Religion and schools (1 Viewer)

Anthony

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Secondary schools are at capacity now and finding a place for your kid is hard enough but now it seems like the religious card is being played especially by Catholic secondary schools. So all over the place kids from the 56 Educate Together schools are finding it hard to get into good schools.
What can be done? Has anyone had experience with this? I know of some parents who have had to use an expensive private school because the local school has just blanked the local ET school. Is this the Catholic church fighting back? A subtle recruitment drive?
Especially now in the age of "count me out" are new parents still happy to get their kids christened for schools or to keep their own parents happy? I'm going to say, shame on you if you do.
 
Secondary schools are at capacity now and finding a place for your kid is hard enough but now it seems like the religious card is being played especially by Catholic secondary schools. So all over the place kids from the 56 Educate Together schools are finding it hard to get into good schools.
What can be done? Has anyone had experience with this? I know of some parents who have had to use an expensive private school because the local school has just blanked the local ET school. Is this the Catholic church fighting back? A subtle recruitment drive?
Especially now in the age of "count me out" are new parents still happy to get their kids christened for schools or to keep their own parents happy? I'm going to say, shame on you if you do.

We've been contacted by a fair few parents in the same predicament through the countmeout site. It's fairly depressing but yes a lot of parents get children baptised simply to get them in to the local school. There is a slight anomaly between the constitution and the equal status act in the sense that children are guaranteed the right to education yet church schools can turn down kids who are not of their denomination in order to 'preserve their ethos'. It's a shit state of affairs and crying out for someone to challenge it on grounds of discrimination.
 
In our local school there's apparently pressure from the parish priest to keep non-catholics out of the school that's being vigorously resisted by the principal, fair play to him, otherwise I expect we'd have to have sent Isabelle to the ET school in Navan (20-30 mins drive each way as opposed to the bus stopping outside our door)

It's actually pretty mad how all-pervasive religion is in a catholic school, I had forgotten it from my own childhood. She does colouring when the others are doing religion, but there's prayers in the morning and hymn singing at christmas and god is kinda just interwoven in the fabric of school life
 
Ongoing argument in our house between Nora and me: Nora says that 'judes' turn into pigs when they die, so they don't ever actually die. I say she's mixing up various philosophies, but she's adamant because Roisin (the teacher) said it, Daddy!!!

Seems kinda mad that 5 year old kids learn about different world religions, but no harm I guess.
 
and how else would they choose which students to pick given limited places? aptitude tests for 13 year olds (cant really do this for public schools, as dumb dumbs have to be catered for aswell)? proximity to the school (this could cause a whole load of problems i'm sure)?



edit: i suppose first com first served would be best.
 
Roisin (the teacher) said it, Daddy!!!
This crack is a bit irritating.

"Tony said that it you squeeze your finger it stays red forever"

"No it doesn't darling - look, I'm squeezing my finger and it's red, but in a few minutes it'll be normal again".

"No don't do that Dad it'll be red forever!"

Why the fuck does she believe some kid in senior infants that she doesn't even like rather than her trustworthy old dad? Hmmph
 
There is an organisation you can contact if you are getting the runaround from catholic schools in this regard but the name escapes me at the moment. Have the young felit's name down for the little Portestant school in Raheny but they won't let us know until 3 months beofre term start if they will let him in. I'd get him baptised CoI or Unitarian if that would help as i's the feeder school for Mount Temple. There's no way he's going to a Catholic school/ethos/environment. Feel sorry for peeps without the option.
 
We've been contacted by a fair few parents in the same predicament through the countmeout site. It's fairly depressing but yes a lot of parents get children baptised simply to get them in to the local school. There is a slight anomaly between the constitution and the equal status act in the sense that children are guaranteed the right to education yet church schools can turn down kids who are not of their denomination in order to 'preserve their ethos'. It's a shit state of affairs and crying out for someone to challenge it on grounds of discrimination.

Why hasn't this happened yet? It baffles me ...
 
How is that different?

New parents, don't cave to pressure. Every one of you that baptises (if you're not actually a believer) is maintaining this shitty system.

I'm an atheist but obviously culturally christian from my catholic schooling. my parents are anti-clerics and anti- hierarchy but there was no such thing as atheism in Ireland when I was a boy. My main motiviation would be to keep him away from catholicism as opposed to christian education. Educate together school is massively oversubscribed near me anyway.
 
i get awful ranty on this subject, so i'm just going to contribute in bullet point form.

  1. agree with anthony RE: preserving a shitty system by caving in and getting baptised
  2. i read recently that about 90% of schools are controlled by these guys, which blows entirely
  3. i disagree wholeheartedly with anyone he thinks 'ah shir its alright to get a christian education, explanation follows
  4. i grew up ina border region where schools are more obviosly religiously segregated then maybe further south
  5. the history courses taught are divergent - i.e neither are taught the whole picture of where they are from
  6. if nobody intervened, they'd teach flat earth in geography
 
This crack is a bit irritating.

"Tony said that it you squeeze your finger it stays red forever"

"No it doesn't darling - look, I'm squeezing my finger and it's red, but in a few minutes it'll be normal again".

"No don't do that Dad it'll be red forever!"

Why the fuck does she believe some kid in senior infants that she doesn't even like rather than her trustworthy old dad? Hmmph

ha ha

she'll be going to mass soon!
 
Why hasn't this happened yet? It baffles me ...

To be fair, if it were to happen it would be quite a high profile thing. It would require a child to have been refused entry to a school on those grounds and then the parents challenge the law in court. Not only would it cause ructions within the community but it may also impact on the child for a number of years. It likely wouldn't end there as something like this could most likely end up in the Supreme Court. It would be fairly brave of someone to take it on.

I don't have children but if I did I would feel very uncomfortable with them having to attend a Catholic school and sit out all the religious instruction. You could argue that having to sit it out is very damaging for the child as they feel isolated from playground friends, especially in times of communion and confirmation.
 
To be fair, if it were to happen it would be quite a high profile thing. It would require a child to have been refused entry to a school on those grounds and then the parents challenge the law in court. Not only would it cause ructions within the community but it may also impact on the child for a number of years. It likely wouldn't end there as something like this could most likely end up in the Supreme Court. It would be fairly brave of someone to take it on.

I don't have children but if I did I would feel very uncomfortable with them having to attend a Catholic school and sit out all the religious instruction. You could argue that having to sit it out is very damaging for the child as they feel isolated from playground friends, especially in times of communion and confirmation.

Yeah true but I think the schools deal with this a lot better than they used to e.g. getting the children involved in communion in some other way, letting them do fun stuff like drawing when the other kids are doing religion and so on. Obviously depends on the school ...

In general, school is not quite like it used to be. The kids on our street actually look forward to going back to school at the end of the Summer. Bizarre ... wasn't like that in my day.

I think youse are being a bit rough on those who get their kids baptized just to get them into a school. We didn't do it, but having experienced the pressure and stress that comes with trying to sort out a school for your kid (especially in Dublin) I wouldn't be too quick to condemn those who take the easy option ...
 
I think youse are being a bit rough on those who get their kids baptized just to get them into a school.

Dude, you'll be banging your head against a brick wall standing up to Anthony's patented I'm-right-and-your-wrong attitude.

Me, I have my fingers crossed that when my kid comes to school going age that the country will have progressed somewhat.
 
Dude, you'll be banging your head against a brick wall standing up to Anthony's patented I'm-right-and-your-wrong attitude.

Me, I have my fingers crossed that when my kid comes to school going age that the country will have progressed somewhat.

Yeah, right! Sorry Ian ... I mean your optimism is truly inspiring .....
 

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