The church and education.

Grayson

Is there any particular reason why the catholic church still controls primary education in this country?

I can remember as a child that every day between 12 and 12:30 we did religion (I say religion, what we actually did was catholicism). And that didn't include having to say the entire rosary every Friday afternoon.

There was preparation for communion and confirmation and stuff like that. And all during school hours. So the state is effectively paying for catholic education. Personally i see this as being wrong.

I have no problems with schools being used after hours by faith/community groups. But having a particular type of religioius education in a state school during school hours seems wrong. And I can't see how, in a modern first world country, any religion can have that much control over education.

Ghandee

That would be an ecumenical matter OP.

mikemac1

When a poster who joined in 1999 starts a thread you know they have something worth saying :cool:

RossyG

Grayson wrote: »

Is there any particular reason why the catholic church still controls primary education in this country?

There's a reason for the church: get 'em while they're young and impressionable/gullible.

No other reason, though.

DEFTLEFTHAND

RossyG wrote: »

There's a reason for the church: get 'em while they're young and impressionable/gullible.

No other reason, though.

Wasn't the original reason though that the new State couldn't afford to run a proper educational system without the church's help.

mikemac1

Grayson wrote: »

So the state is effectively paying for catholic education.

Church of Ireland schools received more in grants that Catholic schools.
Not overall of course but capitation grant per student plus an extra 2.8 million

Fianna Fáil ended that a few years ago

pwurple

The reason is historial. Since the birth of the irish republic, education has been state supported, rather than state owned. There is an important difference between those. The buildings and land of catholic schools were paid for and are provided by catholic parishes.

Any other group is free to do the same, and they do.

Problems occur where the catholic school is deemed more desirable than the other alternatives, for whatever reason, and they become oversubscribed. Those reasons are a whole other question, ranging from snobbery and racism (i don't want my kid sitting next to a foreigner), acedemic reputation (the school has the maths teacher with the best results), to location (the school is across the road from my house).

But the confusion is always regarding what we do for ourselves... The government doesn't provide schools, communities do that themselves. Government provides support only.

Sergeant

Rabble rabble rabble.

philologos

Grayson wrote: »

Is there any particular reason why the catholic church still controls primary education in this country?

I can remember as a child that every day between 12 and 12:30 we did religion (I say religion, what we actually did was catholicism). And that didn't include having to say the entire rosary every Friday afternoon.

There was preparation for communion and confirmation and stuff like that. And all during school hours. So the state is effectively paying for catholic education. Personally i see this as being wrong.

I have no problems with schools being used after hours by faith/community groups. But having a particular type of religioius education in a state school during school hours seems wrong. And I can't see how, in a modern first world country, any religion can have that much control over education.

If you look to what happened after 1831 after the Stanley Education Act you'll see how it happened. Pretty much schooling was originally intended to be multi-denominational, but they didn't have enough patrons to sponsor the schools. So the RCC set up a lot of them, as did the established Anglican church with state money.

Essentially the school structure after the 1831 Act was a lot like the free schools structure that the Tories are trying to bring in in the UK.

I've got no problems with faith schools, but I think a majority should be secular.

Fr_Dougal

Grayson wrote: »

Is there any particular reason why the catholic church still controls primary education in this country?

Yes, money.

It would cost the State a shltload of money to change things now and if they do decide to change, it won't happen over night.

Peregrine

Grayson wrote: »

1) Is there any particular reason why the catholic church still controls primary education in this country?

I can remember as a child that every day between 12 and 12:30 we did religion (I say religion, 2) what we actually did was catholicism). 3) And that didn't include having to say the entire rosary every Friday afternoon.

There was preparation for communion and confirmation and stuff like that. And all during school hours. So the state is effectively paying for catholic education. Personally i see this as being wrong.

I have no problems with schools being used after hours by faith/community groups. But having a particular type of religioius education in a state school during school hours seems wrong. And I can't see how, in a modern first world country, any religion can have that much control over education.

There's already countless threads about this now, why start another one?
1) It's the way it was and it costs too much money to change it
2) It's not like that anymore, move on
3) Once again, move on. This doesn't happen anymore and it's pretty thick of you to think so. When was it that you left school?

I'm agnostic but I actually like religion class, it's not taught like it was 30 years ago.

humanji

We've had more than enough anti-church threads for one Christmas.