For the benefit of those outside NSW - the O in OC stands for Opportunity. NSW state schools have had both OA and OC classes in the past, although I don't think this is what they are now called. The OA classes were for those with significant learning disabilities - now called Special Education, I think, and the OC classes were for those who are now identified as 'gifted and talented'.
I went to the OC class at Eastwood Primary School. At that stage, I used to attend Sunday School at the local (Epping) Presbyterian church on a spasmodic basis and it was soon after I left primary school that I refused to attend Sunday School any longer on the basis that church people were a mob of hypocrites - they said one thing and did something else. I returned to church late in my first year at uni after realising that most of my friends at school had been Christians, that I had gained something significant from my interaction with them and my attendance at youth activities at the local Brethren church with one of my best friends and that something was now missing from my life. I was fairly certain that I wasn't going to find it at a church that didn't let women speak, so I didn't try the Brethrens, but went back to the Presbyterians, where I became actively involved. I remained a Presbyterian for a number of years after Union (Epping Pres being somewhat different to the mainstream of continuing Presbyterianism - it had ordained women as assistant ministers and actively invited other ordained women to preach) but my experience of mainstream Presbyterianims soon had me looking for something different. I eventually found the Uniting Church with its social justice emphasis and have never really looked back. Judy -- "Politics is the work we do to keep the world safe for our spirituality" - Judith Plaskow Rev Judy Redman Uniting Church Chaplain University of New England Armidale 2351 ph: +61 2 6773 3739 fax: +61 2 6773 3749 web: http://www.une.edu.au/campus/chaplaincy/uniting/ email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Amelia > Koh-Butler > Sent: Wednesday, 20 October 2004 10:55 AM > To: 'insights' > Subject: Evolution or Formation - Nature or Nurture? > > > I can't resist... > (Although this is going to sound like a very late-night > contribution...) > > Does spiritual formation through an OC education result in > spiritual radicals on an insights list some 25-30-ish years > later? (i.e. we were supposedly trained to think outside the > cube or the sphere - are we evolving into a 4th dimension?) > > Research question: > Just how many OC-ers are out there? > Reunion Roll-call... > > - Clare (were you at Artarmon?) > - Greg > - Amelia (Chatswood) > - ? > > Further question: > How do you think your Upper Primary education has influenced > your spiritual formation? > > In my case, OC ed at Chatswood Primary (1975-1976) was in my > pre-christian days. At the time, my teacher was a > pre-christian Communist (I'm not sure how many times we > studied China and we had a Re-education strategy for > behaviour management). Interestingly, this teacher is now a > very active member of one of the congregations I visited > recently. Maybe our social justice conversations in the 70s > have EVOLVED into a later spiritual articulation? > > - Amelia > > > YW Amelia Koh-Butler > Associate Director ELM (Education for Mission) > Board of Education - NSW Synod > Uniting Church in Australia > 16 Masons Drive, North Parramatta NSW > > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ------------------------------------------------------ > - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] > - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in > the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) > See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm > ------------------------------------------------------ > ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/insights-l-information.htm ------------------------------------------------------
