The next threat to Education in Scotland..
Posted on: March 10, 2013
- In: change | emotional education | Equality | Family | future of education | homophobia | Inclusion | LGBT | marriage equality | Pastoral care | Personal | politics | Same sex marriage | teaching and learning
- 1 Comment
From today’s Scotsman.com
Scotland for Marriage, a pressure group backed by the Catholic Church and evangelical groups, has said it is “concerned that children will be taught in school sexual health education that marriage can be between two people of the same sex”.The group says same-sex marriage should be dealt with as a controversial issue like abortion, and that parents should have the right to withdraw children from lessons on the subject.
So Scotland For Marriage, fronted up until recently by Cardinal Archbishop Keith O’Brien believe that children should be taught that the marriages of some of their classmate’s parents are ‘controversial’ ? In our country ten years after the ignominious clause 2A was removed from the statute books, are these people really seriously expecting a return to these days? Do they want legislation or guidelines which will stigmatise and even humiliate children in our schools?
Individual teachers are entitled to hold their own views and opinions, but they are not and should never be entitled to use these views as an excuse to single out some of the kids in their classes because of their parents’ marriage situation. Any such teacher would almost certainly be in breach of the Standard for Full Registration, and in my view, not fit to remain a teacher. Some people are gay- Get used to it, the posters, T-shirts, and postcards say. And very soon, gay people will be allowed full marriage equality. Get used to that too.
And do Scotland for Marriage seriously expect the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Michael Russell to even consider a return to the past where equality and fairness were privileges for some rather than basic human rights for everyone? Well CARE Scotland certainly do, describing marriage between two people of the same sex as “a social experiment”. My marriage is certainly no experiment, and it was no different from any other as far as the pupils I was teaching at the time were concerned.
Kristina Woolnough, of the National Parents Forum of Scotland, said: “Most parents would expect that the personal and social aspects of education that pupils have in school reflects equality legislation, reflects differences and supports young people as they grow and develop.
Well said.
March 10, 2013 at 6:20 pm
‘Individual teachers are entitled to hold their own views and opinions, but they are not and should never be entitled to use these views as an excuse to single out some of the kids in their classes because of their parents’ marriage situation.’
Quite right too. And it applies not only to this subject but across the board. Individual teachers teach according to the curriculum, not to espouse their own views. If they hold views that differ so much from the curriculum they are required to teach, then they ought to give up teaching and do something else. Causing divisiveness between religions, sexuality and politics is just not on when you are teaching.
The time for religious and moral exclusivity and privilege has passed. It belongs in the history books. We are a planet is dire straits with internecine belief systems tearing us apart and infiltrating all segments of society. We are stretching the limits of our natural resources and we are worried about some wee percentage of our population that doesn’t breed but takes on the abandoned and orphaned children of the breeders. And by some accounts, these adoptees are better off, achieve better and seem better adjusted.
We can no longer expect to segregate people because of their sexual and emotional preferences.
This wailing and gnashing of teeth is reminiscent of the anti abortion and anti contraception excesses of the 1970s and 80s.
Good article. I am pleased to see it written.