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14/05/2008, 10:35 AM Andy Joined on 14/02/2008 Posts 9 Education- a new approach Recent studies in the UK have revealed that despite record levels of investment in the state education system, an increasing number of parents are choosing the independent sector. Were I a parent, I would seriously consider the option of bringing up a child outside of the "mainstream". The problem is that whilst the vast majority of schools perform an excellent job in terms of academic subjects, many fail in the respect that they do not teach children how to be adults. Many education experts have stressed the importance of "the three R's"- i.e. numeracy and literacy- yet something I have found lacking from primary to university level is a sense of purpose. I believe if "purpose" was placed at the heart of the curriculum, this would yield far higher standards in both academic performance and behaviour. This could be achieved by basing education at all levels around developing answers to three questions. Firstly, we must ask each child what they want out of life. Secondly, we must ask them why they want it. Thirdly, how do they intend to achieve it? Whilst I was blessed with dedicated teachers and a caring family, the lack of answers to these questions led me to become a "drop out". Others have achieved material success but are blighted by a shallow and bigoted outlook, for the same reason. Faith schools go some way to addressing this issue, but the problem here is they are trying to teach somebody else's' religion- faith is a very personal thing that can only be acquired by the experiences of the individual themselves. Our children surely deserve to be happy and fulfilled- and to give them this they need a solid foundation. We can't build this for them, but what we can do is provide them with the tools to do so.    Report

14/05/2008, 11:55 PM LONG LIVE THE GOLAN BRIGADE!!!! Joined on 26/09/2007 Workington,Cumbria Posts 6 Re: Education- a new approach What i found is that, from middle school to upper school if you have problems stemming from home the school does,nt care whatsoever.I was expelled from school due to personal problems serious enough to warrant me wanting to leave school and move away and work, as we never had the sense of purpose taught,educating us on/about adult life etc and with my parents total imbeciles on how to be a good mother and father i feel i am let down by the school system. i agree with everything you say and think schools need to seriously overhaul how they prepare kids for adult life and how you should lead by example etc.I am trying my hardest to install a sense of purpose into my children and hopefully they won,t be like me and how i was treated!! I,m not one to simply blame everyone else but i know damm well i was let down by both parents and the education system and if it is treating kids as i was then maybe it is to blame for the amounts of kids being failed by the system.With regards to faith schools though,i,d ban religion in schools and let the individual decide if it,s for them. Israel Isreal !! HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY ISRAEL-1948-2008 AND BEYOND!!    Report

15/05/2008, 5:04 AM bernie Joined on 24/12/2005 Posts 32 Re: Education- a new approach     We need more Christian faith based schools to give our kids a sense of purpose.Also to counteract the governments policies of appease ment to other religeons, especially islam. I have seen recently that the government is taking the account of the haulocaust out of the curriclium to appease the muslims. Appeasing the muslims has gone on for far to long. The *** attempt to wipe out the Jews is a fact, it happened and the arabs attempt to do the same in Israel in 1948 is also a fact. The arabs were armed by the germans and they  killed a lot of defenceless jews untill they gained arms and put the arabs in there place. This government is also, pushing for homosexual men to be teachers in our schools as role models.I, for one do not want this to happen, as it will give kids the impression that homosexuality is normal and o.k., which it is not, on both counts. Too many people with pie in the sky ideas have, for too long, been allowed to run our education system. Get back to basics and stop trying to engineer the generations into some ideaollogy . Corporal punishment has been taken out of the schools and teachers are expected to reason with the kids. What about the kids that don't want to be reasoned with, what do you do with them. My kids go to school to learn, not have to put up with disruptive kids hogging the teachers time.    Report

16/05/2008, 11:20 AM Andy Joined on 14/02/2008 Posts 9 Re: Education- a new approach The goverment is actually planning a scheme to send sixth-formers from every school to see the death camps of the Nazi era- it has support from most MPs. So, I don't think there's any plans to drop the holocaust from the curriculum. Also, I can record in history lessons at school being told that there wasn't a great deal of difference between Hitler and Stalin is their murderous dictatorships.    Report

04/06/2008, 1:25 PM Stephen Robinson Joined on 21/08/2006 Chelmsford Posts 3 Re: Education- a new approach  Andy wrote: I believe if "purpose" was placed at the heart of the curriculum, this would yield far higher standards in both academic performance and behaviour. The generality of the original post esp. this bit rang a bell with me. Trying to do the same with my son when telling him why he has to go to school!  Andy wrote: the problem here is they are trying to teach somebody else's' religion- faith is a very personal thing that can only be acquired by the experiences of the individual themselves. And this caveat about faith schools rings true too. Faith tends to be divisive (unless you don't really believe!).    Report

