• This topic has 84 replies, 35 voices, and was last updated 11 years ago by D0NK.
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  • Primary school children to be taught controversial theory about origins of life
  • aracer
    Free Member

    Evolution to be on the primary curriculum

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21370362

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    I suspect those Free Schools that have already indicated they will be teaching creationism will be magically excempt from this aspect of the curriculum.

    geetee1972
    Free Member

    I have no useful contribution to make

    IHN
    Full Member

    I’m happy that children are taught creationism in the context of “some people think that this is how it all happened”, because they do, but evolution should be taught in science lessons.

    But, yes, lock the in before

    bigyinn
    Free Member

    Can only see this thread going one way, but like yesterdays Catholic / Rapist / Abortion thread.
    FWIW Evolution should be taught in schools and biology is the place to do it.

    MSP
    Full Member

    I suspect those Free Schools that have already indicated they will be teaching creationism will be magically excempt from this aspect of the curriculum.

    Yep, looks that way.

    More and more schools – especially secondaries – have become academies. These are free to set their own curriculum

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    From the article:

    “For the first time, primary school children will have to taught about evolution.”

    I think a focus on written English may be more useful… 😉

    joao3v16
    Free Member

    Oh goody, another creation/evolution bun-fight 😀

    thx1138
    Free Member

    I’d be more concerned that children aren’t taught a blend of history which conveniently glosses over the negative aspects of Britain’s colonial past, than some theory on how Life began on Earth.

    BillyBull
    Free Member

    I used to work as an evangelist with young people in my twenties for a born again church. I think evolution should be compulsory in every school. Anything else is just make believe as I realised later in life. Secular schooling is the way forward with RE as the place for all faiths to be discussed on an equal footing.

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    My view remain that there is no place for any RE education in schools as education is about facts and not stating opinions

    We may have debate about the causes of WW1 but we dont have debate about whether it is real.

    joao3v16
    Free Member

    Anything else is just make believe

    Yes, of course it is 🙄

    😀

    evolution should be compulsory in every school

    “Right kids, we’re going to spend the next hour evolving!”

    thx1138
    Free Member

    Secular schooling is the way forward with RE as the place for all faiths to be discussed on an equal footing.

    Totally agree. ‘Faith’ schools shouldn’t even be legal; they are retrogressive and socially divisive.

    My view remain that there is no place for any RE education in schools as education is about facts and not stating opinions

    Totally disagree. This way Totalitarianism lies.

    Stoner
    Free Member

    just had a flick through this week’s freshly doormatted Speccie over a coffee. First article has this comforting paragraph in it:

    By some measures, Britain is the least religious country in the developed world. Some 64 per cent of us do not set foot in any place of worship in a year, according to the British Social Attitudes survey, a higher proportion than anywhere else in the world. Only half of us say that religion is important in our lives, compared with 85 per cent of Americans, 89 per cent of Indians, 97 per cent of Brazilians and 99 per cent of Indonesians.

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-week/leading-article/8840321/the-defender-of-faith/

    Vive l’athéisme! 🙂

    geetee1972
    Free Member

    My view remain that there is no place for any RE education in schools as education is about facts and not stating opinions

    I agree with the sentiment, but if you stuck to only teaching facts then we’d get a lot of people who weren’t able to articulate an opinion and surely we want them to be able to do that.

    After all, it wouldn’t much of a forum if no one ever had an opinion.

    Stoner
    Free Member

    I wouldnt ban RE, but it should be a wider Theology course. Combing philosophy and morality with history of all religions. Teach the subject, not “faith”

    TheFlyingOx
    Full Member

    “Right kids, we’re going to spend the next hour evolving!”

    And what part of that sentence is incorrect?

    I think the reason so many get involved in the “bunfight” is the paradoxical stance that religion adopts: demanding incontrovertible, infallible proof for science’s “theories” whilst accepting its own dogma on the basis of faith alone, in many cases despite empirical evidence to the contrary.

    Sandwich
    Full Member

    Kettles on and Jaffa Cakes to hand.

    I have no useful contribution to make

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    > “Right kids, we’re going to spend the next hour evolving!”

    And what part of that sentence is incorrect?

    Probably the part that requires impregnating the schoolchildren 😀

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    I’d be more concerned that children aren’t taught a blend of history which conveniently glosses over the negative aspects of Britain’s colonial past, than some theory on how Life began on Earth.

    Dunno, my (upto) GCSE histroy included:

    the usual assortment of battles and dates where one english/scottish/welsh bloke butchered a few other english/scottish/welsh blokes and became king.
    Whitch Trials
    Slavery
    Colonial India
    World Wars

    It also spent a lot of time dealing with Russia and China’s revoutions And the American history from the civil war onwards.

    Hardly glossing over the nasty bits? And colonial Britain is by and large no worse than domestic Britain.

    TheFlyingOx
    Full Member

    Either you don’t understand the word “evolving” or you don’t understand the word “impregnating”….

    lazybike
    Free Member

    Kettles on and Jaffa Cakes to hand

    There biscuits…not cakes 😉

    mrlebowski
    Free Member

    Kettles on – biscuits anyone?

    edit: oops biscuits already catered for, Ill bring cake..

    Cougar
    Full Member
    br
    Free Member

    I’d be more concerned that children aren’t taught a blend of history which conveniently glosses over the negative aspects of Britain’s colonial past, than some theory on how Life began on Earth.

