Children at Goulburn East Public School will have plenty to ponder with ethics classes starting next term.
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The program has been running at Goulburn West Public School since 2016 by Primary Ethics and community volunteers. Primary Ethics provides the opportunity for NSW public primary school students who don't attend scripture classes to participate in philosophical ethics classes.
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New volunteer Leanne McCullen will teach the class at Goulburn East next school term. She will be joined by Spencer Treacey who previously taught the subject at Goulburn West.
Ms McCullen said she discovered early on that the role of an ethics teacher was not only to facilitate discussion, but to invoke curiosity in little ones.
"Like the old saying goes 'it takes a village to raise a child' and I thought what better way to be a part of it than by helping our school," she said.
"If I can be a small part of building children's own ethical decision-making process it will be worth it."
In the classes the children are taught how to constructively puzzle over important questions and debates.
The ethics program is in need of volunteers. Currently, there are two volunteers at Goulburn East but the school is in need of more with a number of kids on a wait list. Very little preparation is involved for volunteers with fully scripted lesson plans. No teaching experience is required with people from all walks of life welcome. Classes are small to enable every child to take part in discussion.
There are currently about 40,000 NSW children attending weekly ethics classes in 500 schools across the state. Around 2500 volunteers help deliver the program.
Interested volunteers can contact Primary Ethics on 8068 7752, or head to the website primaryethics.com.au.
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