It is extremely heartening to hear that the National Union of Teachers is considering calling for faith schools to be abolished and integrated within a secular state education system, in a motion to be debated at the union's annual conference. As supporters of the motion state, faith schools undermine community relations by segregating children in accordance with their parents' religious beliefs. They also indoctrinate children in those beliefs and some at least teach such nonsense as creationism and 'intelligent design' as credible alternatives to evolution and other scientific theories. The time has come for a secular state to have a secular education system.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Secular education for all
It is extremely heartening to hear that the National Union of Teachers is considering calling for faith schools to be abolished and integrated within a secular state education system, in a motion to be debated at the union's annual conference. As supporters of the motion state, faith schools undermine community relations by segregating children in accordance with their parents' religious beliefs. They also indoctrinate children in those beliefs and some at least teach such nonsense as creationism and 'intelligent design' as credible alternatives to evolution and other scientific theories. The time has come for a secular state to have a secular education system.
2 comments:
Thank you for taking the time to comment on this post. Constructive comments are always welcome, even if they do not coincide with my views! Please note, however, that comments will be removed or not published if I consider that:
* They are not relevant to the subject of this post; or
* They are (or are possibly) defamatory; or
* They breach court reporting rules; or
* They contain derogatory, abusive or threatening language; or
* They contain 'spam' advertisements (including links to any commercial websites).
Please also note that I am unable to give advice.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteI am happy to agree to differ (you a convinced and considered atheist, me a convinced and considered Christian).
But I am not happy about the totalitarian mindset that is sometimes displayed on all sides of the debate (i.e. one person telling another what he/she should be allowed to believe or to teach the children, or trying to coerce certain behaviour by threats, legislation or rhetoric).
In my view, atheist fundamentalism is no more justified than any other form of religious fundamentalism.
I'm afraid, Victor, you have fallen into a trap: there is no such thing as 'atheist fundamentalism' (see here)- it has simply been invented by theists as a derogatory term for atheists who are prepared to openly criticise religion.
ReplyDelete