    Agree, maybe then they’d realise how powerful Britain was at one time – and why we still ‘punch above our weight’. Might also be useful to teach how ALL the European powers followed the same strategy, just we were willing to spend more on the Navy than others – and that gave us the edge.

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    but if you stuck to only teaching facts then we’d get a lot of people who weren’t able to articulate an opinion and surely we want them to be able to do that.

    Yu can aticualte opinions on facts – what are the causes of WW1
    you cannot articulate views on things that are simply opinion
    You cannot really teach “facts” that are simply opinions without evidence its not really education is it

    Despite all the evidence to the contrary and despite the fact the only evidence I have is a book and the only people who believe it have faith I will teach this as truth is a silly approach to education.
    we may as well teach homoeopathy after all folk believe that despite the lack of evidence.

    I dont disagree with your general sentiment or what Stoner suggested re teaching “thinking”

    Yes we need folk who can think but indoctrinating them to believe creationism is not , in any sense i can see, education.

    GrahamS
    Full Member

    Either you don’t understand the word “evolving” or you don’t understand the word “impregnating”….

    Feel free to enlighten me – I’m fairly sure that “evolving” in humans involves reproduction.

    D0NK
    Full Member

    I think the reason so many get involved in the “bunfight” is the paradoxical stance that religion adopts

    are you new? Paradoxical, contradictory and hypocritical stances from religions is par for the course iirc.

    joao3v16
    Free Member

    we were willing to spend more on the Navy than others

    we probably had little choice, being an island 😀

    it was either ships, or swimming

    thx1138
    Free Member

    Agree, maybe then they’d realise how powerful Britain was at one time – and why we still ‘punch above our weight’.

    I was thinking more of focussing on the terrible legacy of colonialisation; slavery, the environmental, economic and social damage caused, rather than glorifying jingoistic sabre-rattling, actually.

    teamhurtmore
    Free Member

    Just make everyone’s life better – close the thread now. Same old, same old. To pick one small sentence out of a larger article can only have had one intention. Is there any point in yet another bash religion thread??

    Junkyard – Member
    My view remain that there is no place for any RE education in schools as education is about facts and not stating opinions

    Lets also drop art, english literature, music on the same argument. Like it or nor, religion plays an important part in global affairs. Failing to teach about (critically, in the true sense of the word) is simple folly and not education.

    Ad CaptJ said yesterday, education needs to move beyond facts and include specifically the ability to analyse critically and form opinions.

    edit:

    Junkyard – Member
    you cannot articulate views on things that are simply opinion

    …isn’t this exactly what source questions in history are designed to do. Understand the who, why, what, where, how etc aspects of others opinions on historical events?>

    Oh, no, what have I done. Leave religion threads alone.

    mrlebowski
    Free Member

    YUM!

    steveoath
    Free Member

    Here we go again *sigh* 🙄

    joao3v16
    Free Member

    I took a monkey into my nearby primary school the other morning, and when I went to collect it at 3:15 it had become a 6 year old boy fluent in two languages, an aptitude for maths and not too bad at football.

    So, evolution in primary schools does work.

    He didn’t care too much about history though.

    D0NK
    Full Member

    Here we go again *sigh*

    it’s friday lunch, what else we gonna do?

    doh, pub! laters.

    thx1138
    Free Member

    Here’s an example of why ‘Faith’ schools should be banned:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/dec/16/jewish-free-school-dsicrmination-ruling

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    Lets also drop art, english literature, music on the same argument

    I think we all agree art, english literature and music exist and you can have an opinion on it
    religion is just the opinion without proof like teaching homeopathy as medicine it makes no sense to do this unless you have faith
    I dont see how it helps with critical thinking
    I dont see why we think the three essential things everyone needs to know is maths, english and re in order to function in the world

    Even i would teach economics first 😉

    Re history the event happened so you can have an opinion on it howver daft that opinion may be

    I can claim WW1 started due to an international shortage of wellies and infighting between the back gammon players in the royal houses

    Its easily unprovable unlike anything with “faith” and we know there was a WW1 its no the same as you cannot prove a negative and if we adpopt that rule for education we would ,pretty much, teach anything

    br
    Free Member

    I was thinking more of focussing on the terrible legacy of colonialisation; slavery, the environmental, economic and social damage caused, rather than glorifying jingoistic sabre-rattling, actually.

    Who said anything about ‘glorifying’ history?

    “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

    teamhurtmore
    Free Member

    OK – last point before a swim. Completely disagree on points 2 and 3. 😉 One of the best subjects to take at A Level is theology, philosophy and ethics. A lot of reading (Kant for 17 year olds?), analysis and critical thinking. Excellent combination of all three subjects and how they may/may not be related in terms of tackling fundamental questions of life – why are we here? what is good? what happens when we die? medical ethics, the immorality of taxation (little joke there- no Nozick in A levels).

    RE is wrapped up in culture – in a global environment kids need to understand the factors that shape different cultures whether we/they agree with them. That’s education.

    Now where are the trunks….!

    lazybike
    Free Member

    I think we all agree art, english literature and music exist and you can have an opinion on it
    religion is just the opinion without proof like teaching homeopathy as medicine it makes no sense to do this unless you have faith

    religion is a man made method for worshiping god or gods, you don’t need faith to study the method.

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