06/06/2008, 11:37 AM whisperycat Joined on 09/10/2006 Ipswich Posts 23 Re: Education- a new approach "We need more Christian faith based schools to give our kids a sense of purpose". Yes, what better start can a young, impressionable mind have, than to be moulded into believing that there is an invisible being in the sky who commands the rank and file through its 'representatives', people wearing silly clothes called 'priests', or bishops. Let's not forget, kids, anyone not doing what the priests say will burn in torment for all eternity! Grown ups who claim to be connected to invisible beings in the sky are the ultimate authority, disobeying religious dogma means the 'sinner' will be tortured for all eternity by this 'loving' entity after you are dead. Actually I can see why it's important that 10 year old children are taught to fear what will happen to them after they die, it creates easily manipulated and controlled, fearful, guilt-ridden, 'god fearing' and- most importantly - church obeying- adults. Is that what you want youg children's heads filled with? Christian, Islam, whatever, orthodox religion is a man made invention, a crock of anachronistic, superstitious twaddle, designed to ensure earthly men (God apparently doesn't empower women, can't think why, can you?) to enjoy earthly power at the expense of the indoctrinated multitudes.    Report

06/06/2008, 8:48 PM steve Joined on 18/09/2006 east anglia Posts 25 Re: Education- a new approach totally agree    Report

06/06/2008, 10:44 PM bernie Joined on 24/12/2005 Posts 32 Re: Education- a new approach     So I take it, that you would teach theories, such as the big bang, on how the world and universe and galaxis originated. Can you tell me how space created all the gases, chemicals and solid matter required. And what about the other theory about evolution and how we evolved from an  amoaeba and then to monkeys and then to us.Funny how non Christians are quick to teach their kids this sort of untested rubbish than Christianity which can be tested.For one thing, independent historians of that era have did not question what Jesus did, nor did the people still alive when the gospel was spread . Nobody of the time ever said that what Jesus did was a lie.The man who got his sight, modern eye specialists have said that his answer to what he could see is what they would expect from some one who never had sight. Christianity is real,I know, I have had prayer answered and it is not in my mind or coincidence.    Report

07/06/2008, 12:31 AM bernie Joined on 24/12/2005 Posts 32 Re: Education- a new approach     To whisperycat, the occult is the arena of the devil and you are delving into something you are ignorant of. If you looked into Christianity, you will see that it is not a religeon, but a relationship with God and is not a man made religeon, unlike all the others. A proper church will emphasis the loving nature of God and the want to please God, not dwell on hell. Christians are encouraged to study the bible and come to our own conclusions, pasters and other church leaders are there to guide and encourage and teach, but we still make up our own minds about what we are told.Mormonism,islam et al usually indoctrinate the members and the members are expected to accept what they are told.    Report

09/06/2008, 2:04 PM whisperycat Joined on 09/10/2006 Ipswich Posts 23 Re: Education- a new approach Hi Bernie. I don't believe in the devil. The devil, like god, is a purely human invention. If I want shining, shocking examples of pure evil, one place I can always look to with confidence, is to the history of the Christian church. Considering that "God" allegedly instructed humans "Thou Shalt Not Kill", the Christian church is a past master of oppression, institutionalised torture, the suppression of women, the murder of dissidents and any opposing voices etc.And how strange, "God" just sits on his invisible cloud and lets it all happen 'in his name'. You are lucky you live in the 21st century and not (for example) betwen 1560-1700, when the Inquisition carried out over 49,000 trials in Europe. You may slip safely under the wire in 2008 as being a 'good Christian' but you would not get away with being a "good Christian" in the good old days, when men of god had a bit of legal authority behind them! We have seen what happens when God's little helpers are empowered to do more than hold jumble sales in the village hall. The Crusades. The inquisition, torture, burnings, hangings, trial by ordeal (the tortuous ordeals were carried out in Church, probably so Jesus could hear the screams?). The inquisition was not so much about God (who of course had nothing to say at the time) but about the establishment and maintainance of earthly power for earthly men. Had you been born in some earlier time Bernie you would have had a choice - toe the line, worship the priests (not God, the men who claim to be of God), keep your mouth shut, obey the church, in everything, or - die. Horribly. In a way that would make you an example for anyone else thinking of crossing the church, err, I mean God. God allegedly approved all this - the men of God said so at the time. It was 'his will'. Yes, God's servants made sure that the red hot pincers they were going to use on you had been blessed by God - that must be reassuring to christians like you, Bernie. To know that the devil had been cast out of the church's blessed torture implements. They would bless the weights they used to break your bones, too, God himself would have blessed the rack and the gouges and the thumbscrews that the christian church used so heavily, while they had the power to. How far have we come? Well, in 1945, a priest blessed both the nuclear bombs which were dropped on the civilian targets of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, vapourising over 200,000 people. Where was the Christian "god" and his "Thou shalt not kill", Bernie? Oh that's right, God stayed silent, as ever. God did nothing, as ever. Hundreds of thousands of murders carried out in his name, and he remained schtum. It's a crock of deluded twaddle, isn't it? The battle between religions is just a cover for good old fashioned human warfare, conquest and domination. Seems to me God IS the devil.    Report

