SUGGESTED SYLLABUS PREPARED BY CHURCHES.

Chronicle (Levin), 15 May 1947, Page 7

SUGGESTED SYLLABUS PREPARED BY CHURCHES.

WELLINGTON, May 14. Whether Scripture'lessons shoiild be given- in seeoiidary'..: schools of tlus country, has again become. an issue tbjU is receiving attention m the last -two davs. The question has been diseusseu by the eonferences of.the N^w Zea/lana Technical Teachers ' Association anq New Zealand Secondary Sehools .Association. The technical teachers rejeeted a remit ' which. proposed that tiie Seripture should be taught as a core subject of thq/ curriculum. but the Secondary Association .decided that the individal views of ip members should be sought in the comuig. year as a basis for' a decision at its 'next conference. • - The -Natinnal Go^cjl of Churches m> New Zealand, y|hieh, eqnsists ,of repre-! sentatives of all' thel main- religions except Boman Catholic, has cpmpilfed an agreed syllabus for Post-'primary religious education wluch is being pdt oefofe the inte'rested partiefe for consideration. The preamble'toi "the syllabus states: ('There is ho r'easdn to believe that there is a large 'body tif opimoh m New jZealand 'defthitfely favourable -to an entirely secular 'system ' of --postprimary education'. 'The fact that praetically* all post-prini&ry- schools begin the day with school prayers and tnat where the Nelson systenr of religioue instruction operates'in "primary schools, r the number of children withdrawn from instruction is exceedmgly small, does not point in that.direction. On the coutrary, the present position seems to indicate that the. great majonty oi parents, no doubt for many reasons, aesire their children ttr receive some land of religious teaching in their school days." ; .,,.1.1 It was stated by the eouncil that a study of the Bible should have a place in the cirriculum for its literary value alone, a value that could not be overestimated. The council 's suggesteu syllabus fell into three main departments. f ' In the first year it would be taught the history of the Hdbrews from Abraham to the time of Ohrist, largely from the Old Testament. , . , In the second year the subject matter was the world into which Jesus Chiist was born, the life of Jesus Christ anu the early church. Suggested lessons from this included, for exampie, Christ 's baptism and temptation, the last supper and betrayal, the resuirec.tion, and the characteristies of the early church. The third and fourth year syllabus covered the development and influcnce of Christianity from. the first century to the present day. t/isted were sucn subjects as the first Christian churches, the great age of the wetsern churcn and papacy, the reformation in England and the Church of England, and the Qhureh and State and some modern con•fl'icts. Finally the syllabus allowed for one term's course on the origin and development of the Bible for either tne third or fourth year.