Catholic kids to study atheism, gender identities as part of religious education shakeup
The Catholic Diocese of Parramatta’s religious curriculum is undergoing a radical shakeup, with students to look at gender identities, athiesm and other controversial subjects.
NSW
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Catholic school students will be taught about different sexual identities, atheism and social media relationships as part of a radical shake-up of the Catholic Diocese of Parramatta’s religious curriculum.
The move is a bid to make religion more relevant to students’ lives and cater to an increasing number of multicultural students who are not Catholic.
Students in Year 7 and 8 will be asked “to recognise sexuality as an exploration in forming personal identity”.
They will discuss questions like “Is sexuality optional? Does the Church’s teaching on sexuality have any value or relevance to modern life? How does social media construct sexual identity?”
The Diocese’s schools chief Greg Whitby conceded the move would be controversial among devout Catholics but said change was necessary if they were going to engage students in religion.
“There will be critics of this approach, just as the older generation critiques the younger generation but we believe we can defend the proposition,” Mr Whitby said.
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“It is a framework for young people to meet them where they are at this point in time in their lives.
“Gender identity is a big issue and it is a big issue for adolescents and we’re providing them with the church’s teaching – our community is supportive of those people, they’re included.”
He said while Catholic perspectives would be offered in class, students would be encouraged to reach their own decisions on big issues.
“Ultimately it is not our judgment to make – what our responsibility is to make sure kids can think and discern within a framework of the Catholic world view and make a decision,” he said.
Students will begin studying the new content from next year which has been approved by the NSW Education Standards Authority.
Topics include “Social media, exploitation and respecting sexual identities” along with other faiths including atheism and indigenous spirituality in a bid to make students respect marginalised and vulnerable people in the community.
The course will also distinguish between creation, evolution, science and religion and the historical relationship between them.
Social demographer Simon Kuestenmacher said the move would make the schools appeal to more people and could boost enrolment numbers.
“I would argue the majority of people who send their kid to a Catholic school don’t just send them there because they are more (socially) conservative but because the education is perceived as better,” he said.
“The brand of the church has been tarnished and (they need) to modernise … It is really just a matter of increasing the reach of the Catholic schools.”
Xavier College Llandilo principal Michael Pate said they had trialled the new syllabus this year with a good response from students.
“We have been able to remove the boredom of religion by making it inquiry based, so kids are actually inquiring into it,” he said.
“Years ago we would have taught religion as a closed sort of shop …(now) we are open to other religions, in our school we have a variety of kids all types of religions — Hindu, Sikh and Catholic.”
Year 12 pupil Matilda Dib said the curriculum helped students develop as a person because it dealt not just with Catholicism but with issues they would have to think about as adults.
“I definitely do think it is a lot better now because it is a lot more accepting,” she said.
“It is setting students up for their future learning and studies.”
Fellow student Sophie-Anne Brebner said it helped students connect with religion and the decisions made about social issues.
“I think it is important to have different perspectives because the religious landscape is changing and it is becoming more secular and it is becoming important to address all social issues,” she said.