Jim Devine channeling Daniel Davies: >> In general, for every belief that I don't want to take hold in society >> at large, I am in favour of it being taught in state schools. Consider >> the question of religion generally. America has a strict blanket >> prohibition on religion in the public education system, and it is one >> of the most devoutly Christian countries on earth. We have a >> compulsory act of worship every day and compulsory religious education >> up to 15, and we are largely Godless. This isn't a coincidence. >> >> In fact, this principle could usefully be extended. In regions of the >> country where we are worried about the development of Islamic >> extremism, we ought to force the teachers to draw up a rota and take >> turns every day unwillingly dragging the kids through a tired, >> desultory, unenthusiastic version of the basics of Islam. >> >> Just to suck the life out of it even further, we could draw up a set >> of incomprehensible "targets" and capriciously cut the school's >> funding now and then if they didn't meet them. Wouldn't five years of >> grinding through the dullest bits of the Koran substantially reduce >> the appeal of radical Islam to disaffected Asian youths? The glory of >> jihad would be inextricably linked in their minds with miserable >> Thursday afternoons sitting through another bloody hour of RE. It's >> just an idea.
Funny, except that what you say is generally true of everything the public schools teach. If we wanted our kids to be more interested in math and science, the best thing would be to stop the public schools from teaching math and science. Privatize now. David Shemano
