Panorama On The Birmingham School Protests

[vetuste_ennemi]

Anybody seen this?

How do you think the issue about the teaching of sexual and family diversity is going to be resolved? Especially as the temperature will be raised further next year when it becomes a legal(?) requirement on all primary schools to instruct their pre-pubescent pupils about same-sex marriage.

It seems to me that there's an intractable contradiction in an educational policy which promotes the idea that homosexuality is "OK" to the children of parents who think it is not.

But I'm not that an imaginative person. The British have a gift for compromise (we are told). What's the likely British compromise here?

[Mamyalynne]

I understand one thing, a parent/s should be largely responsible for their child's moral guidance and if you struggle to do that within a tolerant society then maybe, just maybe you aren't too good at tho task.

[Theland]

If accepting the curriculum was a condition of citizenship, then not accepting it should win you a plane ticket back to your roots.

[Cloverjo]

Whoo!, I think I agree with Theland.

[Theland]

Careful Cleverjo - you might make enemies with such a comment :-)

[vetuste_ennemi]

I agree with that, Mamya, but you're obviously avoiding my point, or I'm making a poor fist of explaining it.

Let's assume the latter, and I'll have another go.

Some people think homosexuality is sinful. Like most Christians a hundred years ago. And like most Muslims today whether they're in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Tower Hamlets or Birmingham.

So if Birmingham's Muslims think the local school is teaching their children that homosexuality is not[i sinful they'll get angry, won't they? They'll argue, just as you do in your post, that it's [i]their] duty as responsible parents to rear their children as moral human beings, and it's not the state's duty by any of its institutions (like schools) to subvert that.

[Mamyalynne]

If they wish to fly in the face of what counts as acceptable in this country then they can absent their children if possible from those few periods per term or from the school in total.

Hopefully their children won't be too shocked when they eventually realise what real life is and won't have treated badly any classmates whose lives differ from their own.

I'm sure you like me and my husband managed to rear children with a fair mind and some tolerance of others.

[vetuste_ennemi]

In n ever so slightly lighter vein it's a moot point whether I find the RSE policy itself, or the methods of its Muslim opponents the more disgusting.

But there can be only one winner.

[vetuste_ennemi]

You're not addressing the question, Mamya: what if most people sending their kids to a school in Birmingham don't think like you and me?

You're speaking as if such people and such communities don't exist.

[Mamyalynne]

You obviously need someone brighter than me then,.

[vetuste_ennemi]

And won't become more populous and gain more influence.

[vetuste_ennemi]

//You obviously need someone brighter than me then//

Not the brightness.

[douglas9401]

No compromise is possible, only more erosion of rules and authority.

It's a one-way street, anything else is racist.

[naomi24]

I didn’t see the programme but I’ve seen news reports of the upheaval this has caused with some of the parents saying that primary school children are too young. Therefore the compromise in that instance would be to delay instruction until the children are in secondary school – but would the parents accept that? Since this isn’t really an issue of age but culture, for people who believe that alternative lifestyles are simply wrong there is no compromise. Therefore, acceptance of such education for their children at any age is doubtful. My personal opinion is that rather than impose questionable and controversial ideas upon their charges, schools should concentrate on ensuring that they leave education armed with the essential tools of life.

[dannyk13]

I fail to see why arrangements can't be made for the children of the objecting parents to leave the classroom while this particular lesson is being taught.

[naomi24]

Danny, the idea that a subject be added to the official school curriculum and some children excluded is bizarre. If the powers that be insist that the subject be brought into schools, perhaps it should be taught as an extracurricular activity, much as chess or piano lessons are now, at an after-school ‘club’. Parents would then have a choice.

[Jordyboy9]

So Dannyk13,5 children out of 30 stay for the lessons,
Then afterwards they get together,
What was the lesson about will be asked
Then they are given a child’s view rather than the adult teacher.

[spathiphyllum]

Its more of a concern that young, homosexual children are bullied, tormented, potentially abused by ignorant straight kids because either... They are uneducated on the topic... OR, because their parents would do the same.

This is not OK.

This isn't about educating straight kids so they know about homosexuality.

It's about protecting the homosexual kids from the prejudice, the ignorance and the potential abuse.

[Cloverjo]

I don’t think that there would be a specific lesson designated for teaching children about LGBT issues. It would just be part of the current teaching of what we used to call PTSA 30-odd years ago.

[spathiphyllum]

In year 6 i remember being showed an intimate video of a woman's labia. I'm sure her ankle featured in the video.

Would this be acceptable in a Muslims eyes?

[dannyk13]

Naomi,//Danny, the idea that a subject be added to the official school curriculum and some children excluded is bizarre.//
It worked very well in my school when Jewish pupils were excused from RI lessons.
I think that you are right about it being taught as an extra-curricular subject.