Chaplains in High Schools….a new era?
Published by Matt Glover June 13th, 2006 in Articles of InterestFULL-TIME chaplains would be installed in government schools to lift religious standards and provide mentoring for students under a plan backed by the federal Education Minister.
Four prominent Liberal MPs are behind the proposal, seen by the Prime Minister and to be discussed in a meeting of Coalition MPs on Tuesday.
Education Minister Julie Bishop strongly supports the idea, but the Victorian Education Union has described it as “sickening”.
This article appeared in the AGE nespaper on June 11th. I was completely gob-smacked when I read this. While I new individiual schools were all for chaplains, I thought the topic was “too hot to touch” on the federal level.
I think it is a good idea, in fact a vital idea for the welfare of our students - Christian or otherwise. Here’s hoping they pull it off!
Read the whole article here.
10 Responses to “Chaplains in High Schools….a new era?”
- 1 Pingback on Jun 25th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Why would it be a good idea?
Take this for what it is - my opinion and nothing else….
But our teachers are so flat out with all the responsibilities that are placed on them, they are left with little time for real student welfare stuff. They’re generally not equipped to do it properly anyway.
With a chaplain as part of the team, the welfare of the students is their primary concern. The best chaplains operate outside of religious boundaries and work to see all students have a quality of life that they deserve.
I think that’s a good idea.
The notion that a chaplain is there to make mass converts is just ridiculous. If anything, it is simply one part of the chuch serving the community in a real, tangible way.
Take your point re the demands on teachers, and also the need “for real student welfare stuff”.But still why chaplains?Why not additional welfare staff and I’m not just talking about the professional social welfare worker. I was listening to the radio this morning about some of the self help groups related to female abuse.The people who are involved are all people who have been thru it.Why not recruiting people from the around the area who know what the world is all about.The other issue,and while you dont mention it, do they have to be Christian chaplains?If they are to be concerned with kids welfare,why not muslim or jewish chaplains.
Its interesting in the armed forces while chaplains talk about most of their time being spent on soldiers welfare,and therefore one assumes that a muslim or jewish chaplain could do the job,the churches chaplaincy service have worked hard to protect their privileges ($100,000 +0) and keep muslim chaplains out.
I’m interested to read your comment about “Why not recruiting people from the around the area who know what the world is all about.” - I think a local pastor/chaplain would have a very good idea about what the world and the locality are all about.
It can be rough on teachers- lots of students, academic pressures, tonnes of marking, discipline to maintain- the list goes on. If someone can help take some of the load off, then good on them!
Christians have stuck their hands up and are willing to work in their communities, helping everyone, not just those of their own faith/denomination. I’m not saying that other chaplains/welfare workers would not do this, but traditionally Christians have stood up and said “I’ll do it.”
In all honesty, we’d have to be lying if we said that conversion wasn’t up there on the “nice to do” list. Christians believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven, everyone else is wrong, and we need to show them how to reciprocate God’s love. But ramming bibles down people’s throats? No, I don’t think the chaplains go out with that in mind. Caring for the community is the goal, with the added bonus of being able to show God’s love.
I hope this goes through, too, Matt.
speaking as someone who was a high school chaplain in a public school system in SA i think a part of the fear re chaplains in pulic schools, as well as part of the government’s premice is misplaced.
the article refers to parents “looking for choice in the education and values taught to their children”
while this may be the case the role of the chaplain in public schools in SA at least is not to be the moral guide or ethical person on campus. my role was to be a person that was there to support students by listening, encouraging, being someone outside of the education system… sure faith sharing was there, but wasn’t a huge part of what i did at all, i did more playing football, soccer, sitting in detentionvisiting on work experience, eating lunch with students….
but in this case while some schools helped to fund the position the most part of the positions cost… mind you, we mostly worked for $5 a year
There’s not really a current way that i personally would feel comfortable talking with anyone (teachers, etc.) in the school. Most problems are life-based, and there’s no real personal connection with most teachers. Sure, talking about problems keeping up with maths, or not understanding a unit of work is easy to hang around after class for, but not much more. We don’t really have a way that we can talk to welfare/psychologists without having to embarrasingly ask someone for help.
A great idea would be a way that we could anonymously chat… not really possible via email, because it’s too easy to recognise an address, and most people have a profile.
Most kids don’t really feel comfortable calling kids help line etc. unless they’re really desperate for help, and don’t know anyone that can help them. I feel that most small problems in life aren’t really worth finding coins and heading off to a pay-phone to avoid the number turning up in the phone bill.
(commenting on stuff from above) I feel that the community generally feels weird about christian involvement a lot; they can’t relate to us, and feel that we talk to some imaginary, all powerful being. Most people see Jewish people as even more devout/strict than chritians, and the main trait of Muslim culture that we are bombarded with by the media generally ends up with someone blowing themselves up to achieve life after death. Generally speaking, we’re supposed to be a ‘Christian’ country, which makes it no more acceptable than other religions, but makes it the norm.
I think i’ve had enough:P i should really try to keep away from the political side.
(accidentally signed, lol)
I guess the attraction of chaplains for schools is that the community shares the cost of their hire. Social Welfare staff have to be funded entirley from the school budget, while only a third of the chaplains pay comes from the school accounts. The rest comes from the local churches and fundraising by a chaplaincy committee.
The position is one of service, and while prompted by faith, it is designed to help all students (and teachers and families for that matter) regardless of race/religion/etc.
The school chaplain I mentioned before is a Christian, but was instrumental in helpng the muslim students in her school form a prayer and support group during some of the more difficult periods for muslim students in recent times. This is proper student welfare in my books.
As for Jewish chaplains, Muslim chaplains and the like, I don’t see any reason why not. But the outcry it would cause is why I thought the government wouldn’t go near the chaplaincy issue in the first place. AS far as I can tell, there’s no good argument for keeping a Jewish chaplain out if you’re going to let a Christian one in.
What do you think?
$5 a year, eh?
Makes a youth pastor’s pay look good!
yeah, well…
ok, i was given a year’s gift of $1000 for about 12 hours a week.