Political Correctness - doesn't go far enough IMO.

I read today:

A C. of E. school has been told to drop the word "saint" from its name in case members of other faiths find it offensive.

The row is over a City Academy being built with £2m of church money in Islington, north London.

The school will incorporate St Mary Magdalene Primary School.

Most parents want to keep the name, and Muslim and Jewish groups have said that their communities do not object to it. "We live in a multicultural society", said a spokesman for the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

Have we gone completely mad? Does everyone else agree with me that the whole name "St Mary Magdalene Primary School" is very offensive, not just the "St" bit?

It should be called "Maggie's School for the Quite Young".

 

guilt is a terrible thing.

 

It drives me mad to be honest. Where I live according to the census 95% of the population is British White so it is safe to assume they all speak english. Yet more and more asian run shops are displaying their signs in Urdo. I don't mind this in areas that have a high amount of urdo speaking people but to have all urdo writing in a mainly white area is stupid it kind of offends me but I am racist for saying that.

Another thing that annoys me is this equal oppurtunities b*llocks. The next thing they will be saying that all firms need to employ 33% whites, 33% blacks, 33% asians when the local area may be 90% white. I think it has gone to far, if society wasn't racist then you should never need to state your race when applying to jobs etc.

I don't get offended about mosques and any religious names they may have, I respect that is their religion and they are entitled to their believes so I don't see how manybody could possibly be offended by the name saint. I reckon theres PC bodies working for councils are scared for their job security so they just make stupid rules up like this to make them selves look busy.

The bottom line is I am all for policial correctness as longs as it works both ways.

I also think this PC stuff is just make race relations ten times worse, muslims and jews get on with their lives, Christians and athiests get on with theirs. There are some asian people in my group at university, they are muslin and go to mosque but they also make very effort to fit into the local white community they all speak with well spoken nothern accents and they are very bit as British as me. They don't need all these stupid laws designed to protect them, I would guess it even offends them.

 

at,
i'm afraid that in the past race has been a major factor in excluding certain parts of the uk's multicultural population from jobs, benefits, even their basic human rights. this led to the introduction of the 'race' laws and guidelines that we have now. yes in the begining they may have been enforced very zealously but that was really only to make them stick. now they are less likely to be enforced as they have become habit. also one may argue that the old vanguard that grew up in an age when a non white face in their village was something completely unexpected are now retiring and younger people with more cosmopolitan views are becoming the hirers and firers.

the above is separate (imho) from political correctness which is just misplaced white mans guilt. i like to think i treat everyone as i meet them. i have black, white, asian, gay, american and female friends (amongst others). i also have met people who fit into these pigeon holes who i haven;t got on with. as people. not because of their individuality. for me that is true political correctness not the forced bullsh*t that is demonstrated at the top of this thread. that, as i say, is just misplaced guilt.
cheers


julian

 

I do not believe that church schools of any denomination should receive any state funding. The place for inculcation of religious beliefs is the church/synagogue/mosque/gurdwara/etc. and the home - not school.

Bob

 

Yep, I totaly agree with the race laws and fully understand why we have them, not offering a man a job because he is black is pathetic and was very wrong. It is very good we have moved on a long way since them days. Many reasons black and asians do not do as well is because of social issues this are very tough issues and it will take much more than laws to sort this problem out. A young black British male is 6 times more likely to go to prison than university. This is not because they are black in terms of genetics but because certain aspects of society make this happen, most of them which I don't understand.

I wonder if Manchester needs to change its name as the Man part may offend femanists.

 

Surely we are a Christian country - albeit thankfully a more watered down shade of Christianity than the American fundamentalists.

But what's wrong with being a Christian country, as long as everyone else is free to do their own thing? No apology is necessary in word or deed.

 

That's fine Bob but the irony here is that the school mentioned at the top of this thread is funded by Church money.

It also happens to be true, at least in my part of the country, that many of the best state schools are the church schools. Let the churches call them what the heck they want. If non Christians (like me) want to send their kids elsewhere we can.

 

although i'm not particularly enamoured by organised religion (of any flavour) my daughter by dint of her attending church with her grandmother is eligable to go to the local christian middle school. if she can get a place there then i'll be sending her as they have a better educational record than the local non-denominational choices.
cheers


julian

 

I totally agree, but as Julian pointed out, there perhaps once was a need for them. I think the laws are needed but we need to be a bit more sensible in how we use them.

 

I'm impressed Bob! You are the only one on this forum ever to mention Gurdwara.

 

Hear hear Bob, in Scotland we have seperate catholic only schools, this is blatant biggotry, if they want mono religious schools then let the church pay, should not be state funded, we also removed our nine year old daughter from a school 5 minutes away, to one that is 10 min in the car, one of the reasons was every morning they recited a prayer, I would prefer if they did the times tables, religion is for home, church etc, should not have a place education.

 

I don't see anything wrong with teaching Religion in schools but agree that a separate single Religion school should not receive state funding.

BTW, why do you guys only associate PC with Religion? Doesn't it apply to any other form of discrimination on grounds of sex, height, sexual preference, age etc. etc.

 

I don't associate PC with only religion, just that that was the subject of the thread.

My problem with religion in Non denomination schools is the arrogance, why should the non christian children have to sit through this, which may go against the beliefs they are taught at home, this is arrogance in the extreme, besides, they have little enough time to prepare for the big bad world, time should be better spent on sums, english grammar and the like.

I have no problem with religion per se but should not be at multi denominational taxpayers expense.

 

agree to a point. I think all children should be taught a bit about other religions as well as their own. It promotes understanding and tolerance. Simply learning about other religions doesn't undermine one's own religion IMO.

 

You bastard. You had to bring up my height, didn't you?

What me, over-sensitive?

Incidentally, Julian notes that "they (the local Christian school) have a better educational record than the local non-denominational choices" and I have already said something similar about schools in my own area.

Why is it that the educational standards seem to be higher in Church schools?

 

Agreed Dev, but teaching children about different religions and saying prayers is not the same.

 

This is true of other religious schools as well, I'm thinking of a particular school in Southall with a huge waiting list. Could it be that these kids are simply better behaved generally due to their upbringing?

 

Didn't do me any harm