Kevin Donnelly has written a number of articles on trends in education and how bad it is getting. The critics above are perfect examples of the fruit of such a hopeless education system. Instead of teaching kids how to read and understand what they read, teachers are trying to teach them to hate the Howard government - and they failed at that task as well!

Nowhere in Kevin's article does he say that gays, lesbians, bisexuals, trisexuals, transmutants, a-sexuals, pansexuals, multi-sexuals, animal-sexuals, or whatever other sexuality you want to go by, should be disrespected. He is merely pointing out that educators are indoctrinating children with irrational nonsense that their parents would not agree with and would go nuts over, if they knew about it. Should we be surprised that parents are dragging their kids from public schools in droves and putting them in Church schools?

The problem with all this PC nonsense, is that the gay lobby is not interested in respect (they don't respect Christians or anyone else that disagrees with them), they're not interested in tolerance (they don't tolerate anyone disagreeing with them), they're not interested in equality or rights etc. (they have all these things already) - they are after ACCEPTANCE. Not just personal acceptance (which Christians are more than happy to give since homosexuals too, are made in God's image and are valuable human beings), but acceptance of their RELATIONSHIPS and LIFESTYLE.

This is where people like myself object. I will tolerate homosexuality in so far as I don't want to see practitioners put in jail (provided their behaviour doesn't break the law eg. public display of their practices or preying on boys). But that's it.

I must just be lucky, I guess. All the teachers at my son's (public) school are normal, intelligent folk. Most have families of their own, and all of them share a love for children, and a care for their welfare, that is palpable.

My twelve-year old happily discusses what goes on at school, and is bright enough to have his own opinions - which occasionally diverge from my own - and which he is capable of discussing. I am therefore reasonably certain that what I hear from him about what goes on at school is fairly comprehensive.

The description of schools as hotbeds of PC zealots, intent upon pursuing their agenda to corrupt our children in the name of diversity or whatever, is unknown to any of us. That this bunch of perfectly normal people would even consider indoctrinating children with irrational nonsense is a totally alien concept. I have to say this goes equally for the previous two schools he has attended, and the schools that his two elder brothers attended half a generation ago.

Am I missing out on something here? Is my experience typical, or atypical? Are we inventing targets to shoot at, or is there a real problem? This is a genuine enquiry - after twentyfive years in the Australian education system, is it blind luck that none of this has ever been an issue, let alone a problem?

AsIan,
Where does absolute morality fit here? As absolute moral purity defines the unclean sexual acts of persons as against the pure moral image of God? I cannot accept such behaviour represents the pure moral image of the Creator God of human biology; in whose moral image you state they were made. The god Juno represented such acts in the Greco-Roman period, hardly an image of the moral Creator of normal human biology.

From the many gay men among my friends their desire is for emotional bonding, and they do not find such in women, though many of them would love to have family. The absolute perfect state is - when both these needs are met and fulfilled in lifelong normal emotional and biological ways.

The conflict exists when normal is replaced with unnatural and it is taught as normal in any moral understanding of the universe.

AsIan - Quote, "The problem ...is that the gay lobby is not interested in respect ... they're not interested in tolerance ..., they're not interested in equality or rights etc. ...they are after ACCEPTANCE. Not just personal acceptance (... since homosexuals too, are made in God's image ...), but acceptance of their RELATIONSHIPS and LIFESTYLE.

This is where people like myself object. I will tolerate homosexuality in so far as I don't want to see practitioners put in jail..(unless) public display of their practices or preying on boys"

Pericles,

There is obviously going to be a great difference between different teachers and different schools. They don't all teach this stuff yet.

Note that Donnelly is not criticising individual teachers as such or specific schools. He is criticising the Education Union and state education departments for pushing the gay lobby's social agenda on to more or less unsuspecting parents and their children.

This is only a relatively recent phenomenon so your 25 years in the eductaion system is irrelevant. There are many many schools that don't teach this nonsense, and many teachers in schools that do teach it, who don't push it like the NSW teacher Donnelly refers to. This nonsense is being pushed by University faculty responsible for trainig teachers. This means that the current and future generations of teachers are brain-washed with this garb. IOW, it is going to get worse.

Philo,

Not sure you understood my point. All humans are created in God's image and are therefore inherently valuable. Thus, homosexuals should be respected as persons. However, as Christians we cannot accept their depraved (not to mention unhealthy) BEHAVIOUR.

I think Kevin is on to something in his article but it needs unpacking. Political correctness is a utopian movement that assumes that society can be managed in a way that breaks down all unequal relationships. It is basically a Christian idea (“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Gal 3:28) that has been hijacked and secularized. As such it has lost its connection to the tempering aspects of the rest of the tradition and has become ideology.

The verse from Galatians proclaimed that all people are united under the Lordship of Christ. This affirmed the principle of the preciousness of all and the equal standing of all before God and is foundational for Western society. However, when this is secularized, it becomes an imperative for the erasure of difference. Instead of telling us that we are all, in our diversity, equally under the Lordship of Christ, it tells us that we are all equal, hence the concern for different gender characteristics and power relationships.

In order to establish a utopia of the equal, males must be discouraged from expressing themselves physically, (the physical is an expression of power), it is deemed to be just as good to be homo or heterosexual and any hint of genuine racial difference must be erased. The nonsense that gender or sexual orientation is a social construct give equalitarians hope that these disturbances in a homogenized society may be changed.

The process of secularization has produced many instances of this effect. Unity in Christ has become human rights, the dawning of the kingdom of God has become the idea of modern progress, love of the neighbor became communism, self reliance became fascism. When the key elements of Christianity lose their connection with the other elements they become isolated and demonic and distort human life.

Peter Sellick

Reference to paedophilia? Check
Reference to it being just a lifestyle? Check.
Claims that homosexuality isn't natural? Check.
Claims that people are being brainwashed? Check.
Use of entirely male examples of homosexuality? Check.

Silly me, I should have expected the "unhealthy" claim and Aslan's comparison with bestiality.

Political correctness in the literal sense is nothing more than "showing regard for others in manners, speech, behavior, etc." Ie. it is the definition of politeness. Consequently it also includes not making unsupported derogatory claims or discriminating unnecessarily against groups; which is probably why some are up in arms against it. Of course, the term is primarily perjorative - it has limited serious usage other than as a rhetorical device designed to create a mental connection with hypersensitivity.

We're talking about schools here, schools. They have teachers, who teach, it's their job. So it shouldn't be any surprise that they teach about sexual orientation and different gender roles. You can't avoid the issue of gender roles and it would be wrong to let students enter the world ignorant about other gender issues, sexual orientation; but it's also true that they shouldn't promote ideology.

So what do you do? Explain and compare. Talk about the discrimination and hardships people face. State the facts: explain that homosexuality occurs in nature, that it is ingrained in people's personalities. In other words, DO EXACTLY WHAT THE ARTICLE CONDEMNS. The author, and some here, really want teachers to promote conservative ideology. For those dissatisfied: send your kids to a fundamentalist school where they can learn all the falsehoods you like and there are prohibitions on interracial dating, rock music, dancing and post-1950s clothes.

Aslan, what exactly is the irrational nonsense that you refer to? And does your definition of "public display of their practices" simply refer to sexual intercourse or is it broader?

Sells, what genuine racial differences exist? Some medical predispositions & benefits sure, but what else?

"It is basically a Christian idea ... that has been hijacked and secularized."
Are you serious? No need to ascribe every notion to an original Christian source.