QUEENSLAND Premier Anna Bligh says she would like to see more schools take their students to racecourses to teach them about the mathematics of gambling, despite a Brisbane school being criticised for doing so.
Girls from Ashgrove`s Mount St Michael`s College were taken on a half-day excursion to Doomben racecourse and given fake money with which to bet.
The school`s principal Alison Terry today said the trip taught students the concepts of probability, risk and return in a real-life setting.
"Our students are left in no doubt, prior to the excursion, on the day itself and the debriefing following, of the potentially negative impact of gambling and the devastating effect this can have on individuals and families," she said in a statement.
But the lesson has drawn criticism from some, who say the vice should not be used to teach children maths skills when there are other ways.
"Obviously, there`s different options and different ways of doing a maths lesson and one may question why you would need to go to a race track and involve gambling to teach maths," Australian Family Association state secretary Michael Ord said.
"Is that the most useful and beneficial way and what are the alternatives?"
He said he hoped the students had realised the dangers of betting.
Ms Bligh said the school had acted responsibly in teaching its students that gambling rarely paid off. She also supported state schools adopting such a lesson.
"Absolutely, if they were done in the same conditions," she said.
"A fully-supervised environment that parents are aware of is not something that I think people need to be worried about.
"What this program did was introduce young students to the dangers of gambling, by demonstrating mathematical probability and the real world facts that gamblers rarely win."
