A BRISBANE Catholic girls’ college principal has defended the practice of allowing mathematics students to spend an afternoon at the races as part of their course.
Criticism was raised in the Brisbane media after Mt St Michael’s College maths teacher Jim Dooley took the 16 and 17-year-old girls to a race meeting at Doomben on August 6 with each student given an imaginary $50 to spend over four hours.
Principal of the Ashgrove college Alison Terrey said the half-day excursion to the racecourse was conducted in the context of their studies on “Managing financial risk“, in which the students examined concepts such as probability, risk and return in a real life setting.
Ms Terrey said this was part of the Queensland Mathematics Study Area Specification (SAS) syllabus.
She said such excursions had been run at the school for the past four years with enthusiastic support from parents.
A spokesperson for Brisbane archdiocese told The Catholic Leader that the Catechism of the Catholic Church (#2413) indicated that games of chance such as wagering on horse racing “are not in themselves contrary to justice”.
“Education as to the difficulties of gaining a return in gambling is one method of working against such addictions,” the spokesperson added.
And State Premier Anna Bligh was quoted in the media saying she would endorse state school children also having maths lessons at the racetrack to teach them about the dangers of gambling.
However, Australian Family Association state president Mark Holzworth was reported as saying “there is no way we (the association) can endorse this method of alternate learning”.
Ms Terrey said “no actual gambling took place” as part of the excursion.
“Our students were left in no doubt, prior to the excursion, on the day itself and in the debriefing following, of the potentially negative impact of gambling and the devastating effect this can have on individuals and families,” she said.
“Permission was gained from parents for this excursion and feedback from parents was very positive.”
