Censorship, science and religion

The recent news about the banning, by the Vatican, of commentary and opinion being published by a number of Catholic priests in Ireland initially invoked in your blogger the reaction that it was an internal matter for the Church, with which he wants nothing to do.

A moment’s reflection, of course, determined that the same church still impinges greatly on the lives even of those who would shun it completely, nowhere more than in the matter of the education of one’s children and eventual grandchildren. The Catholic Church still controls and manages over 90% of state funded primary schools in Ireland. Therefore citizens are often constrained to send their children to one of these schools as the only means of them getting a primary education, as was the case with our family when we lived in rural Ireland. You tend to take the view that it will be all right - sure everyone is in the same boat, and this is not exactly the middle ages.

But it wasn’t all right. Our daughter, who dearly loves her father, for all his faults, was made to suffer serious anguish in the belief that he was destined to hell because, as she was aware, he had decided that there was no god. Her mother seems to have eased her mind by getting her to agree that, even though Dad didn’t believe, he was still a good man, so he would avoid hell. The whole episode generates great anger, even now. Thinking about it, it’s lucky she wasn’t in a Lutheran school. Martin Luther taught that good works were not enough. The only way to he ‘saved’, for him, was to believe.

There are other reasons why religion in schools is pernicious. It has the capacity to undermine the teaching of scientific principles, for one. In the words of Richard Dawkins, in his book “The God Delusion”:

“Fundamentalist religion is hell-bent on ruining the scientific education of countless thousands of innocent, well-meaning, eager young minds. Non-fundamentalist, ‘sensible’ religion may not be doing that. But it is making the world safe for fundamentalism by teaching children, from their earliest years, that unquestioning faith is a virtue”.

And how far away is the Catholic Church from fundamentalism when we are hearing that the Vatican has taken steps to curtail freedom of expression on the part of some of its priests? This has to mean that the same culture of repression will pervade the state schools that the Church manages. For someone who sees the ability to criticise and to bring forward new ideas as an essential part of living, this is bad news indeed.

Richard Dawkins’s book is well worth reading, for anyone. However, it is especially relevant to those priests that have been silenced by the Vatican. Dawkins is a world class intellectual. At the very least, priests, such as those who have been victims of Vatican authoritarianism, should be able to address the points he makes. It is available from Amazon.co.uk, here. 

Transforming Education in Ireland

The second Intel forum on education, entitled “Transforming Education in Ireland”, was held in Trinity College, Dublin, on Thursday, May 26th. The keynote speech was given by the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny. Panel members included Jerome Morrissey, Director of the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE), Regina Moran, CEO, Fujitsu Ireland, Tommie Walshe, President, National Parents Council post primary (NPCpp), Moira Leydon, Asst General Secretary, Education and Research at ASTI, Tony Donohue, Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC) and Peter Hamilton of Intel Performance Learning Solutions.

The forum also provided an opportunity for Intel to launch its Smartclass post primary schools competition, details of which can be found at http://www.smartclass.ie/.

The Taoiseach’s words on the commitment of the government to change in education were welcome, although his appearance at the forum meant that mainstream reportage of the event was largely confined to his contribution. This is a shame, because many topics were also of interest, from the concern at the weight of schoolbags, which was mentioned as a priority for parents by Mr. Walshe, to the reminder from an audience participant that the former CEO of Intel, Craig Barrett, whose commitment to education, worldwide, is total, is on record as saying that Ireland is in effect deluding itself by continuing to hold the belief that we have an education system that is world class.

However, there is an air of change in education these days. How much of this is government policy being implemented or how much is due to the personal commitment of Ruairi Quinn, the Minister for Education, is yet to be fully revealed, but a number of initiatives have already indicated a breaking of the inertia that had characterised the previous administration. One is the setting up of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector and the other is the announcement that Educate Together, the body that has already established a large number of multi-denominational National schools, to allow a choice to those parents who do not want their children to have to attend a church-dominated school, will now be considered for the management of secondary schools also.

As with the first Intel forum on education, this reviewer was left with the impression that there are a great many committed and responsible players in Irish education. That they were starved of resources during the so-called “Celtic Tiger” period is reprehensible, and it would be a tragedy if the current economic circumstances were used as an excuse for a continuation of this situation.

Once again, Intel is to be thanked for making it possible for people involved in education in Ireland to have their voices heard outside of the profession.

Forum on Irish primary education system

Letters page, Irish Times, March 17th 2011:

Madam, – The establishment of a forum on school patronage by the Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn, is to be welcomed (March 12th).

However, even before it starts, it is disquieting to read that the Minister feels it necessary to deny that the Labour Party has a secular agenda. We must reject the historical mental conditioning that has created the notion that a secular society is in some way an illegitimate aspiration.

A secular State school system, where parents are free to give their children the religious ideas they wish in their homes and in their places of worship, without impinging on the justifiable wishes of those who do not want their children exposed to dogma that is presented as irrefutable fact, is very much to be desired.

A secular agenda is not an atheistic agenda. It simply makes room in the spectrum of belief for those who have no religion. It is nothing short of intolerance that this has not been the case in our State-funded primary schools up to the present time.

The forum on school patronage should have, high up in its terms of reference, the possibility of getting rid of the patronage system altogether and ensuring that our schools are placed directly under the control of the Department of Education. This is what, after a great deal of anguish, we are moving towards in relation to our health system and its supervising government department. –

Yours, etc,

SEAMUS McKENNA, Farrenboley Park, Windy Arbour, Dublin 14