I was raised in a militant atheistic-socialist family, but when I was at secondary school the headmaster spoke of Jesus one day at assembly. He said “Jesus was just a man, but a great moral teacher …”. I found out several years later that Jesus is the Son of God, and also a great moral teacher. But by then I had nearly destroyed myself with drugs: fortunately Jesus is also a great restorer too so I have been completely healed.

While I appreciate the article, as a public school teacher I disagree with the comment (albeit from a different country)

“Nor can we expect teachers on the State payroll—persons deriving both their income and ultimate authority from the State—to present Christian alternatives which presuppose both the existence and the legitimacy of an authority greater than that of the State. To do so would be to undermine their own credibility.”

In fact, there are many Christian teachers I work with and know personally, and I can tell you for certain that they work to teach the truth about such topics as origins. Furthermore, I can also guarantee you that I teach them personally to think for themselves, and not mindlessly “buy” what I, the textbooks, or any other teacher are “selling”. Public school is not a mindless moral vacuum because there are many Christian teachers who “stand in the gap”.

Since the curriculum in New Zealand Primary Schools must adhere to the ‘secular education’ which the Human Rights Bill prescribes, teachers in New Zealand are not free to present what are termed “religious statements of faith”. In my experience there was an unwritten rule among the staff to keep your Biblically-based belief system out of the classroom … but if you held a belief system based on evolutionary ideas that was quite OK to talk about, and it was also encouraged by educational authorities.

However, as a teacher, it is useful and permissible to talk about origins and worldviews of various ethnic groups, so if you delve into the cultural heritage of Maori and Polynesian peoples this material is classed as a legitimate part of a ‘secular education’ … Therefore I encourage teachers to use the inexpensive little book Io Origins: Ancient Knowledge of the Living God in Aotearoa, which is available through CMI’s bookshop. This book shows that the God of Creation was known by many people groups of the past, and truth about Him has been encapsulated in oral histories over hundreds of centuries. It is our job to ensure that the current generation learns of the alternative view about origins, and can make up their own minds based on the evidence.