mangotreeone1, Yes, I agree, you are correct. I would love to know what Bible story Leigh got his response from. And Jesus said: "You're a ponce, Peter. And a f#*king c#*t to boot".

I don't think this issue has anything to do with political correctness. It is about maintaining a secular school system. Religious folk can find plenty of opportunities to teach their children the Bible's lessons. The Bible is first and foremost a religious text. If you tell nice stories from the Bible, that is fine, but you must expect your public school children to be told nice stories from the Koran. (There is fair bit of x rated rubbish in all religious texts.) That is only fair.

My children have been told by religious instruction teachers that religions other than Christianity, indeed, even some Christian denominations other than the teacher's, are evil. Or, as the Catholics say, they are "lost souls". Sounds like the original sin of pride to Rancitas.

Once again let me say that I don't think it harmful if Bible-based stories are told but they must not be presented as The only valid way or religion. The more cultures children are exposed to the better. But it must be in a secular, non-preaching, non-coercive way and I don't think that is going to happen. Especially, with all the right-wing religious fanatics about. (Horizons)

My wife, who is a Baha'i, spent 3 years teaching Baha'i SRE (Special Religious Education) classes at the local state school (NSW). The level of hostility she encountered from the Christian (especially Anglican) scripture teachers had to be seen to be believed. They treated her as a heathern who was poaching souls. The classes my wife taught educated on all the world's major religions- from Zoroastrianism to Hinduism to Christianity and Islam.

The principal invited her classes to take part in the end of year school SRE extravaganza. The Anglicans objected and threatened not to participate, it was THEIR show and no namby-pamby Bahai's were going to be involved. The Catholic teachers had been warned off years ago and the principal had to back off. My wife's classes were crushed as they had been practicing

These narrow-minded so-called "Christians" behaved in an abominable fashion, but I guess you can't expect anything better from Sydney Anglicans, who believe they have a monopoly on truth. Thank God THEY don't have control of our state school system.

Are you people serious? Leigh was spot on, good on you.

If anybody really doubts the xenophobia from the majority of Muslims in our school system, you need to read into it, as I have.

Remember the easter hat parade? Well, I remember doing it at school in Kindergarten in 1983, but they had so many complaints they canned it, and the easter chocolate egg hunt.

What was overtly religious about these events?

It's the same in the local plaza's with Muslims regularly complaining about Nativity Scenes.

Never mind that I am actually totally outraged whenever I walk past a woman wearing a burqa, a woman who is nothing other than an object to her husband, not a person.

I feel offended at that as I subscribe to the enlightenment values of western Europe that my forefathers developed, you know, human rights?

I have the HREOC report from the Children In Detention fiasco, which stated that Muslims were so intolerant they wouldn't even sit at the same dining table or share cutlery with kaffir.

Don't doubt their xenophobia for a millisecond. I grew up in Fairfield and only moved to the coast five years ago.

Our country is fast going down the gurgler, but nobody seems to care. People ought to remember that without our Christian heritage, and no I'm not religious, where we got our values of tolerance of other cultures, acceptance, forgiveness, and so on, we would likely be as intolerant of Muslims as they are of us.

Anyone who doesn't see it are lying to themselves. You've been tricked by the 1984'esque teachings of our leftist education department, you know, that only whites can be racist, that sort of thing.

We are accomodating a culture that resorts to guns to solve disputes, on the whole, utterly barbaric.

I can see you love a good story, Donna, and you've obviously decided not to let the truth get in the way of this one.

As pointed out by Rancitas, ours is a secular society and our public education system must reflect that fact. The Education Department official was quite correct to question your inclusion of bible stories and references to God in an otherwise innocuous collection of folktales.

Bible stories and references to God should not be allowed to pop up willy-nilly all over the curriculum. They should only appear during religious education lessons when children can recognise them clearly for what they are.

You bemoan the demise of the Judeo-Christian influence in public schools. I wouldn't worry too much if I were you. Most public schools include a weekly dose of religious education and it is invariably delivered by a representative from a Christian church and often quite an extreme or fundamentalist one at that. Very few schools offer a truly critical and non-denominational religious education program which seeks to educate students about all the world's faiths and religions. Most of what's on offer is indoctrination rather than education.

I don't know why you're complaining anyway. If you don't like the idea of a secular and inclusive education, there are now any number of Christian schools to choose from - and all handsomely sudsidised by the taxpayer.

Our society is becoming a pagan society. Secularism has infiltrated every strata of society that the name God is becoming foul. I have had my own knocks but we must not shy off and keep our mouths shut. We must continue to voice what we believe just like the muslims and the homosexuals and other minority groups that are allowed to be heard because of their minority status. The rest of us are called to be tolerant and understanding. This is the way terrorism tends to make inroads and then we wonder why our children are rejecting everything that is good and noble. Morals go down the drain and what is best for me is what remains. God help us all.

Stories, well what about this one? Cres Eastman is a good example of humanitarianism with a dose of medical science that blows away prayers to fantasy teddies and spooky beliefs in teddy magic. Two decades ago, an eminent Australian Doctor went into the mountain villages of the Tibetan Plateau. What he saw confounded him. 13% of the population were born with cretinism. Cres Eastman knew that the problem in Tibet was iodine deficiency.

This is the story of a man who saved a million brains ..... a doctor’s crusade to save the brains of children in Tibet and Australia from iodine deficiency disorder. He will also say that the most important human right you've got is to realise the intelligence you've inherited from your parents. Here we have a brilliant story that happens to be true, overcomes serious political problems and cuts through religious issues to deliver health to a people steeped in superstition. One such irrational belief arising from ignorance or fear was how people were saying, ......" if you feed this salt to the animals, they won't get baby animals."

The point I'm making is that there are many great stories and not just Eurocentric ones, that come from the present and the past, that develop wisdom and curiosity for young and old. These need to be told and reflected upon.

e.g.
I always remember my mother loved telling me stories about the wisdom of north American Indians. I sometime remind her and thank her for her deep love. But do people know that Ben Franklin based much of American democracy on the Iroquois political system? There are many people who think that the democratic tradition evolved primarily from the Greeks and the English. but not so ...... The people of the Six Nations had the oldest living participatory democracy on Earth.