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The Forum > Article Comments > The war for children’s minds > Comments

The war for children’s minds : Comments

By Stephen Law, published 21/8/2007

If authoritarian political schools are utterly beyond the pale, why are so many of us prepared to tolerate the religious equivalents?

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This will be interesting because a lot of those who damn 'church' schools support Islamic schools as complying with 'multiculturalism'.

That said, there is no doubt that some Catholic schools have exceeded their educational charter in the past by drubbing catholicism into students. I went to a Catholic convent school for music instruction and while I am the first to applaud the standards of music excellence of that Order of nuns and I was a good music student, the amount of religious instruction and observance and the discipline enforced with it were excessive and harsh. In think that many of the nuns were kind inside, but the rules and leaders they obeyed forced them into cruelty. Many nuns were lesbians and their ways were feared by their colleagues and students alike.

I do not decry all modern Catholic schools, but like their Islamic equivalents, intolerance of other beliefs and interference in politics are never far below the surface.

I see nothing wrong with most 'religious' schools, for example the Lutheran private schools, because their spirituality and moral code is inclusive, not exclusive and they are about developing good citizens and sound ethics, not religious obedience.

Dawkins (The God Delusion) and atheists like him prove to be just as bigoted and prone to logical fallacy and 'brainwashing' as the organised religions they decry.

Governments are not going to step up to the mat to build enough public schools.

But who says that the State can always be trusted? Governments of all political persuasions have proved that they will re-write history and all put political imperatives first. So independent schools are welcome as one of the bulwarks of democracy and religious schools are welcome too as long as they do not teach bigotry or forget that this is a secular state.
Posted by Cornflower, Tuesday, 21 August 2007 10:16:51 AM
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I would recommend that this article be printed out so that it can be re-read from time to time. Email it to as many people as you can.
Posted by healthwatcher, Tuesday, 21 August 2007 10:19:16 AM
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An aim to reduce the intellectual curiosity of a child is despicable. This article follows only just after last night's Four Corners where Ken Hams and others of his ilk were shown using a comprehensive range of emotional pressures and many unprovable beliefs, even lies, with the aim of convincing those children in the audiences that the Bible is the infallibe word of God. No matter that some of the Old Testamant stories tell of abominable atrocities (read the stories of Joshua' activities) carried out in the name of their god. The evil of such prophets is never highlighted. Joshua would rival Pol Pot and Hitler.
We need new laws that properly protect the rights of children and the first of those laws should protect children from having their mental abilities and self confidence undermined.
Churches for centuries have taught human beings that they are sinners, undermining their self confidence, and then preyed on them by advocating that they need a savior. Recent damages claims have revealed many agents of that saviour are no better than Ted Hazzard.
It is time to introduce ethics as a school subject and to consign religious indoctrination to the dustbin where it belongs.
Posted by Foyle, Tuesday, 21 August 2007 10:38:21 AM
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Decades of secular humanist brainwashing has led thousands of even non believers to send their kids to schools where they are going to get at least some moral guidance. Why else would so many non believers want their kids to get the fruit of believers. It is not like they are getting their education at the expense of the tax payer like those in the failed State schools.
Posted by runner, Tuesday, 21 August 2007 10:58:21 AM
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Sigh,

"Failed state schools". Umm nope. State schooling manages to send out a vast majority of its students with the required skills to either enter the workforce or continue their education. This is despite a lack of resources and an idealogical obsession - at least at the federal level - with running the whole system down in favour of private/religious schools.

The job of a school is not to force students down one idealogical path or another. That is the parents job. Instead students have to be educated in both the ability to gather facts and the ability to think critically, to not accept a statement on face value but to do their own research and come to their own conclusions
Posted by James Purser, Tuesday, 21 August 2007 11:11:27 AM
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Well said - an incisive and important article. The problem of child indoctrination is widespread and is generally encouraged by many who should know better. Education based on religious dogma is a curse throughout the world, and is getting worse, with results plain for all to see. The problem is compounded in Australia (even more so in America) by a federal government dominated by an evangelical right faction. There should be no government funding for any school that, either covertly or overtly, has the aim of turning children into indoctrinated automata - a restriction that regretfully would exclude most government funded 'private' schools in Australia today. The pressing question is: what can we do about it?
Posted by GYM-FISH, Tuesday, 21 August 2007 11:20:35 AM
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