I think Great Britain should follow the lead of both France and USA and not allow religious involvement by any faith in any school. Education should be completely secular.
Secular education is vital as far as I am concerned. I was subjected to great pressure as a student to take an 'act of worship' . The fact that it was at an infant school upset me even more. I refused to do it but got red carded as a result. I was very happy to teach children about religions and religious beliefs but there should be no place for indoctrination of any kind in any school in the UK.
The problem is with certain Islamic influenced schools. Faith schools have been around for a long, long time. My children go to faith schools - I wish I had been to one myself instead of the dire secular school I was sent to.
"THE" problem? I think there is more than one problem associated with Faith Schools. Islamic fundamentalism may be an urgent and obvious one, but the idea that religious "faith" has a role to play in the education of the young at all is another. It is such an irrational set of beliefs it seems ridiculous to trust any religious body to impart learning.
channel 4 news tonite re the "Birmingham schools issue" a group of parents and a local Cllr in one of the schools giving it large re "their is no problem in their school" was asked " why did you spend £47,000 sending pupils to Saudi Arabia ?"
smug parent " why not 99% of the pupils are Muslim?"
Channel 4 " this isnt a Faith School your curriculum should be secular "
The idea all schools should be "secular" is a nonsense. It suggests that secularism is something neutral.it is not .it is an ideology in itself with a world view.
The idea all schools should be "secular" is a nonsense. It suggests that secularism is something neutral.it is not .it is an ideology in itself with a world view.
Unclear why it is a nonsense. Faith scbools impart a ridiculous set of beliefs which often are at odds with the laws of the land - why should the state fund them?
A while ago I worked at Golden Hillocks school in Birmingham it is one of the schools currently under scrutiny, it has an attendance of about 90% muslim children. I visited for a week as a visiting artist making a dance performance with disabled and able-bodied children. I had a great and creative time. I found it a really positive experience working with a very mixed class, boys and girls of mixed abilities.The performance involved a lot of physical contact between the children and this was accepted as part of the project. The teachers seemed to have an excellent balance of friendliness with the kids whilst having really good discipline.The children focussed really well and had a good balance between enjoying themselves and working hard to create a good show. I came away quite inspired, it had a much better atmosphere then a lot of mainstream schools I work in.
I think this verges on racism but shows more ignorance maybe. I went to a christian faith school (funded by the C.E) and am so glad I did because when I looked at the secular schools in my area now, I see that there is no discipline and lots of the children cant see the difference between right and wrong. At my old school they used to think I was autistic and I was given a very hard time over it. Once, in front of other parents my mum was told I would "never pass the 11+ in a million years" by my teacher at the time (I did it in one year!) . None the less Im so thankful I went to one because it taught discipline unlike my very secular grammar school now does. It more teaches (indirectly) that as long as you arnt caught doing something wrong, get good grades and go to a top university then make lots of money then you've been a success. By the end of my primary school, I got the top grade in all 3 subjects we were tested on and that was due to the quality of teaching I was lucky enough to have in a non racist open environment.
Just another thing, please clear your minds out of any ideas of Faith schools (christian ones at least) of forcing children to be religeous. I heard a bloke saying on the radio there were schools where children were hit with a cane if they werent carrying a bible on them at all times! He was taken very seriously as well and thats the bollocks that poisons and distorts peoples views of these faith schools that have given so much to scociety.
Edit:
For those who seem to think religion is founded on an "irrational set of beliefs" perhaps in some cases you are right. However I would say this; 4 of my current science teachers are christian and if you look at that world of science, there are so many in top positions who are of faith. One example is Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project or another being John Charlton Polkinghorne (yes I know, "Charlton" is in his name!), KBE, FRS who is a well known theoretical physicist at Cambridge.
Comments
smug parent " why not 99% of the pupils are Muslim?"
Channel 4 " this isnt a Faith School your curriculum should be secular "
local Cllr and parents have no answer
Just another thing, please clear your minds out of any ideas of Faith schools (christian ones at least) of forcing children to be religeous. I heard a bloke saying on the radio there were schools where children were hit with a cane if they werent carrying a bible on them at all times! He was taken very seriously as well and thats the bollocks that poisons and distorts peoples views of these faith schools that have given so much to scociety.
Edit:
For those who seem to think religion is founded on an "irrational set of beliefs" perhaps in some cases you are right. However I would say this; 4 of my current science teachers are christian and if you look at that world of science, there are so many in top positions who are of faith. One example is Francis Collins, Director of the Human Genome Project or another being John Charlton Polkinghorne (yes I know, "Charlton" is in his name!), KBE, FRS who is a well known theoretical physicist at Cambridge.