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this page Newsletters - Education and the Famiily
Australia
Australian society, like much of the First World, is marked by incessant change.
Family life is not so much breaking down, but today’s multiple forms and styles, the sheer pace of life, a growing inequality of income and a cry for values and safety by parents, gives the Church a fresh opportunity. We stand not in Jerusalem’s synagogue rooted in Scripture but on the Areopagus surrounded by masses who hardly know of Jesus.
Globalisation reinforces our common troubles – bullying in schools, boys’ failure to achieve academically, suicide (Sydney has the world’s highest youth suicide rate), anti-intellectualism, drugs and the fast growing poor-rich divide. (Yes! All family issues!)
But the positives are great. In the face of anarchy and fear, Australian families increasingly voice their concerns. Educators and politicians are slowly listening. The call to values is being integrated into the school curriculum. Some are drifting back with their children to church and Christian youth communities are growing.
Anglican Youthworks was incorporated by Sydney four years ago. Its five Divisions and College have a multiplex strategic plan, but its strategic purpose is to strengthen churches (and schools) to transform lives for Christ. A key theme is integrating church, school and family. New resources build on inter-generational needs.
Australians are increasingly favouring values-based schooling for their children. Over the last decade the percentage in independent non-government schools has grown from 26% to nearly 32%. The Diocese of Sydney has started a low fee school system. Country Dioceses and Metropolitans Sees have begun new schools. The Diocese of Perth (Western Australia) has a number of new secondary schools integrated with the planting of new community-based churches and chaplaincy. Anglican Youthworks is committed to producing first-class Bible resources for independent, Christian and government classrooms, and Increasingly its submissions to government are impacting policy. One Australian Bishop commented, “A growing church must invest in children.” Sadly many churches spend more each year on the organ pipes than on their children.
Youthworks has invested heavily in Under Construction to resource churches with a contemporary children’s ministry tool right for today’s boys and girls. Under Construction moves from the old Sunday Classroom model to an innovative relational format with fun and has an integrated Bible curriculum. The All Age component makes worship relevant. 500 churches have used the product for just 4 weeks – a small outer suburban church reported “We love Under Construction. It is so good our kids love coming to church for the first time.”
Finally our Anglican Education Commission has commissioned a sample questionnaire to be included in the National Church Life Survey in Australia, the United Kingdom and USA in May 2001. This will provide qualitative and quantitative data with reference to faith development through life. What are the significant ministries? Who are the significant teachers and models? How can we better impact families with the good news of Jesus Christ handing on well from generation to generation, family to family?
Exciting times await a faithful church. But faithfulness demands we seize the intergenerational opportunity and invest right.
Recently an Australian publication lightheartedly looked at the still treasured words of advice given by mothers to their daughters. These ranged from “never trust a man with a moustache” to “blue and green should never be seen”. Though we sometimes shudder to hear it, we catch ourselves echoing our parents in dealing with our own children. Such is the power of the family. But over recent decades, confidence in the value of the family’s role in education has declined.
Although Australians are extremely cynical about governments and politicians, we look to legislation to protect us from ourselves. Whenever a problem arises, the community expects the Government and its “expert advisors” to solve it.
Nowhere is this more evident than in our education system. Over the years the traditional domains of the family have been surrendered to the schools. Schools have been called upon to educate against the evils of graffiti, binge drinking and unsafe sex. The teaching of “values” rather than traditional religious education is now being mooted as the answer to everything from the mugging of pensioners to the ramraiding of liquor stores. In all this the family’s role of primary educator has been undermined and undervalued.
However, change is in the wind. Recent research suggests that a stable family life is the strongest indicator for successful school performance. Further, the educational input of the home is perceived as far more crucial than the effect of the school and provides a significant domestic economy unrecognised by governments.
Of late, the literacy of boys and the related Attention Deficit Disorder Syndrome (ADDS) have been a cause of concern in Australian schools. Fathers, for so long the silent partner in the education of children, are being urged to read to their sons to model literacy. It has been suggested that the family rather than the school or clinical psychologist is the solution to the problem. Children whose parents read to them and who learn poems and songs off by heart are found to be less likely to have ADDS. This view runs counter to current educational practice that discounts the memorisation of text in favour of understanding concepts and problem solving.
Yet children are natural ritualists, as any parent who has tried to skip a sentence of a bedtime story will testify. They have a tremendous capacity for memorisation. If not utilised, the vacuum will be filled by content of dubious value. Anglicans, of all people, with their prayer book tradition should be wary of fashions that diminish the memorisation of Scripture, psalms, creeds and prayers. These have provided families with truths to live by and eternal hope.
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