Suzeonline...please, no need to apologise to me, or anyone, for sending your child to a publicly subsidised faith school, rather than the 'private' school most people think they are.

That's your choice.

I note however, that you avoided the WA state school.

The RE you speak of may well be religious education, but that does not exist here in Ed Qld, only RI, which is a world away from RE.

Funnily enough though, a parent I know was advised to send his daughter to a Catholic school instead of an EQ one so she could get a 'secular education'.

Amazing, even EQ managers know they are incapable of managing anything properly.

I am not sure that you should have to send your child to a publicly subsidised faith school to have your child educated though, that is the role, and responsibility, of the state.

suzie

'Runner, science has brought far more good for our race than any religion ever has.'

Science yes, pseudo science no. Jesus Christ Himself has done more good for people than all the scientist put together. You seem to like the fruit of faith based schools but deny the outcomes the secular humanist dogmas which flow from pseudo science. You would not even allow your daughter to attend one of these schools.

A (not)funny thing happened to a Baptist friend of mine the other day (yes, I've befriended some Baptists. More extraordinary yet, they've befriended me!).
This friend, along with her kids were tooling around to our place on push-bikes for a visit, when upon confronting a hill, up on pedals, one of them (a pedal) sheered off, and mum's leg pile-drove into the bitumen, breaking both bones below the knee. She sprawled and groaned in agony and finally settled in a position that seemed to requite her the least pain, her distraught kids arrayed in meditative consternation around her.
It was a lengthy vigil they kept together, along with a few bemused neighbours who strayed and straggled, startled, from their own noonday vigil around the tele.
After a quarter of an hour (an eternity in our world of the ever abbreviating news-grab) the ambulance arrived in suitable style (bells and whistles), and the compassion was laid on suitably thick (disingenuous but convincing).
As they were preparing to raise up my fallen friend, she was heard to utter: "I think the strap on my backpack [her only erstwhile comfort on the pavement] is pinching my shoulder"! But then, lo, she was heard to lament, in earthly tones: "No, it's a bloody green-ant!"
The Lord works in mysterious ways!
True story; not in Dostoyevsky's league, but instructive!

I wasn't apologizing for sending my child to a Catholic high school at all Blue Cross.

When you live in a small town with only two high schools (used by many nearby towns as well), and one is an overcrowded, under-resourced, run-down school (public school), while the other is a relatively new, well resourced school offering less pupils per class, pleasant new classrooms, and a much more effective discipline system, you send your child to the better school if you can!

Maybe the public schools in your area are better resourced than here Blue Cross? I pay taxes the same as anyone else and I don't begrudge my taxes going to both private and public schools.

suzeonline, just out of idle curiosity, what was the "more effective discipline system" you speak of, and why could it not be applied in state schools?
Davidf, I think I understand your concerns in abstract, but I'm not sure I see it in practice; unless ethics was taught as an 'exam subject', in which case one would be obliged to agree (or at least appear to agree) with whatever is taught.
I have noticed almost all my most successful academic friends express the same sentiment; "load of crap, but it was obvious what the examiner was looking for..."
Otherwise, I'm inclined to think comparative religious and ethical studies held by visiting proponents of various creeds... could well spell the timely death of religion, and offer thinking children the chance to analyse and define the ethical basis (if any); the 'lowest common denominator, if you will.

Dear Grim,

I am working on an article with another poster. I hope there will be a detailed answer to your question in it.