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Monday 9 December 2013

Would You Like Some More Indoctrination With Your Tea Sir?

Indoctrination causes some extreme views which are prejudiced and unjustified.
(Pictured - Member of the Westboro Church at a protest)

The Christian Education Europe also known as CEE is an organisation which provides a curriculum for teachers in catholic primary and secondary schools. The curriculum is derived from  Accelerated Christian Education (ACE)  which is a fundamentalist curriculum from Texas (Ain't no better christian fundamentalism than in Texas y'all). This is what the CEE says about the curriculum:

'Its philosophy is built on basic principles of the Word of God. Students are taught to see life from God’s point of view, to take responsibility for their own learning, and to walk in Godly wisdom and character. The A.C.E. curriculum is a comprehensive Bible-based programme that serves both the Christian school and the homeschool.' - CEE
http://www.christian-education.org/christian-education/curriculum/ace-curriculum/

 Taught to see life from 'God's point of view', this raises a lot of questions for example: how could Christians really objectively see life from God's point of view? God is apparently a supernatural, infinitely smart and good being so to comprehend any of its view of the world seems extremely dubious. They think the bible is 100% Gods word  and do not see the probable possibility that some crazy person or cult wrote it. Even if somehow they did gather some information about God's view of life, why would this be useful? We are finite humans and can only see life from our point of view, so surely learning another point of view from a completely odd being which is nothing like us would be a waste of time. It is. Obviously we are left with the simple fact that God's existence has no evidence towards it, so there could never be a point of view of God  and anyone claiming they know it is telling lies. This is just normal fundamentalist craziness, nothing makes sense rationally... they only want to proliferate the belief and love of God.

'To walk in Godly wisdom and character'. Now this is just hilarious. I can imagine them giving the children Greek God and Goddesses outfits and showing them how to walk like they have a bible shoved up their ass. Here is another citation to elaborate the Godly character theme:

'Godly character training is part of the A.C.E. learning experience, and it prepares students to welcome and accept challenges and future opportunities.' - CEE  
http://www.christian-education.org/christian-education/curriculum/ace-curriculum/
 Of course acting like a supreme Godly being will prepare anyone in accepting any challenge and opportunity. They will think that they are invincible, immortal and infallible. However they will not, if they are completely indoctrinated into religious thinking, be able to adequately solve modern day problems in the workplace, in university or in general life which require critical, mathematical, scientific and a questioning mind. It is against our egalitarian principles to put any child at an unnecessary disadvantage. Education like the CEE curriculum does just that.

*What is even more devastating is that the government recognizes the ICCE (International Certificate of Christian Education) to be on par with the Cambridge International A-Level standard. This is simply wrong and we cannot equate the high standard of the A-level which teaches important mathematical, historical, literary and scientific skills which are useful in further education and the workplace with some forced learning of a fictitious book. CEE even imply indoctrination in their 'five laws of learning':

'The pupil must be controlled and motivated to assimilate, use, or experience the material.
Biblical principle: necessity for discipline, guidance, and responsible leadership: “Train up a child in the way he should go…”' - CEE (Third law of learning)
 
http://www.christian-education.org/christian-education/curriculum/five-laws-of-learning/

'The pupil must be controlled..... to... experience the material', ladies and gentleman I present to you a perfect definition of indoctrination. This sounds terrible for the pupils, wouldn't they rather enjoy a chemistry class with colorful, vibrant and smokey experiments or explore the historic character of Julius Caesar?  Instead they are forced to memorize and believe in the bible.


On the ICCE global website (http://icce-global.org/information-for/universities-and-colleges/) there is a page which boasts how many ICCE certified students went onto decent universities studying normal, useful subjects. However one must realize that the universities probably did not even look at the ICCE, they just cared about A-levels, work experience, UCAS points and general life skills.

I really want to see the universities, the government and students to explicitly declare the nonsense inherent in the CEE curriculum, the indoctrination that it uses which is extremely damaging to students abilities to think for themselves and the abolition of the ICCE or that it's worth jack shit.

Want to read more on the memetic war between science and fundamentalism? Click here http://newphysicistphi.blogspot.com.es/2012/01/science-vs-fundamentalism.html

and here http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2013/12/09/fundamentalism-i-religion-and-creationism-in-uk-schools/

*This is partly wrong i.e. the ICEE is not on par to the A-level but aims to surpass it (even worse) a correction by the website Leavingfundamentalism is given in the comment section.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for this post. I'm glad to see this being discussed.

    One correction though: The ICCE is designed to replace A levels. The students applying to university with the ICCE overwhelmingly have not done A levels. The universities can't be looking at UCAS points, because the ICCE has no UCAS points. Somehow, the universities are accepting them anyway. This is because of UK NARIC's disgraceful recommendation that the ICCE Advanced certificate is the equal of Cambridge International A levels.

    This needs to change, and NARIC has been extremely obstinate about it. It gives the schools a veneer of credibility and allows them to advertise to parents that children can receive this substandard education and still go to university.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you very much for the correction, which makes the case even worse for the ICEE and hightens the urgency for its deactivation as a certificate of valid education.

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