Spitting in the Eye of Northern Ireland’s educationalists: college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply
May 31, 2009
It seems that even the State of California, disparingly referred to as full of flakes fruits and nuts , has better approaches to education than all the supperannuated socialists at the Department of Education in Northern Ireland.
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-charter31-2009may31,0,617272.story?track=ntothtml
Not many schools in California recruit teachers with language like this:
”We are looking for hard working people who believe in free market capitalism. . . . Multicultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply.”
School administrators take pride in their record of frequently firing teachers they consider to be underperforming. Unions are embraced with the same warmth accorded
“self-esteem experts, panhandlers, drug dealers and those snapping turtles who refuse to put forth their best effort,”
to quote the school’s website.
Conservatives, including columnist George Will, adore the American Indian schools, which they see as models of a “new paternalism” that could close the gap between the haves and have-nots in American education. Not surprisingly, many Bay Area liberals have a hard time embracing an educational philosophy that proudly proclaims that it “does not preach or subscribe to the demagoguery of tolerance.”
Read this article published in the Los Angeles Times and ask yourself why you have tolerated a decade of underperformance by richly rewarded educationalists and bureaucrats.
Look back in anger on regulated 11-plus tests
May 29, 2009
PACE had warned parents about the DUP’s failure to expose the Education Minister’s blackmail attempt over unregulated tests.
Read the warning again in full.
http://paceni.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/the-esa-loving-dup-stay-silent/
Primary principals attempt an end to parental choice
May 29, 2009
In a desperate effort to achieve an end to academic selection primary school principals have called on grammar schools to abandon their unregulated entrance tests. Instead of pressuring the Minister, Caitriona Ruane, over her failure to provide regulated tests the teaching unions have picked upon their colleagues in the grammar sector. Of course a grammar school without academic selection is not a grammar school so the approach is doomed to failure.
Mr Harron of the INTO said the conference in Belfast was the beginning of a campaign to make sure voices of primary principals were heard.
The teaching unions practically live in Rathgael House at the Department of Education and parents are undoubtedly sick of hearing their anti selection views forced down the throats of parents via a compliant media.
School heads want tests abandoned
The Irish News headline the meeting in Belfast of primary school principals angered by the DENI led chaos over transfer arrangements. Their unions have organised the gathering during a critical time of the summer term in an attempt to influence political representatives.
http://www.irishnews.com/articles/540/561/2009/5/22/618195_382165057026850heads.html
The meeting and subsequent media coverage are a last ditch effort to prevent grammar schools using unregulated tests to determine admissions. As usual misinformation and ideology are at the heart of the union’s claims.
The BBC Education correspondent quotes Brendan Harron of INTO
“This is forcing schools to consider abandoning the revised curriculum,” he said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8071225.stm
When primary school principals claim that preparation for the numeracy and literacy tests are outside the revised curriculum they are entirely wrong. The DENI have confirmed to PACE that the numeracy and literacy elements of the curriculum are the same as before. This information has also been shared with the BBC education correspondent via e-mail. It has come to a sad state when the figureheads of primary schools and journalists resort to mistruth at a time when parents and pupils are already stressed by the uncertainty introduced by the Minister and the DENI.
http://paceni.wordpress.com/2009/05/22/information-for-parents-on-p7-11-plus-tests/
Since the ending of the 11-plus has been known about for seven years, the failure of the educationalists to introduce a valid and reliable replacement tells parents all they need to know about their union’s ideological campaign.
An example of the nonsense pitched by INTO tells parents how little faith they should have in the judgement of principals.
INTO senior official Brendan Harron said there was “a sense of outrage” among primary principals about the state of affairs regarding transfer 2010.
“Primary principals were very angry at the lack of direction from their employing authorities on this difficult issue,” he said.
“On the one hand they were being warned by the minister and the department not to deviate from teaching the revised curriculum and on the other hand they are being pressurised by parents of P6 children to prepare their children for the forthcoming unofficial, independent entrance tests. (also known as the numeracy and literacy component of the revised curriculum)
The self-styled “Moral Monopoly” of the Catholic Church in Ireland persists in spite of a nine year commission into widespread abuse of children in the state funded care of the Catholic Church. Cardinal Brady, the leader of the Catholic hierarchy has avoided accepting accountability for the institutional abuse of children through an absolute abuse of power. Commentators have compared the pervasive abusive behaviour to the treatment of Jews in concentration camps.
