Jewish School Removes Evolution Questions From Exams 431
Alain Williams writes "Religious sponsored ignorance is not just in the USA, a school in Hackney, England is trying to hide the idea of evolution from its pupils. Maybe they fear that their creation story will be seen for what it is if pupils get to learn ideas supported evidence. The girls are also disadvantaged since they can't answer the redacted questions, thus making it harder to get good marks."
If you don't like it.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Then don't send your kids to a Jewish school. Religious freedom is part of that whole "freedom" idea that some folks are pretty fond of.
"Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes." - Mahatma Gandhi
so...... (Score:2, Insightful)
Wait, so the school decides what questions they want on their exam, and people are complaining?
All the students are sitting exactly the same are they not?
"The examinations body, OCR, says it was satisfied that the girls did not have an unfair advantage. It now plans to allow the practice, saying it has come to an agreement with the school to protect the future integrity of the exams."
"The Department of Education meanwhile has asked for assurances that the children will be taught the full curriculum."
If they're still being taught the stuff, what's the problem. No exam that I've ever done has every single sentence that a teacher has ever said on the exam paper in question form.
Re:If you don't like it.... (Score:5, Insightful)
A shame the kids themselves don't get a say in their indoctrination & skewed education. I know parents need to make choices on behalf of their kids, but it's not always easy to watch.
Education is mandatory in most countries, regardless of religious beliefs, but I wonder how much control that allows over the curriculum.
Re:If you don't like it.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe they should also teach them that 2+2=7 and that The Earth is flat. And feed them on nothing but kitkats.
Would you say that was OK, too?
Last time I checked we have child protection to take children away from clueless parents.
Re:If you don't like it.... (Score:4, Insightful)
You cannot be free if you don't have the knowledge to take informed decissions
An adult person may have the freedom to decide whether to learn or not ... but when we talk about kids, the society should warrant they have the opportunity to learn above the wishes of their tutors
I'm fine with this (Score:5, Insightful)
And seriously what the fuck up with the UK and this stupid policy? They could learn a thing or two from the French on this - education should be secular. There should be no religious dress, no segregation by sexes, no exemptions from subjects on religious grounds, no indoctrination into religion and no pandering to the sensibilities of religion in any way shape or form. In the long term this will mean far less religious whackaloons which can only be a good thing.
Re:If you don't like it.... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is the reason that education is *mandatory* in civilized countries - to take some part of the decision-making process away from uninformed parents.
Re:If you don't like it.... (Score:5, Insightful)
You think a six-year-old has the same decision making ability as an 20-year-old?
Is it a coincidence that most street gangs indoctrinate new members around the age of 13?
The "age of consent" thing is a bit arbitrary but it doeshave a basis in reality. Young children are far easier to indoctrinate/persuade than adults.
Re:If you don't like it.... (Score:0, Insightful)
You should however be held accountable for mistakes that harm others. Including your kids.
You want to retard your kids education. The state has a duty to protect your kids.
Re:Cult (Score:4, Insightful)
See, the thing is that 500 years ago our ancestors invented FTL travel. Several solar systems were colonized, most with far better planets than Earth. Eventually, Earth was solely inhabited by the Luddites who feared FTL, and therefore they completely erased it from the history books.
Now you want to visit another solar system, but you are told it is physically impossible. There is no way to do it, the means of travel do not exist.
That is pretty much what it's like for the children in these kinds of sects to attempt to get a good education. The very knowledge that good educations exist are essentially kept from them.
Ahhhh fuck. (Score:3, Insightful)
It's spreading, Id rather hoped this kind of shit was going to stay on the other side of the pond :(
Re:If you don't like it.... (Score:4, Insightful)
No, you're the only one who thinks those numbers are based on some form of objective criteria rather than made up by men wearing silly hats
I object. Some of those hats are quite nice.
Re:He wouldn't be now. (Score:5, Insightful)
There are religions where one of the central tenets is that the beliefs must adapt to advances in science.
eg. Bahá'í [wikipedia.org]
They really do it, too. It's not just lip service.
Re:If you don't like it.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Secondly (but very related): democracy is not a belief. It is how the society is operating now.
No it isn't. Western Society runs along the lines of an elective dictatorship, and has done for centuries. This system has almost nothing to do with the Greek system of democracy, other than in name. It's highly democratic compared to what we had in feudal times, where Kings annointed Barons and so forth, but the system we have now only gives "the people" en masse 2-3 bits of information input into the system per 4-5 years. That is not a democracy. And now we're moving back to a feudal system run by corporations anyway because - surprise surprise - a 0.5-bit/year control signal isn't enough to stop that from happening.
UK != US (Score:5, Insightful)
Wait, so the school decides what questions they want on their exam, and people are complaining?
Yes because in the UK the exams are not written by the schools but written by a central exam board so that the standard is consistent across the country. The same happens here in Alberta, Canada. By redacting the questions the school is preventing the students from being able to get any marks for those questions. I the exam board produced a paper where sufficient questions were "objectionable" then every pupil at that school would automatically fail the exam.
While the exam board might be ok with it because it offers zero advantage to the students the school inspectors ought to be all over this since it is grossly unfair to the students and may prevent them getting into university. We already have laws which limit religious freedom when it comes to refusing medical treatment for children because it harms them and frankly we should have similar ones when it comes to science education for exactly the same reason.
Re:If you don't like it.... (Score:1, Insightful)
Ignorance indeed. Funny that people automatically assume that Creationism and Science cannot coexist.
I'm a Creationist, and I am also a published author in Quantum Physics. Go chew on that for a bit...
"Sabotage". Get a clue.
Re:If you don't like it.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Any creed that requires the indoctrination of children for its survival is suspect. If it can't wait until adulthood to present evidence in its favor there is a very good chance that something evil is at its core. Forced ignorance is evil. Voluntary, self enforced ignorance is only slightly less evil, but at least an adult has a choice about being ignorant.
Re:If you don't like it.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:If you don't like it.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, but the reality is place like Chicago where dead people vote; or Nevada where Harry Reid buses in incoherent people from nursing homes to vote.
Or the deep South, where they go out of their way to prevent brown people from voting.