Comments on: Faith schools improve social cohesion. Discuss…

By: Claire W

Claire W — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:50:12 +0000

Sorry just one other thing..on the tax issue highlighted by Alan W..there are taxpayers in this country of all faiths Catholic, Muslim, Jewish many of whom work hard pay tax and their parents and grandparents too worked hard and paid tax to our state so why should our state not acknowledge their faith by providing schools for their kids? Your tax may well pay for that and theirs may have paid for your parents sugical procedure, your nans hip replacement, anti biotics for your infection or medicine when your kids have been sick..that is a pretty poor argument to say you don’t want your tax paying for it!!

By: Claire W

Claire W — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:07:16 +0000

To conclude what I am trying to say above..I don’t think the issue is should we have faith schools but more should society be looking at how we bring up our kids and what they are exposed too perhaps then all schools will have a higer proportiopn of well balanced and well behaved kids who achieve well then people like me won’t need to feel they have to find a faith school to allow our kids a childhood.. schools aren’t failing most are excellent regardless of faith nor is the Governments policy on education it is society and parenting that is failing our kids.

By: Claire W

Claire W — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 10:42:33 +0000

I have to agree with Claire Spencer above, I was educated at a Normal Comprehensive and my son now attends a Catholic Primary School after a huge bullying problem at his last School which incidentally was C OF E.I have mildly christian beliefs but am not fanatical about it…I have found the Catholic Primary School to be amazing and they actively promote tolerance of all faiths, the mix is appx 60% Catholic, 40% other or no faith. The parents and Children were all very welcoming and the standards of discipline are good. My opinion is that it could be because of the strong moral ethic of the school and the families that send their children there, that is not to say that parents at other schools have no morals but in my experience many of them seemed to want to be their childrens ‘mate’ rather than a parent and that I think is where we get issues with disipline and children being exposed to highly adult media which is damaging and slowly erroding kids childhoods..I will now send all of my children to the Catolic Primary and Secondary School if I am able not because I feel part of an elite ( I certianly don’t come from a rich background!!) but because they have a clear narrative and the families that attend think along the same lines as me, and why should I not have that choice? I personally don’t want to be my childrens ‘mate’ I want to be their mother and find the only school that has a higher concerntration of like minded parents to be the Catholic Scool my son now attends. Children are slowley being exposed to more and more adult material and people are becoming less and less shockable things that 20 years ago would have been unacceptable now seem to be normal and our children have nothing to compare these things to as it is what they have been exposed to since birth by society, it is normal to them to dress like Katie Price at 8 years old! I believe if I can keep my kids protected from these things a bit longer by sending them to a Faith Scool to mix with families that think along the same lines as me then I should have that choice. The local secondary comps are by no means bad schools in fact one is rated outstanding by Ofsted and I went to it myself but I feel the Catholic School offers the ethos I want to instil in my kids and all parents should have that choice no matter what their religion, to me it isn’t about the standard of education but the ethos of the school and the happiness of my kids, my son fits in better at these schools as the other kids are like him. He was bullied at his last school for not wanting to join in when other kids were being naughty and for not wanting to swear as he being a ‘decent’ kid although by no means an angel seemed to be in the minority! In his new school it is the norm to behave well and respect others..

By: Alan W

Alan W — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:48:21 +0000

Iftikhar,

I don’t doubt bilingualism can be a good thing, but since when has “Muslim” been a language?

The issues arising from teaching children whose primary language is not English, do not in anyway make the case for more faith schools. While it may make sense to recruit teachers in areas with sizeable ethnic communities, who are able to speak their language, there is no reason why those teachers should also have to be of the same religion.

Neither religion and language, nor religion and culture, can be treated as synonymous. Languages can, and should be, taught in every school in the country. Their value is not controversial. By contrast, the value of the various contradictory and mutually exclusive religions of the world, is obvious only to their adherents.

While I am prepared to concede (without enthusiasm) the right of parents to impart their beliefs to their children, I think it is a damn cheek to expect taxpayers of other faiths and none to help facilitate this indoctrination.