The 2,600-page report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse http://www.childabusecommission.ie/ painted the most detailed and damning portrait yet of church-administered abuse in a country grown weary of revelations about child molestation by priests. The investigation of the tax-supported schools uncovered previously supposedly secret Vatican records that demonstrated church knowledge of pedophiles in their ranks all the way back to the 1930s. The Ryan Commission Report, a five-volume report on the probe which was legally resisted by Catholic religious orders concluded that church officials shielded their orders’ pedophiles from arrest amid a culture of self-serving secrecy. The Christian Brothers, which ran several boys’ institutions, deemed to have harbored serial child molesters and sadists on their staff, indignantly insisted it had cooperated fully with the probe. Incredibly and with the support and acquiesce of higher authority the order successfully sued the commission in 2004 to keep the identities of all of its members, dead or alive, unnamed in the report. No real names, whether of victims or perpetrators, appear in the final document. The victims were even recently denied access to the conference unveiling the report.
the trusteeship of the network of Christian Brothers Schools has been morphed into the Edmund Rice Schools Trust.
A government-appointed panel has paid 12,000 survivors of the schools, orphanages and other church-run residences an average of 65,000 Euros each — on condition they surrender their right to sue either the church or state. About 2,000 more claims are pending. Irish Catholic leaders cut a controversial deal with the government in 2001 that capped the church’s contribution to a fraction of the final cost. The Christian Brothers’ leader in Ireland, Brother Kevin Mullan, claimed the organization had been right to keep names secret because “perhaps we had doubts about some of the allegations.” “But on the other hand, I’d have to say that at this stage, we have no interest in protecting people who were perpetrators of abuse,” Mullan said, vowing to “cooperate fully with any investigation or any civil authority seeking to explore those matters.” He failed to detail exactly how this would be achieved. It is important to note that Cardinal Brady, the leader of the Catholic Church throughout Ireland did not intervene to stop the Christian Brothers suing the commission. His failure to do so undermines any moral authority claims from the Roman Catholic Church and confirms the hierarchy’s propensity to keep skeletons hidden from scrutiny.
Comparisons have been made with Nazi concentration camps
It also undermines his authority in education matters throughout Northern Ireland where Brady has claimed that academic selection is morally wrong and according to the Catholic Ethos of education is a social injustice. The cost to the Irish government taxpayers has been about ten times the financial cap negotiated by the church and is likely to grow. Unfortunately for Cardinal Brady and those church legal advisors believing that secrecy would protect them forever their deliberate failure to identify the perpetrators of abuse leaves open a legal loophole in Northern Ireland, which operates under a different legal system. A victim in the British jurisdiction could take a civil action against the Roman Catholic Church thus providing a test of the government in protecting the rights of victims rather than the institution of the church. Father Paul Farren, Religious Education Director at the Diocesan Catechetical Centre claimed the Catholic Church has a duty to see that ‘academic selection’ doesn’t continue into the future, He went so far as to state that Bishops must intervene if necessary. Father Farren attacked the concept of choice arguing that the Church decided the moral context. His choice to stay silent on the abuse scandal will provide context. Some extracts of his article:
Change is often painful even if it is to improve a situation. The truth of this adage is obvious in relation to the ongoing discussion about the post-primary transfer procedures in Northern Ireland. One of the arguments in favour of the retention of academic selection is parental choice. Choice and free will have been recognised by the Church from the beginning. They are enshrined in many civil Constitutions. Choice and the exercise of free will are desired by people everywhere. It is a matter of justice. However, free will and choice must be exercised within an ethical context. The exercise of free will, in the biblical context, is intended to promote our freedom to choose good, not to suggest an indifference on the part of God to our choice of something which is not good. Is it acceptable to promote and facilitate an unjust and discriminatory system in the name of freedom of choice? Surely the ethical answer to this question is ‘no’. In fact the endeavour to eliminate injustice promotes a society which is more truly free. Injustice needs to be eliminated in order to create the necessary environment for Christian free choice. Academic selection is unjust, in that it facilitates social selection contrary to Catholic Church teaching, and it curtails freedom. In relation to the curtailment of freedom, for example, academic selection eliminates the parental choice of some people in one particular area of a town to send their children to the nearest Post Primary School. We cannot have parental choice for some and not all. We cannot have freedom of choice for some and not all. It is also important to note that an argument based primarily on freedom of choice can be very dangerous. For example, this is the argument that is used by people who describe themselves as pro choice in the debate on abortion. Choice must be exercised in a context which is based on Christian faith and ethics – the free choice of a moral good.
