Figure 1.--.
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Figure 1.--. |
There are a number of New Zealand schools wih religious afflilations. These schools are either integrated schools or private schools. The integrated schools are mostly Catholic. Many of the private schools are associated with the Anglican Church. These are most of New Zealand's established private schools. In recent years several new schools with affliiations with various Protesant denominations. One of these schools explains their mission, "Bethlehem College provides a Christ-centred education for the preparation of students for effective service and leadership, while aiming for excellence in all educational and personal endeavours." The schools also have actual religious courses called Religious Education.
Forms 3 and 4 RE hve looked up some issues relating to Catholic education in New Zealand today. They were asked to present their opinions on topics such as whether RE is essential in Catholic schools, whether it is important to their futures, how important it is in relation to the other subjects and whether it should focus more on the traditions in the church and less on theBible. Opinions expressed were diverse yet thought provoking.
Religious education is important in all Catholic schools as they are labeling themselves Catholic schools and so they have to teach what they beliee in.
An argument to reject my opening statement might be that the teachers that are teaching at aarticular Catholic school do not believe in God, oe what the Catholic community believe in and do not believe that all religious (Catholic) schools need to teach Religious Education. A lot of teachers think that schools only say they are Catholic schools so they do not get all the trouble-makers, and get all the people they want to learn.
I think that a few periods a week of religious education is good because you forget about all the other things going on and just concentrate on the work Jesus has done and is doing. Also, a lot of parents who send their kids to Catholic schools want their kids brought up in a Catholic envirinment so they will be encouraging Religious Education to be taught throughout the school. Also kids get an opinion on which school they go to so they should have no problem with Religious Education being taught at the school they go to.
Brett Robb, 4G, Francis Douglas Memorial College, 1996
When I started my essay on "Relgious Education isn't Important for my Future" I thought about it and on the third page I realised that I was nearly writing the opposite. So I changed and now it's Relgious Education isn't IS Important for my Future. I'll say I'm glad I changed.
So I'll start with this survey I did. I lost by a lot -- 55% of the people I asked totally disagreed with me. And I was one of them until I changed.
I din't think many people realise how important Religion is in our everyday lives. The world is made up of different people, different cultures and among them religion. Have you ever thought about it. Looking around you you'll se what I mean. There's heaps of different religions. And in our normal lives you'll have to deal with them. You can't ignore something that's around us. So what's around us is important, that's Religion. I think it's great that some of us see. To me foreign relations are important. Knowing why people do things. It's their life you should respect. If you offer a Jew pork as a joke, that's immature and unrespecting toward religion. You should know people's cultures and religions because if you travel the globe you'll have to deal with some of them. Knowing people's cultures and religions will soon come across as I see it.
On other thing on Religion id God. This is where people get some help from. Once I asked a 'jolly man' if he thought religion was important for my future. He said, "You may have a flash house, a sports car and lot of money, but deep down inside I'll say something'sd missing. And the only thing to fill it is God." At forst I was about to laugh, but then I thought he was right.
So go my conclusion. "Thar Religious Education is Important to my Future+ - how can you have a decent future not even knowing anything about Religion? It's a part of our culture on this planet. Things like that can't be shoved away. I believe religion is important to my future, that's what I think is important. Many things in this world can be taken for granted, but not Reigion.
Matthew White, 3G, Francis Douglas Memorial College, 1996
