From: (Anonymous)	Date: March 17th, 2004 02:24 pm (UTC)		(Link)
Faith based schools in Uk

I am sure that many people in Britain are unaware of the situation in the central belt of Scotland with regard to faith based schools.
Most people know that we have separate publicly funded schooling for Roman Catholics. I have worked in such establishments for 20 years as a head of a subject department. I am of no particular religious persuasion which means in effect that my career prospects in this sector are at an end. I cannot apply for promotion without a reference from a parish priest.
You may also be aware that with the recent amalgamation of
non-denominational and state schools recently there has been an outcry from within the Catholic community for separate entrances for pupils. I am ashamed to be living in such a backward and narrow-minded community.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: April 11th, 2006 09:50 pm (UTC)		(Link)
Re: Faith based schools in Uk

Unfortunately you have unwittingly, only highlighted the problem of non-faith based schools. What in effect you are saying is that if you are an ideological (let's say 'New Labour') teacher, then by following their 'beliefs', you do have a chance of promotion. In fact, I cannot believe that you are not already aware that many non-New Labour believers, also have no chance of promotion within the Public Sector. Did you also know that recently, the liberal non-faith EU, vetoed a Roman Catholic as an EU commissioner, thereby ensuring for perpetuity, that Roman Catholics will never be able to hold such a position. Finally, and most important, if the alternative to non-faith schools is unacceptable, after all, there are many people who find the non-faith acceptance of abortion on demand totally abhorrent, why should they join such 'enlightened' forward looking people in the non-faith sector. Don't confuse faith and ideology, they are both beliefs, the significant difference is that it was ideology that is responsible for in excess of 100,000,000 deaths in Stalinist Russia and Maoist China, not faith schools. Most prejudices today are in fact, not prejudices, but differences of opinion/belief. It is only the advent of the New Labour apparatchik that has used these to create endless divisions in a once largely tolerant society. I await with trepidation the knock on the door at 3.00 in the morning?

From: (Anonymous)	Date: November 11th, 2006 09:50 pm (UTC)		(Link)
Re: Faith based schools in Uk

1) These schools are publicy funded - by Catholics. I don't complain about the 80% of the taxes I pay that go towards education being used to fund the uninspired education of non-catholics, so what is the problem?
2) Why do you not apply for a post in a non-Catholic school, given that you place more importance on your own promotion than the school's community ethos?
3) The LEA's made an issue of Catholic Faith iconography, insisting that the schools' entrances should be bare of any markers of the childrens'catholic identity, on the grounds that this would be 'offensive' to non-Catholics. So the catholic schools opted for seperate entrances. I am a teacher, and I too am ashamed. How dare you call your community backward and narrow minded? How can you dare to look your students in the face?

	From: vexen	Date: January 3rd, 2007 10:47 pm (UTC)		(Link)

http://vexen.livejournal.com/304316.html is another discussion of this issue.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: January 24th, 2007 04:31 pm (UTC)		(Link)
I OBJECT!!!!

I have just read your page in utter disgust. I myself am a Catholic primary school teacher and most of what i have read just makes no sense and in itself is making rash generalist statements!! I work in a Catholic school in a poorer part of my city. I see and work with on a daily basis children who donot have good backgrounds and some of the stories i have witnessed would bring tears to a glass eye...this is a Ctaholic school! You seem to think that it is all singing, all dancing and we only take in the 'best ' children if they are Catholic. However, we do not have any say in which children enrole in our school no matter if they are Muslim, Catholic or non-denomination - we must take all and in no way do we refuse 'poorer children' as stated in your page! I think you should visit a Catholic school and get some of your views straightened out as they are way off base and i would not encourage any parent to act upon the information on this page.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: February 23rd, 2007 09:43 am (UTC)		(Link)
faith schools

The whole idea of faith school in the UK is great and I think this government should be doing more to support it. We welcome soo many different religions and in other countries such as saudi arabia you can not practice your religion. I think its disgusting that this world has resulted to segigation. This country is a christain/cotholic country. This government should be supporting this.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: July 2nd, 2007 07:27 pm (UTC)		(Link)
Anon

Suffer the children to come unto me....
Teach them love peace and not to make war.
Politics (including that of religious theology) and power and greed cause grief.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: October 19th, 2008 05:10 am (UTC)		(Link)
i dissagree!

if the only schools allowed were government schools, the government could impose any opinion they want on the next generation. this among other issues with having exclusively public institutions makes me think the conclusion of your article wrong. You never looked at the possible problems of having only public schools or even looked from another point of view, you merely look at the bad. Your whole argument is one sided and unbalanced. You generalize all schools using a couple examples and you say they discriminate because they, as a center of learning, want to specalize by teaching only intellectualy superior students in their curriculum. You speak from a completely modern point of view where the only thing not tolerated is intolerance. A Catholic school may not allow a person in because they openly profess to believe another religion or the have served time in juvinile detention for crimes they have commited. The beauty of a private school is they don't have to accept a student that is a bad fit(not refering grade-wise) unlike the public school. The entire narrative should be scraped if you aren't willing to make some major additions and modifications.

	From: vexen	Date: October 20th, 2008 03:38 pm (UTC)		(Link)
	Re: i dissagree!

I don't think that only government should run schools - I've got notes at home about a Swedish school company that I'm going to use as a good example of how to run private schools.

But, schools should not be run on sectarian lines. This means; no identifying a school by religion or race.

I've no problem with selecting by merits, and I am sure that there should be tiered schools that are run along meritocratic lines, as long as the divisions are done on the grounds of talent, and not on the grounds of organized belief systems or skin colour.

From: (Anonymous)	Date: October 21st, 2008 01:35 am (UTC)		(Link)
Re: i dissagree!

People have biases. What not name them and allow parents to make informed decisions regarding the education of their children? The statement that we should not "force" our ideas and beliefs on our children is simply preposterous. I have yet to meet a child who likes my ideas on childhood immunizations and eating vegetables before ice cream. As parents we are given the obligation to "force" our ideas on these uncivilized infants in the process of raising them to become thinking functioning adults. This, of course, includes thought on tolerance and love of humanity, and religion.

Clearly schools should be required to reach academic minimum standards, but if the leaders and teachers of a school have strong religious leanings, I as a parent would like it to be publicly claimed so that I am aware of what my children are being taught.

I prefer the option of avoiding an honest bigot over inadvertently exposing my children to the hidden agenda of a school that claims to be open to all yet quietly pushes a moral agenda that I do not want my children exposed to.

Additionally, no school can meet the needs of all children. A school for the musically gifted would be devalued by requiring it to accept students from all backgrounds. Additionally schools for the academically gifted, should not be required to reduce its standards for the academically challenged. The more diverse the student body, the more the school must diversify its limited resources to educate.

Parents with strong religious beliefs should have the option of carrying this into the children's academic lives. Much as we wish our beliefs in tolerance of fellow man present in the academic environment that our children spend most of their waking hours, Christians desire Christian perspectives be taught in the academic area including literature, history and even science. To deny the opportunity to include these studies in education is denying them the opportunity to be Christian.