Father Paul Farren, Religious Education Director at the Diocesan Catechetical Centre
head of a self appointed moral majority
The irony of this article, published over a year ago, will be lost on a church which has a propensity, when things go wrong, to describe behaviour as Christian but when imposing a particular denominational view use the term Catholic Church teaching. An example of the moral monoply claimed by the Catholic Church.
continued to block accountability
Parallels may now also be drawn with the Catholic Church’s attitude to being exposed with that of Westminster MPs unmasked in their abuse of the Extra Costs Allowance (expenses) system. When confronted with requests for details using the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Parliament, led by the Speaker, sought to cover-up, obfuscate and threaten legal action against those interested in accountability. Campaigners say ordinary voters are entitled to know what their representatives in Parliament spend public money on. They have accused the Commons authorities of “a plot to conceal MPs’ expenses”. Unlock Democracy director Peter Facey said “The politicians must realise that by behaving so cynically, they will cause great damage to the reputation of Parliament.” The editor of the Guardian said of Martin: ‘He has made the fatal mistake of attempting a cover-up’ Unfortunately the warning was never fully accepted by the Speaker, Michael Martin, who again threatened legal action against the Daily Telegraph when they published detailed information on individual MP’s expenses. Mr Martin will now step down in June 2009, the first Speaker in 300 years to do so. Perhaps a similar campaign will force Cardinal Brady into identifying those priests, nuns and lay members who perpetrated the ultimate breach of trust with the protection of and in the name of his church.
Information for Parents on P7 11-plus Tests
May 22, 2009
Numeracy and Literacy?
DUH!
Edna: Seymour, you have to think of the children’s future.
Seymour: Oh, Edna. We all know that these children HAVE no future.
[Everyone stops and stares at Seymour.]
Seymour: Prove me wrong children. Prove me wrong.
Principal Skinner: That's why I love elementary school, Edna. The children believe anything you tell them.
While announcements are heralded about a meeting of primary school principals on their chaos over the unregulated11-plus transfer system parents may want to share some of one principal’s helpful information.
The school, Greystone Primary School, has been providing updates to anxious parents. However the source of the anxiety may be closer to the school prinipal’s efforts with Local Area Planning than meeting pupil’s needs.
The following extract from Update 6 reveals a disturbing attitude to numeracy and literacy attainments and the school’s approach to solutions on behalf of some pupils.
“You might want to consider whether you want your child to continue with these as work done in class during this time might be more useful if you do not intend to apply for a place in Antrim Grammar.”
Ivan Skinner, Principal of Greystone Primary School, Antrim
The following questions arise from Principal Skinner’s missive.
* Are only pupils seeking a place at Antrim Grammar worthy of numeracy and literacy teaching?
* Why is Antrim Grammar the only grammar school choice? Do Ballymena Academy, Cambridge House, Belfast Royal Academy, Belfast High School, RBAI no longer exist as a choice for parents and pupils?
* Are parents restricted to only AQE tests?
* Do the pupils know they are scoring low?
* How were the scores communicated to parents?
* What “work” does Principal Skinner mean?
In a sanitised history of the Christian Brothers Education Minister Caitriona aided in the coverup of a lengthy period of brutality against vulnerable young people throughout the island of Ireland. Unless of course the Minister would claim that the British north had protected vulnerable Catholic children from a regime that applied throughout the Republic.
20 January 2009 – Ruane praises Christian Brothers contribution to education
Education Minister, Caitríona Ruane, joined Cardinal Brady and young people to celebrate the launch of the new Edmund Rice Schools Trust.
The event, held in the Dromantine Resource centre, marked the passing on of the trusteeship of the network of Christian Brothers Schools to the Edmund Rice Schools Trust.
