National School Chaplaincy Program Consultation Questionnaire – Fill It In!
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
An example of an answer from the AFA forums:
http://www.atheistfoundation.org.au/forums/showpost.php?p=172667&postcount=3
Oh.
Wow.
Done
As discussed on Andy’s Thinking is Real blog, the framing of the questions presupposes that all respondents are in favour of the program, and that its continuation is a forgone conclusion.
Certainly it is important to voice our opinions about this absurd, unconstitutional and dangerous attempt at establishment of religion in schools (the expression “Proselytising by Stealth” seems appropriate).
My approach was to complete only the last question (“Other Comments”) in which I slammed the program, called for it to be scrapped, and in its place, the appointment of properly trained counsellors or social workers to all schools.
Having done this, several members of my family (including my mother, a retired teacher/department head) are now preparing strongly worded letters to our local members, the PM (Gillard) and relevant Minister (Garrett) on the matter. Writing to politicians remains an effective strategy for informing governments of your views, and in this case will likely be taken much more seriously than the survey. In addition, I would urge everyone else who feels strongly about this issue to do likewise and write to the ‘pollies’ about it.
I did mine. Modeled my answers after the sample provided above, with changed words and snarkiness in different places.
My answer to question 12:
Based on this questionnaire, it seems like it might be innovative to your department that you follow the constitution, and remove any religious tests for qualification of youth workers.
Well done! I do think the less ‘snark’ the better – the fact that they’re looking for feedback is a good indication that they want people to be genuine and helpful about the system and of course, the fact that it existed in the first place is an indication that they are tending towards it staying as it is with chaplains – but it’s not as if having consistent voices saying ‘this needs to be more! It can do better than what it does and should aim to fill a genuine need!’ is a bad thing. I so hope that the whole thing is overhauled for the better in some way or another.
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