Trav - there is nothing unique about the authentic Spiritual Teaching of the Jewish Spiritual Master Saint Jesus of Galilee.
His Teaching was simply True.
Indeed the cultivation of self-transcending "humility" is the core teaching at the root of all authentic religious and Spiritual traditions in all times and places,including Sufism within the tradition of Islam.
Tragically many/most "orthodox" advocates of Islam regard all forms of Sufism to be "heretical".
Indeed there is a deep-seated prejudice against any kind of esoteric or "mystical" religion within main-stream Christianity, especially within Protestantism (which has NO esoteric or mystical elements associated with it)
The claim by Dickson that "humility" was or is a uniquely Christian development or virtue is a conceit - pure humbug.
Meanwhile this essay describes the content and purpose of much/most/all of what is promoted as religion in this time and place.
http://www.dabase.org/up-1-6.htm The kind of religion promoted by the right-wing culture war warriors fits entirely within this description.

Trav,

A simple Google search reveals the answer to your first question: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_values

<<I also dispute the claim that "Christianity's key ideas were already familiar territory to those living two thousand years ago" ... According to Dickson, a PHD Historian, the idea of putting others interests ahead of your own power was not a common or esteemed idea until Jesus came along>>

I’d be interested in what evidence this Dickson presents in support of his claims, but even if he’s right, the question still remains whether a person named Jesus opened our eyes to such values, or if the story of Jesus was embellished with values that we started to embrace around that period.

I suspect John Dickson started halfway down the back straight in his investigations.

Teaching children about religion - specifically comparative and historical aspects - can be considered as eduction and probably worthwhile in this dogma-riddled world.

However, instructing children in a particular religion is simply indoctrination and nothing more.

Using religion as a tool for the behavioural control of children is a delusional way of thinking and probably a form of child abuse.

We are run by people who have supposedly Christian values, Obama, Bush, Howard, Blair, Abbott, all torture and war for the plebs, kill, kill, kill, great Christian values I don't think so, Royalty, wealth beyond your dreams , lets dispense some of this wealth to the third world countries, but off to church we go and pray to a God that was complete opposite of the wealth syndrome of these people. The whole world is full of corrupt leaders, then why on earth should not the plebs, school personnel etc, forget the so called Christian values and join those at the top and act like them, kill, drugs ,lies, rape etc, if the top can do it then why not I. There are no such thing as so called Christian values in the world ,there never was even in the past, nor will be in the future , it will always be the same attitude as in the past, kill, plunder, keep the poor, poor and so on, foks it is here to stay so don't dream of the perfect so called "Christian" utopia.

"So let's not get distracted by the call for 'Judeo-Christian values'. If there's any gap in Australian education, it's that there's not enough recognition of the foundational role of the ancient Greeks in ethics, the ancient Romans in law, and the Enlightenment."

Yes, exactly, thankfully Western civilisation has outgrown "Judeo-Christian values", we certainly should not re-introduce them.

So, the answer to the title question is--"we shouldn't teach any religion in schools, it's not the business of the secular state to waste valuable time with fantasies".

It's a myth that religion is a necessary basis for ethics.

We may as well all follow the Way of Ralph.

It is just a Ralph. All of this is Raplh, and that is it. It is just a Ralphing. You are being Ralphed. You are Ralph. You do Ralph. You believe in Ralph. You hate Ralph and resist Ralph. You are troubled by Ralph. You fear Ralph. And you are going to die from Ralph sooner or later. You breathe Ralph. You think Ralph. You are in charge of Ralph. Ralph is in charge of you.

It is all nonsense, you see?

Real Life, True Existence, all comes down to a non-conceptual Reaity, the Reality of Non-Separateness. You have no ultimate explanation for it and no way to differentiate youself from It or get control over It (which is what all conventional religion attempts to do).
You just must give yourself up to "Raloh", the Unknown and Unknowable, That Which is Beyond yourself. You cannot Realize the Real until you stop being yourself, stop separating yourself, and stop suffering the illusion of separateness.

When there is no separation, no gesture, no "theology", no effort, or result of "sin", then the "Ralph", or God, Truth, Reality, and The Beautiful Itself, is Inherently Obvious.