Ms Ruane said: “Christian Brothers Schools have been working to provide a quality education for young people since the 1800’s. Their schools have educated young people not only across Ireland but around the world. As a result, their schools have produced famous artists, politicians and sports people along with people of all professions. [ no mention of abuse here]
“The event here in Dromantine represents the dawning of a new era as the Directors of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust become custodians of the long and proud traditions of Christian Brothers Education.
“Back in 1802 when he set up his first school in Waterford, Edmund Rice recognised the vital role of education in building and supporting communities. Today his schools continue to promote the ethos of equality and respect he once taught.
“I have regularly stated my opposition to academic selection, which is clearly against the most basic principles of social justice. I believe that we have many examples of fine schools which have shown they can produce educated and well rounded young people without the need to subject them to high stake tests. I have attempted to build a consensus for the proposals I published last year and to establish a firm legislative basis. However, I have a duty to children, parents and teachers who want to know how transfer will happen in 2010. If I do not receive political agreement, I will act and issue guidance to schools. I have no doubt Edmund Rice would share that view.
“I wish the incoming Members and Directors of the Edmund Rice Schools Trust every success in their new roles. I hope we will continue to work together in providing an education system that allows all children to achieve their full potential.”
Perhaps as a resident of the Republic of Ireland Ruane and her fellow travellers had prior knowledge of the history of the Christian Brothers schools and their secret history of social justice.
Come out of Denial
May 21, 2009
A Catholic priest, Fr. Michael Mernagh, has called for a world wide Day of Atonement over the systemic abuse of children in residential institutions throughout Ireland by Catholic religious and lay members.
Visit the site. http://www.kandle.ie/2009/01/23/atonement-walk/
Victims have described the Ryan Report as ” a whitewash”
The same Catholic Church in Ireland have imposed their vision for education in the 21st century.
Discerning observers throughout Ireland will raise doubts over the Church’s current ability to reliably preside over the care of children.
Caitriona Ruane, The Minister of Education:
“I have heard suggestions that the Catholic Church proposals may contain a request for the Department to recommission the test as an interim measure for a set period of years before academic selection would end after some future debate. Any attempt to construct another test would, in my view, be totally contrary to the principles of social justice to which the Catholic Church is publicly committed.”
The Catholic Church are more interested in damage control over the Ryan Report at the moment and have been forced to support the unregulated tests lest they lose even more support from parents. Their version of socialjustice is very flexible.
Brendan Harron of the INTO teachers’ union in a BBC Stormont Live interview noted there is nothing new in Catriona Ruane’s ‘heavily consulted’ proposals. In fact they are precisely the same ‘heavily consulted’ proposals brought forward by the Direct Rule Minister Angela Smith in 2006
Christian Brothers’ silence over abuse report
May 20, 2009
The Christian Brothers have been accused of censoring debate about a damning report on child abuse due to be published later today. The report’s five-volume catalogue running to 2,500 pages and cosing an estimated €70m, will document the scale of emotional, physical and sexual trauma suffered by innocent children by Catholic nuns and religious priests.
Link to Abuse Commission Report http://www.childabusecommission.ie/
You may have to pay for a copy.
The abuse, spanning from the mid-1930s to the mid-90s, took place in industrial schools and reformatories run by the Christian Brothers and Sisters of Mercy. The Christian Brothers were accused of trying to stifle comment after the chief exectuive of the Edmund Rice Trust, Gerry Bennett, sent an email to principals and secretaries of boards of management.
The entire handling of the investigation by the Catholic authorities lends new meaning to the term “Catholic Ethos of Education” for the 21st century.
Journalist Mary Raftery, who was behind the series, said the extent and depravity of the abuse was “profoundly shocking”.
“It is off the scale in terms of anything we have any knowledge of or any ability to deal with, particularly, as it was perpetrated, in the main, by members of religious orders,” she said.
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Ms Raftery said the children ended up in “houses of horror” and were essentially locked up until they were 16.”They emerged deeply disturbed and damaged and so many of them immediately emigrated,” she said.”They felt their country had abandoned them as well as everything else, as well as their religion, that just stripped them bare of any kind of suppor “It is an absolutely shameful episode in our history.”
The allegations include sexual abuse and repeated beating of boys and girls with a leather strap. Some punishments were said to be handed out for talking at mealtimes or writing left handed.
