents or that the chaplain would minister only to his own flock and neglect the others. Most of these objections are being raised by people who do not know what they are talking about. Furthermore I would be impressed if they did some fundraising of their own to provide portion of the costs of what they want instead of complaining about what the churches and community groups are doing.

I taught high school classes every week for seventeen years in the state public system. My wife taught classes in the primary schools. We did it without pay. In total I taught over a thousand teenagers every week in their school rooms. For thirteen years I taught every teenager, in every class, every week! I had the full support of the principal and other staff throughout this time. In Victoria for more than forty years chaplains have been appointed by an inter-church Board on behalf all denominations to teach all of the children in a secondary school. Unlike NSW schools, children are not separated into denominational groupings.

They are paid by that State-wide Board and funded by churches and Christian groups who raise the money. In NSW we have full-time scripture teachers in scores of secondary schools paid for by churches and local Christian groups. In all of my experience with these people I have never heard the criticisms as mentioned last week. The presence of these full time staff (many of them also trained teachers) is usually acknowledged by principals to be of a very good influence among both students and staff.

We need students to grow in their appreciation of three things these days which are not covered by classes in mathematics, history, science and the like. They are personal ethics and values, issues of social justice and religious truth. Chaplains can help all three. They can help students to do their civic duty, to be aware of our cultural and religious backgrounds, and to do their duty to God in the process.

The chaplains take their share of school duties like overseeing sport, voluntary teacher activities like helping in school excursions, musicals and fetes.

Chaplains are also there in times of school grief and tragedy. Then, because they are part of the daily school life, they are in a much better position to help students and staff instead of those brought in after the event.

They also help equip students for the battle on behalf of the sick and the suffering, the prisoner and the unborn, the refugee and the indigenous, the frail and the unemployed and others who need a compassionate society. Chaplains have the capacity to do this. That the Federal Government should recognise this and supplement the parents and community who are already paying for it, is not surprising. What is surprising is the vitriol attacking this announcement.

GORDON MOYES

Thursday, 2nd November, 2006, 11:59 am | Cross-Bench Comment