Shockadelic,

"Do you want a generation of passive clones that just do what everyone else does and never step out of line?"

Congratulations! That is exactly what Western society wants - you have just given a spectacularly accurate definition of the objectives of educational institutionalisation in consumer society.

What's it got to do with instilling a narrow ideological paradigm in the minds of young children - more of the same?

JJ: "Students who don't participate are made to feel like pariahs,"

Shockadelic: So are boys who don't like cricket and like piano. Deal with it.

But it IS being dealt with, dear Shockadelic... That's precisely why the ACL's got a major case of butthurt over the legal challenge going on at the moment, didn't you know?

---

JJ: "Children of parents who don't want their children taught fairy tales as though they are true are forced to DO NOTHING."

shockadelic: I used the library or playground to study when I was young. I doubt anything's changed (except some people's attitudes to SRI).

Bully for you. Do you want a prize?

Anyway, if you think sitting around in the library or playground is so fantastic, then why are we wasting money on teachers at all? You must surely agree that kids ought to be sitting around twiddling their thumbs for 8 hours a day in the library every day if it's beneficial. Are you really suggesting that?? Oh dear.

"Do you want a generation of passive clones that just do what everyone else does and never step out of line?"
Shockadelic, Thursday, 5 May 2011 7:19:18 PM

Isn't that what religious inculcation does?
....................................

"Parents making poor decisions is their own problem, not a reason to change the system."
They make poor decisions *because* of the system.
....................................

"please explain our civilisation's history *without* mentioning Christianity."
That's what many want, as part of SRE.
.................................

"Explain Joan of Arc.
"Explain the Sistine Chapel.
"Explain the Teutonic Knights.
"Explain Utah."

None of these have any bearing in explaining civilisation today. "Deal with it."
.................................

soccer balls .... cook pasta?
Posted by Shockadelic, Thursday, 5 May 2011 7:21:40 PM

Irrelevant 'red herring' fallacy.

You exhibit a lack of empathy and a desire to belittle:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/audio/2011/may/05/science-weekly-podcast-simon-baron-cohen

http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProduct.do?ISBN=9780713997910
.

To Dug, Chrys and others, I realise that many do want religion taught objectively, but I am also acknowledging that many don't want it taught at all, and this is often because they perceive that a proponent of one view will do more harm than an impartial surveyor of mere knowledge. Yet dispassionate presentation of data is no fair advertisement for the value of religion which is an essential component of any teaching of it. For example, I wouldn't ideally want my kids to learn 'art' or 'science' theoretically without a trained practitioner being able to show them from their first-hand experience how and why to appreciate these subjects. I think we can all relate to boring history teachers who do little to inspire kids regarding the value of their subject, yet a passionate teacher of history will inevitably risk conveying a particular viewpoint or slant and with little real harm done - I know which I'd value more!

[Deleted for abuse.]

Shockadelic, playing the "troll" card is an admission of a lost cause. You have lost all coherence with the rest. The one bit I could decipher -

"Ditto. Leave your progressive utopian agenda, taught compulsorily to *all* students, out of the school curriculum... *Your* children don't have to attend."

Uhuh. And what agenda would that be that I am calling for? The only thing I asked for was "comparitive" (as opposed to "indoctrinational") religious studies, if religion is to be taught at all.

You are so easily reduced to gibberish through inability to address actual argument. We're I of the tar-n-feathering kind of guy, I would say that is so theist...

I have given up on counting your individual instances of "militant atheist" and it's variants on the other hand (I would love to meet one by the way) to which you now add troll. All you are spouting is ad hominem, strawmen and a close to complete checklist of other rhetorical dirty tricks that would leave Schopenhauer speechless. To use a rugby analogy, you are too slow to play the ball so you play the man. And this, from the word go, from all concerned on your side of the fence, is all you have to play with and the only way you know how to play.

That alone is reason enough to keep you as far away from young impressionable minds as possible.