Biiiiink

A whole 5mins had passed with deafening silence from you know-alls, very poor show

Oakvillian

Oh, quite right, my mistake - it was some other guy on the radio who was talking about abolishing it all, I rather lost the will to live at that point in the news report. Frankly I think that's the only position that would win a vote from me - I certainly wouldn't vote for Tory's lot if they're promising a free-for-all for provincial funding of religious schools. Schooling, in my book, should not be about religion - you can get that at home, Church, Temple, Mosque, wherever. Nothing is more likely to breed divisiveness and misunderstanding than segregating everybody into educational ghettoes. The more our kids mix with others from different cultural and religious backgrounds, the less likely they are to grow up into religious or racial bigots, IMHO.

But I can't vote anyway so it's all academic as far as I'm concerned

iaink

Lucky Bugger

Im stuck in the middle... Im not fussed about religon in schools personally, and agree that segregation has the danger of leading to bigotry and misunderstanding. On the other hand my wife is Catholic and my kid goes to a nice catholic school, and outside of what dbd likes to call the mumbojumbo,(which seems to be fairly minimal anyway so far) it seems to be doing a good job.

Like it or not though religion is a big part of many peoples lives, and as such perhaps there should an option to reflect that in the school system too. Its a question of balance, tollerance and understanding I suspect...Given the general lack of all three of those in the world no wonder its a hot issue.

PeterF

No, not at all.

The difference being here is, they say absolutely nothing about what they will do. If they had a number of different adverts, some critising the current regime and some stating what they will do that is better, then it would be at least an improvement.

The Blair 'Demon' eyes was PART of a campaign, not THE campaign, which is the big difference here.

They may make you ask questions (that's fine), but they offer NO answers.

Oakvillian

I know - it makes it somehow bearable, being disenfranchised. We took great pleasure during the municipal elections last year in listening to all the drivel the doorstepping candidates spouted and then saying, all innocently "well, that's fascinating, but I shan't be voting for you. I shan't be voting for anyone, I'm not a citizen."

Oh, I agree. If we were still in the UK ours would probably be enrolled in a CofE primary. My school was a solid (stolid?) CofE institution, and I reckon it did an OK job with me. I still love the rhythms and lyricism of the language in the 1660 prayer book. Somehow the modern language of the Canadian Anglican service book has lost some of the depth of the archaic phrasing.

I don't deny that religion plays a big part in many people's lives. And so it should. I'm just not sure that the benefits of instilling religion-based morality and ethics into kids within school, if that means segregated schooling, outweigh the (potentially) divisive downside to that segregation. I certainly don't think it's a helpful or sensible subject to hang an election campaign on. IMO this shouldn't be a party-political issue.

For what it's worth, my own (boarding) school was over 90% Anglican; as far as we could tell there was a distinct advantage for the few pupils who were Catholic or, better still, Jewish, as the latter could legitimately skip late lessons on Friday afternoons in wintertime, and the former could cycle to the convent school up the road on a Sunday morning for service (and doubtless converse with a convenient convent girl and/or go for a pub lunch on the way back to the boarding house). We had a handful of Iranian Moslems, as well, but I don't remember what accommodation was made for their religious needs. However, for all the "comparative theology" lessons, it really did very little to help us understand other cultures and religions.

daft batty

the thing is I only remember the demon eyes bit. I dont recall them saying what they would do about anything