The decision of the Australian branch of the World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP), which acts for the (State) Government of Victoria, Australia, to accredit tuition in government schools by the non-Christian religions, prompted the Humanist Society of Victoria to prepare an ethics lesson plan for assessment. If approved, the lessons will begin in 2009. The permission would be conditional on the volunteer teachers refraining from proselytising and also obtaining a Working with Children Check provided by the Justice Department.

The course manual, Applied Ethical Education – Humanism for Schools, contains instructions to the volunteer teachers to follow the practice of one of its prime sources, Philosophy for Young Children – a Classroom Handbook, by Philip Cam, Liz Fynes-Clinton, Kathlyn Harrison, Lynne Hinton, Rosie Scholl and Simon Vaseo (Australian Curriculum Studies Association Inc., Canberra, 2007). Teachers are to refrain from imparting their own views (such as atheism), but to lay open all the options in any particular scenario, so that the children can discuss them and make up their own minds in the best Humanist fashion.

For young children, who are not yet accustomed to discussions, the ‘traffic lights’ system is used. Each child has a set of three discs coloured green (to agree), red (to disagree) and yellow (don’t know, don’t care), respectively. After displaying their chosen disc in answer to a question, children as young as four can give a cogent four-year-old reason. (Boys particularly love the yellow discs and after using them a few times become as cooperative as can be.)

All the lessons are participatory and hopefully fun. The compiler, Harry Gardner, has worked as a professional science entertainer in kindergartens and schools for fifteen years.

The controversial word ‘G-d’ does not appear at all in the manual, and ‘gods’ appears only twice, namely, in a play based on Plato’s dialogue between Protagoras and Socrates.

The Victorian Education Act 1872 prescribed free secular primary education for all children during regular school hours, which comprised two hours before and after lunch. When school had finished for the day, religious instruction, conducted by volunteers, was permitted on the premises. However, seventy-eight years of patient campaigning by Christian organisations saw the delivery of the religious instruction during school hours legalised in 1950. Objecting parents could exempt their children, but then the class time was typically wasted and the children were made to feel different to their schoolmates.

The Humanist Society of Victoria (HSV) was formed in 1961 and in 1973 made a vigorous submission to the Education Department (a) that regular teachers should be allowed to teach ethics and comparative religion, and (b) that religious instruction should be repealed. In 2006, thirty-three years later, permission was indeed granted to the regular, professional teachers to teach the former as general religious education, but special religious instruction by non-teacher volunteers was allowed to continue. Moreover, the teaching of religion in government schools was reinforced by the (Federal) Australian Government, which subsidised the appointment of chaplains to the schools. Hence government schools now look very similar to normal private church schools, albeit not as well set up as the more wealthy private schools.

Recognising that repeal of special religious instruction is practically impossible, but that about thirty percent of the population now declines to give a religious affiliation to the national census, in mid-2008 HSV applied for accreditation to deliver lessons of practical morality, under the provisions of special religious instruction, to the children of parents who request them. This has (surprisingly) been accepted, under the reasonable conditions, above, plus that our performance be supervised by a three-person panel of the WCRP, to which we were invited to make a nomination. It will be the first time that an alternative will be available for children who are not interested in religion. (We, ourselves, are acutely conscious of the possibility of playground conflicts, but envisage that with goodwill a comradely relationship can be initiated between our instructors and the volunteer religious instructors.)

A comprehensive description of Humanism, largely modelled on the IHEU description, is provided in the manual itself. Harry’s own personal definition runs along the lines, (a) that human experience is the measure of all things (Protagoras, 490–420 BCE), (b) that there is an equality of dignity in all people (our HSV member, Brian Ellis, 2006), and (c) that the honesty ethic of science (that is, not fudging results) is basic. And for relaxation, Epicurus (341–270 BCE) helps: “Friendship goes dancing around the world and alerts us to praises of happiness”.

Harry Gardner