Ordinary Gweilo

They must be desperate at the SCMP to publish letters like this. 

Serious implications for schools

Alex Lo demonstrates an inability to handle the intrusion into management of religious schools ("God-awful fears freeze school reform", November 8).

Without a firm foundation, he assumes the high ground in the conflict between religious schools and their forced compliance with a dramatic shift in the structure of their governing bodies.

Lo proposes that religious schools would despair of teaching Darwin as if Darwin’s theories have no flaws. Lo suggests that Mao Zedong is not taught in these schools, a dictator who was responsible for millions of deaths.

I think we’re starting to get an idea where you’re coming from…

At the very least, there will be more conflict on religious school governing boards, with clashes over values and principles.

Will we see some non-Christian members wanting to see a very liberal view of sex education put on the curriculum? Other new board members might wish to have abortion taught as a value. Some could debate that the Ten Commandments or similar basic texts are a waste of time.

Abortion taught as a value?  Really?  Is that common in non-faith schools?

I am sorry that people want to water down religious schools and say this is fair, for this introduces a skewed value system.

A what?

Everyone chooses some god or belief, but forcing people who have adopted one standard to bow down to any system at all is discriminatory. Evidently this has been lost on many people.

Rosa Chan, Lai Chi Kok

Here’s the original article:

God-awful fears freeze school reform

Alex Lo
Nov 08, 2011

Making the Anglican and Catholic churches open up their schools and become more accountable to parents is like trying to pull teeth from their ageing leaders.

After the Catholics lost their case in the Court of Final Appeal, Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun staged a quasi-hunger strike.

Now the Anglicans have threatened to delay implementing the government-mandated school board reform until the next chief executive takes office. No doubt, the church is hoping the next government boss might think differently on the issue and take the pressure off. It is also planning to switch its schools to direct-subsidy funding, which would enable them to circumvent direct government control.

The schools are likely to have to charge more, though, to make up for lost revenue. So much for helping the poor and weak if that means losing an iota of control, with a capital C!

The churches have conjured up hellish visions of radical parents and community representatives taking over school boards and watering down their moral and religious teachings. God forbid if they start making pupils study Charles Darwin, Friedrich "God is dead" Nietzsche or Mao Zedong.

Zen has warned that the government, under pressure from Beijing, might try to force Catholic schools to teach communist propaganda. Well, the government could be doing that now if it wanted.

Church leaders should put their fear and loathing to rest and place more trust in their flocks. Parents prefer the church schools precisely because of their strict and disciplinary teaching. They will not want that to change. Many also send their children there because they are co-religionists.

They might, however, demand better curriculums in maths and science and insist that local English teachers be able to write and speak properly in the language.

Now, what’s wrong with that?

Hmmm… Being able to speak and write properly in English?  No, that’ll never catch on.