Albion

I'm not sure what's going on with that. The guy who bankrolled the school was wanting to start a bunch of other schools, and Tony Blair was very interested in the notion of more faith-based schools opeining up (something Richard Dawkins has been fighting against very hard, of course). But some of the reports of religious intolerance in a few of the existing ones has rather tarnished the whole idea as far as I know.

I assume that if Emmanuel College is still teaching creationism, it's being very low-key about it. I don't suppose Tony Blair enjoyed being at the receiving end of that letter signed by a bunch of Church of England bishops (along with some of the country's most prominent scientists) deploring the teaching of creationism, and I don't think he can have enjoyed the criticism he received for declining to criticise creationist teaching when specifically asked about it in Parliament. I'm guessing low profiles are the order of the day for the moment. There haven't been any news reports since spring last year that I've seen.

Edited to say that I found this on the BBC site. A bunch of creationists have also written to the Education Secretary telling her that schools shouldn't focus just on Darwinism. Seems as though the leader of the group is a specialist in combustion theory, whatever that has to do with evolution.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/1979840.stm

And when Blair had another chance to criticise the teaching of creationism in an interview with Jeremy Paxman he ducked the question several times:

P: Is it your religious conviction that makes you tolerant of the idea of faith schools?

TB: No, I think there is a strong case for faith schools because I think parents often like to have their children brought up with the certain ethos that they believe in, and I think what people should remember about faith schools, is that we have had faith schools for years in this country, the issue is simply whether we say to the Muslim community, you can have Christian faith schools, you can have Jewish faith schools but you can't have Muslim faith schools. I don't know how I would explain that to them.

JP: You don't accept the force of Peter Hain's point the other day, that that would be likely to encourage what he calls "isolationism" in the Muslim community?

TB: No, I think it is actually better to have communities feeling that they can have faith schools which obviously then abide by the national curriculum, than having sometimes people on more of an ad hoc basis with particular majorities in particular schools.

JP: You would be happy for your child to be taught that was it was literally true that the world was made in six days?

TB: I don't think my children are taught that. I'm not sure that any children are.

JP: You would be happy for your child to go to a school in which that was imparted as fact?

TB: Well, I don't know that it is imparted as fact. Who imparts that as fact?

JP: Creationists impart that as fact.

TB: If this is to do with the school up in the north-east, I wouldn't believe everything that's said. I think you will find the school abides by the national curriculum and teaches children perfectly well. I know there is a lot of criticism of that school, but look at the results. They are pretty good. Most parents want their children to have results as good as that.

JP: Is it appropriate to teach creationism in a state school?

TB: I don't believe that it does in the way you are suggesting. I think it is important... I don't have all the facts at my fingertips in relation to this school, but I know that some of the allegations made were disputed.

JP: Is it appropriate, as a matter of principle, that creationism be taught in schools?

TB: But I am not sure that it is and therefore I don't know that it's a relevant question.

JP: With respect, that's not the question.

TB: Well, it is, in the sense that there is no point in asking me a completely hypothetical question.

JP: I'm not.

TB: I don't think they are very sensible questions to answer. I think that the issue of faith schools is... To my mind, you have to answer it in two ways - is it right to have any faith schools at all? I personally believe that it is. That it is a right for people if they want to have their children brought up in a certain way, and Catholic or Church of England schools, they have a certain ethos in those schools. That's the first question. But some people say there shouldn't be any faith schools allowed at all. The second question is - if you should have faith schools or you allow or permit faith schools, is it right to tell the Muslim community that they are the one community that can't have schools?

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/fivey...716804,00.html

Sigh.

Albion

DD, Ken Ham doesn't count as an Australian problem. He's an American problem. You exported him, remember?

Jobar

Overcoming indoctrination from the cradle is a stone cold bitch of a problem, no question. But is there *nothing* a good science teacher can do? I know that some kids can overcome indoctrination- I did, and plenty of the ones on this board did also. For some young people, learning truth is far more important than sports, or socializing, or religion- we don't have to worry much about those, because they will really dig to find the facts. But most kids aren't that way. I wish that there was some way that we could *use* the high emotions engendered by the E/C controversy to improve the teaching of science to the non-nerds, biology in particular.

We have a vast amount of expertise here- I'd like to get everyone thinking about strategies for high school biology teachers, in the hope that we might come up with something original.

mecca777

Their website is currently "under reconstruction", but I don't see why they would change - Blair obviously didn't see it as a problem, and effectively gave them carte blanche by defending them in the Newsnight interview that Albion references above. Using the Wayback Machine, I found a copy of their site from last year. In the "Christian Ethos" section, there's a link called "Christianity and the Curriculum", which explains the effect that their beliefs have on the teaching of various subjects. In "Science", we get this:
:banghead: But if you want to see something truly scary, check out their viewpoint on mathematics:
Where's the smiley for "runs screaming"? I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit.

Albion

I see they've added a whole lot of pages about different subjects but the science page isn't back up even though they said it had only been taken down temporarily during the controversy over teaching creationism.

The piece on "The School" is quite interesting - how to get all subjects taught from a biblical perspective:

with a little dig at flawed scientific theories (whatEVER could she possibly be referring to??) a bit later in the article. I'm not clear if this is just the way they think overtly Christian schools should be run or a blueprint to change the focus of the national curriculum altogether. There was one little comment about how it's pleasing God to make it easier to start up faith-based schools - no wonder Tony Blair's waffling in public about this stuff. Good grief. Do they really want things to get like they are here?

pangloss

Doctor Zay-ass?