By: Iftikhar

Iftikhar — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:50:39 +0000

The miracle of human variety is in danger of disappearing, if all of us speak alike, dress alike, eat the same food, read the same fiction and enjoy the same music. It would be a great loss to our colourful planet. Public sector needs a multilingual work force. Teachers and police officers can help with race relations in the classroom and in the community. Public sector is seeking multilingual recruits to serve multicultural Britain. The ability to speak languages from Arabic to Urdu is considered to be an asset. Linguistic skills, in addition to the usual entry criteria, will boost the number of recruits in teaching, police, medicine, nursing and the civil service. Bilingual teachers, police officers, doctors and nurses are in a better position to serve the bilingual Muslim community. The language system has been used successfully in the United States. Mary Doherty at TTA, points out those bilingual teachers can be particularly welcome in state schools for bilingual pupils. Various studies show that bilingualism increases overall intelligence. Monolingualism leads to isolationist and inward thinking.

Exposure to different languages and cultures can increase tolerance. Language learning in childhood lays the foundations for developing real fluency in that language. Every child should have the opportunity to study a foreign language and develop their interest in the culture of other nations. Languages can be seen as an important way of putting more fun into primary learning and of broadening the children experience. Learning a second language boosts your intellectual powers by physically increasing the number of nerve cells in the language centres of the brain. A study at University College London shows that the brains of bilingual people are structurally enhanced compared to the brains of people who can only speak one language. The effect is even more marked in people who learnt a second language before they were five. Speaking a second language is like having access to another world. No other subject expands mental horizons in the same way. In an ordinary inner city school in England, nearly 100 languages are spoken, yet still essentially this is still a monolingual nation. London is the most multicultural city in the world with over 300 languages spoken everyday.

Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual teachers as role models during their developmental periods. All state schools where Muslim pupils are the majority should be designated as Muslim community schools. They are in a better position to provide balanced education by teaching the National Curriculum along with Arabic, Islamic studies, Urdu and other community languages. An Islamic atmosphere will help to develop Islamic Identity crucial for mental, emotional and personality development.
Iftikhar Ahmad

By: Zimteachnet

Zimteachnet — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:35:21 +0000

Faith schools improve social cohesion. Discuss… | Left Foot Forward: Faith schools, by & large, work. They are p… http://bit.ly/dlExZ5

By: Max

Max — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:03:55 +0000

Sadly Jeuan David, with a Tory government round the corner, initiatives like ‘Faith in the System’, more faith-based academies and an established church determined to reclaim what they think is theirs it is only going to get a lot lot worse and I really fear for the future of the secularist who wants to work in education over the next few years. I work in a church school and I want out. Sick of hearing about how good they think the school is when it’s nothing of the sort.

By: Jeuan David

Jeuan David — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:24:09 +0000

I think we need a distinct campaign for non-religious schools without that ridiculous requirement to have ‘collective worship’.

By: Max

Max — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:04:34 +0000

Totally sick of being told that opponents of faith schools have lost the argument. Such arrogance has to be opposed. Ok so will the Tories let atheists have their schools? No. Will the Tories do something about the discrimination against non-religious educators? No. Will they have anything to say about the faith schools that are languishing near the bottom of various league tables? Will they have anything to say on the consequences of segregating children according to their parents’ world view? Pathetic, absolutely pathetic.

By: Claire Spencer

Claire Spencer — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:36:52 +0000

My entire pre-University education was provided by Catholic schools in Bath and Bristol. Not everyone at the school was Catholic (students or teachers)- but you had to have Mass, prayers during Assembly and you had to study GCSE RE and Certificate of Theology at A-Level. Other than that, I had nothing of Colm’s experience of Catholic school – we were taught respect for other faiths (and non-faiths), and I received an excellent education. However, this doesn’t invalidate Colm’s experience – it really depends on the school. Drawing such lines between people shouldn’t be part of education. But would my school have been as good were it just an ordinary comprehensive? I just don’t know.

Of course, if our state system was truly comprehensive, we wouldn’t need faith schools.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-from-north-carolina-a-model-of-how-to-transform-education-1803563.html