I teach my Sunday school from The Joyful Path curriculum, so I'd thought I'd chime in:
It uses many different folktales, stories, religious stories from different traditions, stories of real life people and bible stories. It includes bible verses in the teacher section (each lesson also includes things for the teacher to consider and try to prepare for the lesson) which I occasionally share with the class, though we've gone through classes where we don't really talk about God or Jesus at all. We're nearing the end of the year 2 book, and I don't think there's a single lesson I've taught that didn't have something valuable and wonderful in it that children need to be taught. The overall lesson is to be a thoughtful, loving person and to find value in all things (if I had to mash it into one sentence).
It's light on the bible stories, even on the Gospel stories. I worry that the children I'm teaching, while learning lots of things about being responsible, loving people with open minds, aren't learning a whole lot about what being 'christian' might actually mean to them, or how to 'handle' the bible and it's contradictions (which is really more appropriate to a youth class, anyway, but we don't have one at my church). But the bible based curriculum I was using before did even worse at that than this one.
And to answer the official curriculum:
1. I attend church anyway, but if I didn't I would want to be in charge of the message my kid was getting to exposed to about Christianity, and wouldn't go to church for the sole purpose of them getting a religious education. Though if they wanted to attend sunday school (as a kid I loved sunday school and would cry if we didn't go to chruch) I'd take them. But only if I knew that none of my basic ideals were being contradicted, and I'd be sure to keep discussions open at home so I could guide their learning.
2. This is a teacher's perspective, but I really prefer when the curriculum opens up discussion and gets kids asking questions. That it's not so caught up in teaching bible stories that it forgets that it should be teaching spiritual truths and tools for living life in a meaningful and respectful way. That it makes sense (I realised our last curriculum wasn't doing this when a kid asked me 'why are we making kites?' (the story was lazarus) and my answer was 'I actually have no idea').
3. Yes. A curriculum that gives kids many 'tools' for nurturing their spirituality is a good one in my books. I don't expect all my students will go away and make meditation a part of their lives, but knowing what it is and why it can be useful is something that could help them when they enter the adult world.