12/06/2008, 8:37 AM bernie Joined on 24/12/2005 Posts 32 Re: Education- a new approach Hi whisperycat, You certainly have a jaunced view of Christianity and, yes in the past the church leaders did not behave as a Christian, they misinterpreted the bible for one reason or another and the illiterate populace had no choice but to take heed of the  leaders.Those of us who are a little more enlightened realise that we live by Gods grace and not by the laws of the old testament, except the ten commandmends of which the one you quoted is to not murder, not kill.Living under Gods grace means that we look to God in all things and have eyes, you might say , for God and the way he wants us to live. Love the lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might and love your neighbour as you would love your self  are the basic laws of Christianity.If you love God, you will do as he wants and there fore not sin. You  should not judge Christianity by the people who profess to be Christians, as we are human like you.Read the bible and judge from that In Christ, both men and women are equal, but in marriage the husband is the head and the wife must submit to the husband, not as a door mat but in that he makes the final decision, with the wifes input.The husband must submit to God, as the wife submits to her husband. The devil is a fallen angel, who had delusions of granduer and thought that he should be God and so God cast him out to earth and gave him dominion over the earth for a period of time.It is the devil who causes all the problems and because the people have turned from God, they do not have the protection of God and are seperated from God. Only by accepting Jesus Christ as your saviour can you be one with God and inherit the kingdom of God. If you do not believe in God and creation, can you tell me how all the universes and galaxies were born? If from a big bang as the scietists would have us believe, how did the sun come to a stop and the planets revolve around it and how did the galaxies form into spirals, considering that anything set in motion in space, will keep on going in a straight line unless it bumps into some thing. The big question is, how did space produce all the chemicals, gases and solid matter to enable this big bang, realising that the big bang is only a theory . How is it that scientists are happy to accept the big bang theory, which cannot be proved or tested and push it schools as fact and yet will not accept the bible version which can be proved. All of the historical happenings in the bible were prophisied hundreds of years befor they occured and have been proven , such as Alexander the great, was prophised to rule the world. General Eisenhauer, the allied forces commander at the d day landings in europe, was a Christian and based his timing of the invasion on Gods word.King George the sixth called for a national day of prayer in 1940 when the English forces were on the beaches at dunkirk and all the soldiers were brought home. There are too many of these incidences to say it is coincidence, God is very real. Try him, you will be surprised, I was.    Report

12/06/2008, 4:42 PM whisperycat Joined on 09/10/2006 Ipswich Posts 23 Using God as an excuse to do what you want Bernie, are you for real? You have an invisible friend who created the universe, and he says that your wife must obey you, as all women must obey their husbands? How convenient - if you're a man. And what an insult to the intelligence. As for the devil - if God can't destroy him then God is not the supreme being, is he? Explain to me how a God can be a God and yet not be able to deal with a mere 'fallen angel'. Please don't try to pretend that there are somehow laws and rules preventing God from defeating the devil, that can't be so, can it? Who makes rules which God has to obey? A God could do anything, the problem is, your God doesn't exist outside of the fevered minds of the religiously infected. Your religious "truth" was invented by men, written by mean, edited and embellished by men, translated through half a dozen different languages by men, is used by men, to control men, to manipulate men, to make men fearful and to keep men ignorant and uneducated. There isn't much in the bible about the formation of spiral galaxies, I agree, Bernie, that would be because ......?    Report

12/06/2008, 8:46 PM steve Joined on 18/09/2006 east anglia Posts 25 Re: Education- a new approach wispery you forgot the ducking stool bernie how can you say a man has got to tell a women what to do everyone is born equel i thought!!!!!!!!!!!    Report

15/06/2008, 5:11 PM nevillerover Joined on 05/10/2007 Posts 10 Re: Education- a new approach Well I'm with Whisperycat on this one and I'm sure couldn’t have put it more forcibly myself. However, I've long thought that when kids start school and are most impressionable, they should be taught good citizenship. Simple things like respecting authority/elders, politeness, kindness, generosity etc. In a lot of cases things they probably don’t see at home.    Report

28/06/2008, 4:08 AM bernie Joined on 24/12/2005 Posts 32 Re: Using God as an excuse to do what you want Typical of non-believers, reading what you want to read. No where did I say that the wife is subservient tothe husband, read what I wrote. As I wrote, God has allowed the devil to reign over the earth for a time, which God will decide.He made us with free will and we have two choices, God or .the devil. If you do not choose God, then you are choosing the devil.God made us with free will so that we come to him out of choice. He could have made us as robots, but there would not have been a relationship between us, which is what God wants from us, a relationship.If Christianity were taught in school, the kids would learn that there is a purpose to our lives.      Report

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