Religion and Engaging with the Teacher

State funding is provided for education Andrew, I’m not sure how much more explicitly it needs to be explained to you.

No schools receive funding on the basis of their ethos, they receive funding on the basis that they are a school recognised by the department as a provider of education. Their ethos is not an extracurricular activity, it is the basis for the establishment of any school. Funding for extracurricular activities is organised by the school community.

Oh come on now, it’s not as though I presented the examples apropos of nothing? Both were examples of my argument that it isn’t because schools don’t regard all pupils as equals and treat all pupils with equal respect, it’s the adults who do not wish to respect each other’s values, is the issue. Because you’re not religious it doesn’t follow that you don’t have values, they’re just not religious, and that’s why I use the word values instead of terms like religious beliefs or political views. Values represents something common to everyone.

In the example of the ET school principal inviting a Catholic organisation to deliver relationships and sex education was hardly just an oversight on the part of the Principal or the school board of management. It appears to me to have been a deliberate act, because of trust having broken down between all the adults involved - parents and staff alike.

In the second example, I would suggest that was nothing more than an incredibly unfortunate gaffe on the part of the teacher who was more focused on facilitating a class discussion on freedom of speech, consistent with ET ethos, it’s unlikely it even occurred to them that there were pupils in the class whose parents would have an issue with it.

It’s not hard to understand the teacher was put on the spot when the child informed them the image was offensive to him and to his religion -

“My son is not the only child within the class that is Muslim and when he explained to the teacher that this such picture was offensive to him and his religion the teacher told him that ‘it was part of his lesson’,” she claimed.

https://www.limerickleader.ie/news/business-news/111071/Limerick-school-apologises-for-upset-over.html

So where does your idea of it not being difficult to treat all pupils equally and with equal respect fit in? The issue clearly isn’t that pupils aren’t treated as equal and all pupils treated with respect, the issue is that the adults involved, don’t wish to respect each other’s values. My point is that these kinds of issues happen in all schools, regardless of the ethos of the school.

I do agree though that CH magazine is about as appropriate as Playboy magazine in facilitating a classroom discussion on freedom of expression! 😂

Except that the staff absolutely ARE paid.