The rise of faith schools

I'd like to slightly reverse the question posed by ThingsChange.This may be slightly irrelevant to our american participants, with their (somewhat embattled) seperation of church and state.In the UK, at least during my time in high school level education, Religious Studies was a required (or opt out) class. There were two syllabuses, one with a mainly christian focus, and the other covering briefly the major world religions.I guess my question concerns only the latter syllabus.Can a faith-based school teach about other religions than their own in a fair and impartial manner?In my original post in this thread i referenced a news article in which a spokesperson for the Department for Education and Skills is quoted as saying; If such education is not objective, can this rightly be called indoctrination?Is a secular education system best for all concerned?I can easily envision a classroom where the teacher would start a class with "Here is what the Buddhists believe, but they are wrong".

Somewhat. We do have a flat income tax as well (about 3%) but schools are mostly supported by property taxes. So school districts in wealthier areas have MUCH better funding than districts in poorer areas. The proposal would be to reduce property taxes and increase income taxes a bit and fund schools more at the state level. I'm not sure what else is being proposed a long those lines... I'm up in the air over the whole thing. I don't trust them to actually lower my property taxes (although they mostly go to support the school district... so maybe they would actually lower them)... but there should be a more uniform standard in schooling.We have all kinds of taxes here (income, property, sales, tolls, you name it).. but all of our politicians (on both sides) are so corrupt that the state has a deficit... (sad, considering illinois is one of the richest states in the country)

Yes it can. That much I can address from personal experience.Again, how well this is done will devolve to the dedication of the individual instructors, the course material itself and the dedication of faculty, parents and students. But I've been through such a school and know that it works.As in every other area the key is to challenge the students prior beliefs. This means to challenge the basic religion that the child brings to the class room. Show the other religion in all its glory, as though it were the initial starting point.For more of my experience on this matter see Message 1.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Whether it's evolution, religion, politics, or a legal case:
No matter what the subject is, if one side presents the case, you should not expect a fair presentation of the other side's view (on average...Jar has an exception, but I don't think it would be the predominant case).Among other things, a fair trial has an advocate for defense and another one for prosecution. You would not get as fair a trial if one or the other side presented both sides to the judge and jury. It would be selective stories and selective facts presented with selective words. ... kind of like the news mediaTherefore, some systematic way of letting the students know where to get more information on either side would be a good way to let students and other folks investigate both sides and try desparately to figure out the truth, even if it's not stated by either side.

quote:

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Whether it's evolution, religion, politics, or a legal case:
No matter what the subject is, if one side presents the case, you should not expect a fair presentation of the other side's view (on average...Jar has an exception, but I don't think it would be the predominant case).

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Attorneys are paid to win cases, not find the truth. Politics is about power, and religion is about faith in things unseen.Religion, politics, and legal argument are all ways of thinking or systems that are fundamentally different from, and frequently diametrically opposed to, the scientific method.The scientific method, by definition, invites informed criticism as a means to improve itself.

Do you think a student of islam is so bad ? your confused you don't know who to trust ,so you end up being a terrorist , killing everyone you know. That's not so bad is it?

Hello there, Mr Critic. Welcome to evcforum.Your first few posts are a little difficult to follow. They appear to be replies, but it is hard to tell what you are replying to.When replying, if you look at the message to which you are responding, you will see a button labelled "Reply" at the bottom right of that particular message. We sometimes call it the LGB (little green button). When you use the LGB to reply, then messages are linked up such that we can tell which message you are replying to. It makes it easier to follow the discussion.Thanks.

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Yes, I realize that computer users if you will, have been stuck with rigid formatting. These discussions may have various points , the formatting relates the topic to the replies rather than to individual topical discussions. In other words the the replies that don't infer the topic should be put in to a different category for instance this discussion. Your asking for an extension to human etiquette, normally in person you do not refer to the topic nominally or even your co- correspondents.

All that AdminNWR is saying is that using the proper reply button sends an e-mail alert to the people whom you are replying to, so that they may respond back to you and facilitate the flow of the conversation.