Reading Time: < 1 minute This is from the American Humanist Association: Attorneys at the American Humanist Association (AHA) sent a warning letter to Dr. Jerry Sanders, superintendent of the Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corporation in response to his promotion of Christian ideology. Sanders sent a letter on school district letterhead describing his religious beliefs, quoting scripture, and requesting that local clergy […]
education
Posted inEducation, The Secular
Bad News for Secular Education in the UK
Reading Time: 4 minutes I will now post three articles from Humanists UK that show things aren’t progressing in the UK the way secularists might hope. Sometimes it’s one step forward and two steps back. Humanists UK and the National Secular Society are fighting to counteract this – please support them: More religious groups apply to open free schools […]
Posted inEducation, The Secular
Are Faith Schools Better? An Issue of Correlation vs Causation…
Reading Time: 11 minutes I have recently been talking about faith schools here at ATP, as concerns the UK and Ireland. Ireland recently announced that they are getting rid of admissions policies that dictate access to schools based on the religious denomination of the children applying. There is this general opinion in the UK that faith schools are better either in […]
Posted inEducation, The Secular
South Africa Outlaws Promotion of Any One Religion in Schools
Reading Time: 2 minutes This is from Humanists UK. Good to see Jacques Rousseau in on the action (I used to blog with him at the Skeptic Ink Network): A High Court judge in Johannesburg has outlawed state-funded single-faith schools in South Africa, following a human rights case brought by the Organisation for Religious Education and Democracy. The court found that […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
Age Is the New Class in UK Voting: Age 34 Is the Crossover
Reading Time: 2 minutes Labour used to be the party fo the working class, what with its history in workers’ rights. Not so much anymore. Analysis from YouGov shows that age has become the new class in dividing the nation, along with education. Here are some snippets from them: Age: The new dividing line in British politics In electoral […]
Posted inEducation, The Secular
‘Faith’ schools three times more socially selective than others, new research finds (again)
Reading Time: 3 minutes This unsurprising, yet important find, is reported by the British Humanist Association: English ‘faith’ schools are the most socially selective category of comprehensive school, and more than three times more socially selective than schools with no religious character, a new report from the Sutton Trust has found. The Sutton Trust has also come out against […]
Posted inEducation, The Secular
Free Presbyterian cleric condemns humanist book for primary pupils in Northern Ireland
Reading Time: 2 minutes As a teacher, I find this a very interesting story, especially having worked in the faith schools sector, as I have. The hypocrisy here is unbelievable, especially given the context of religious sectarianism in Northern Ireland. The book, co-authored by famous children’s poet Michael Rosen, has been delivered to many schools in Northern Ireland as […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
America Is the Greatest! Pt 2: Opportunity.
Reading Time: 7 minutes This is the second part to this small series. I will repost the intro for those who have not read the first one (on standard of living). Over on another post, there are some raging threads about a number of topics from gun crime to how great America is. It is on this last topic […]
Posted inEducation, The Secular
Majority support for end to compulsory religious observance in Scottish schools
Reading Time: 3 minutes From the British Humanist Association: A majority of people in Scotland believe that children should not be forced to worship in school if they do not want to, a new poll has revealed. The survey, carried out by YouGov for the Times newspaper, found that 55% of Scots either did not think that any religious […]
Posted inEducation, The Secular
Fundamentalist Christian private schools downgraded by Ofsted for failing to promote British values
Reading Time: 3 minutes This is a timely piece, since I was only talking about these schools recently in sharing a articles concerning the work of fellow Patheos blogger Jonny Scaramanga. This is from the British Humanist Association: A group of fundamentalist Christian private schools in England have been criticised by Ofsted inspectors and downgraded after it was found that […]