to be horrified by the female muslim science teacher on RD, faith school menance? Last night?

[StuckInTheMiddleWithYou]

When the subject of evolution was raised and the words "descened from chipamzees" were uttered by a pupil, she did not even bother to correct her AND used the term herself - until RD corrected her (the "teacher").

I am actually quite suspicious as to whether or not this "teacher" actually even understands human evolution. This school was state funded. Would we be happy to fund an English teacher who had sod all understanding or interest in Shakespeare?

I'm quite incensed. Anybody else?

DH and in really really got totally stuck in to this prog last night. What a shame it was tucked away on More4 or whatever.

I totally agree with you that was quite something. As was the guy in northern Ireland. Are you going to watch next week's too?

That is pretty . I work with a creationist, but he manages to teach about the Big Bang theory according to the spec. As he should.

Not keen on funding any faith schools personally; and I would hold that opinion even if I were religious: religion is by its nature subjective. Even if one religion is "true", all the rest must, therefore, be claptrap and funding the teaching of claptrap doesn't seem a great idea.

If parents want to give their children religious instruction they should do it at home or pay for it themselves.

of course a teacher should understand their subject. that is obviously undeniable.

however, I am confused. is your position that a science teacher did not teach properly, or are you suggesting that being a female muslim means a person is not teaching correctly?

I don't understand why it was necessary to note the gender and faith. Would we ask about the male methodist english teacher not correcting spellings?

are you asking about a science teacher who does not seem to know the subject? where does the female muslim bit come into it? are you saying that is the reason?

just confused as to why you specified female and muslim and since you did, is that because it is relevent and forms part of your question and assumption?

Was it in a Islamic school then? (Didn't see the programme)

I noted the gender and faith purely to make it clear exactly who I was talking about. I have no doubt there are Muslim Women out there who have a very good understanding of Evolution.

From the phrases she used I got the impression that she did not.

I'm not interested in the personal faith of any teacher - as long as they are a good and knowledgeable teacher.

Oh bugger I wanted to watch this.

Anyone know if there's a repeat (or catch up online) or something?

Oh - well there are certainly science teachers with poor scientific knowledge out there, even in non-faith schools. I thought it was a point about the teaching of evolution in faith schools, and I'd want to see more than one dodgy example to get worried about that.

Hecate - it was a documentry about faith schools, so the faith is distinctly relevant.

I don't.

If you're in the UK, you can watch it here
www.channel4.com/programmes/faith-school-menace

Link www.channel4.com/programmes/faith-school-menace

As I said, faith does not come into it regarding this woman's abilities. I too have had some rather crappy teachers who were not religious.

However, given the fact that the school was state funded and many of it's pupils were religious, I'd have thought that the teaching of certain particular aspects of science is even more important than in a non-faith school. I do not like faith schools, I make no apologies for that (that is all faith schools - not just Islamic ones). I have come across something similar in a Christian school.

This woman did not show any inclination at all to challange her pupils beliefs.

And the state is paying for this.

I was actually stomping about and slamming doors last night because of this lol.

I was very interested in this. I went to Catholic schools from 5-16yrs but I guess I went to particularly tame ones. Our science lessons were perfectly non-religious and we learnt evolution, etc, same as everyone else. RE lessons were where the other side was presented but we also learned about lots of other religions too so it was quite broad-minded really.

Conversely, my friend's DH went to a boy's Catholic school not far from our own secondary and in his science lesson, they were learning about the Sun and how it was powered, etc. When friend's DH asked what would happen if the Sun's fuel ran out, the teacher told him that "God wouldn't let that happen."

Scary stuff!

I wouldn't let my DS anywhere near her... Having said that there must be many, many poor teachers out there (and yes of course many excellent ones) and headteachers are doing nothing about it. Although it was quite a while ago now, I had some shocking teachers, thankfully there was no lasting damage from it because on the subjects I excelled at I had good, motivated and dedicated teachers.
I think the programme was excellent, I don't think it was addressing good/bad quality teaching it was addressing the fact that faith schools are allowed to teach in the manner they are and children are not being able to question it because they are teachers and therefore must be correct. Sunday school (or the equivalent) is the place to learn about faith and belief, not school IMO.

Actually, I thought the most interesting bit was the research that showed that faith schools better results are entirely down to intake.

Lurve - that link works in Ireland too. I wanted to watch the documentary last night but I forgot it was on.

I'm not about to challenge my student's beliefs directly! I have a religious belief (although I'm not a creationist). I teach evolution by natural selection, as specified. I also bring in some other ideas that aren't necessarily on the spec, like horizontal gene transfer, because I think they are useful things to know about and help my students the world around them. I don't teach creationism. Ususally it is brought up a student, and I say that we are using the scientific approach in our science lessons. I am educating my students, letting them get to grips with new ideas. I have had lots of interesting students with students as they start to ask questions about the things they have learned both at home and at school, and how the two can reconcile, or not.

But this is the sort of thing which gives faith schools a bad name. I went to a faith school which taught science really well, and allowed discussions and depth of thought which would probably have been dismissed as silly/irrelevant by non-faith schools.

Catholics don't tend to be creationists IME.

This is true. I went to a Catholic school but outside of assembly you wouldn't have known.

That said, as an adult I'm against any kind of faith school.