The Australian Government's values education framework — most recently expressed in the Melbourne Declaration — identifies qualities like mutual respect, excellence, and responsibility as core educational aims. These are broadly shared values drawn from democratic and humanist traditions. They are not explicitly religious, although many have roots in the Christian tradition that shaped Australian society.
What Is 'Values Education' in Australian Schools?
Where Christian Values Differ
The key difference is grounding. Secular values education often treats values as self-evidently correct: of course we should be kind, of course we should respect others. Christian values education asks: why are these things true, and what stops us from living them? The Christian answer — that human beings are made in God's image and therefore have inherent dignity, but are also fallen and therefore need grace — provides both the foundation for the values and an honest account of why we struggle to live them.
Virtues, Not Just Values
Christianity's contribution to moral education is not just a list of values but a vision of virtue — the idea that moral character is shaped through practice, community, and formation over time. This is why SRE matters: it is not trying to transmit information about what is right, but to form children who love what is good. That requires story, repetition, relationship, and time — all of which SRE provides, in small doses, across many years.
