Revolution in Education: Purity

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An abstraction tool is to flip a situation if there is an equivalent: If the Humanist or secular society set up a City academy, and did the opposite and discriminated on the basis of religion, there would be national outcry.  Every religion would be up in arms about it.  So why is the reverse allowed to exist?

Looking into the mirror and looking for the truth may be one thing but surely we should look into the mirror to seek not the truth but an illusion.  To elucidate, in secular Community schools, Hindu or Buddhist or Aboriginal dreamtime theories of creation as well as Abrahamian theories are overlooked to promote a westernised psychological and individualised philosophy, thus questioning the diversity in theories of creation than taught in the secular schools.  We need to bring these different approaches under one roof, one school.

In Italy, France and Switzerland (to name a few), they are sexually more sophisticated, having more erotic wisdom than England which combines a lack of erotic wisdom where sexual intercourse with someone is equated as important as having a glass of wine; with a maximum provocation in young people’s dress and behaviour.  In other words, promiscuity can be argued as being promoted in England, which can be likened to living inside a vase, and told not to drink.  Sex is indeed a wonderful experience but also very serious – a dualism which although not taught in Faith schools is nonetheless understood as if by osmosis.

Although children – boys in particular at school often say these days that they want to be Doctor Who.  You can’t live life on instincts, though because one day, you may be wrong.  Dr Who is celibate.  It’s like Romeo and Juliet.  Okay so it’s about two 14 year olds but It’s not about two 14 year olds who have sex and then fall out and meet 50 consecutive men and women and have sex with them after, as though the first time didn’t mean anything.  Romeo and Juliet are about Purity.

Shakespeare is writing about purity and that losing one’s virginity should be with someone you won’t regret and not purely based on lust.  Age in Romeo and Juliet is immaterial.  Teachers just tell pupils about the ‘teenagers in love’ crap to make them more interested.  Shakespeare wrote symbolically about universal issues and not purely about sexually impatient teenagers who nowadays are anything but, Pure.  Silent F-Word.

Although, Faith schools can argue that they are right not to teach sex because some Community schools are experiencing or paying the social price for doing so, Community schools would argue that England depends upon a variety of experiences to succeed – to generate new opportunities - to revive our communities for economic reasons – growth and prosperity and would agree that the education system is not perfect. My appraisal for sex education would be to teach it by deconstructing the Philosophy of love, in all its manifestations throughout history which should include an insightful critique on lust.

A young blogger expressed the zeitgeist between the opposing sides, best as: ‘In a free society you cannot protect your children from ideas. Those who would isolate their children to protect their religious beliefs are demonstrating an extreme lack of faith in those very religious beliefs.  Political freedom, economic freedom – these are nothing compared to the power
of intellectual freedom.’ (Saheli Datta, Saheli Datta, http://ssrdatta.blogspot.com/2005/08/hanif-kureishi-hanif-kureishi-wrote-my.html
)

In educational terms England needs to think very hard about the curriculum, its methods of teaching and assessments.  Our education system promotes a particular view of academic ability for instance, which is very important but most of human culture such as can be attributed to the Monk, Gregor Mendel, ‘the father of genetics’ for example would not have happened if that is all we had.

England has to value children at school and inspire them to be whatever they want to be.  A human community after all depends upon a diversity of talents and when one puts everyone through an English educational system which because of its historical origins, is still devoted to a very narrow view of intelligence and systems of intelligence which is all about standardising and assessments and conformity, it is not surprising that so many pupils go through it thinking that they have nothing to offer.                                                          

We often associate Youth with Purity.  In many books in the enlightenment, Edwardian, Victorian periods, there was this idea that the Young were innocent.  I think nowadays that idea is dead.  What with the internet and lowering the viewing certificate for many horror, action and thrillers, we should be honest with ourselves.  There’s a reason why we have Monks and Nuns.  A reminder if we were to put them rightly on a pedestal of what we have lost.