Civics should be a class act

This article was published in The Australian 18 December 2009

Imagine this. In a public school classroom of 10-year-olds, the teacher at the front asks her students, "What are your values? What does it mean to be a good person?" The students take out their workbooks, scribble down their thoughts, then begin discussing their answers. Welcome to year five ethics.

One of the last things Nathan Rees did as NSW premier was to announce there would be ethics classes for state primary school students as an alternative to scripture classes. A pilot project has been devised by the St James Ethics Centre in Sydney and backed by the NSW Federation of P&C Associations. Students in years five and six at 10 trial schools will be given instruction in ethics.

Proponents of the pilot argue that present education policy in NSW is socially unjust.