anti_ses wrote:I agree that religious beliefs and practices should be debated. Only then do they have any real significance.
But I disagree about your point that context justifies the statement. In any way I read that paragraph, it points to a very narrow minded view. If you are going to make such an overarching criticism about beliefs or practices, I think it is advisable to put forward more of an argument.
Here's the paragraph the angry parent wrote:
The Erasmus School policy is governed by an ideology challenging much of our cultural principles based on equality, the rights of children and individuals. Women and girls are perceived as the inferior gender, outdated roles and beliefs are reflected in the curriculum. The science and geography subject is replaced with study solely based on Creationism, the Laws of Nature and ancient Hindu Laws. I T is not taught or encouraged and discipline is harsh grounded in fear and punitive retribution. The children are made to recite nonsensical verses such as "This is perfect, That is perfect, Take perfect from perfect and the remainder is perfect". They are made to repeat sounds over and over and to sit perfectly still for unreasonable periods at a time.
I think she's being very reasonable!
Obviously, I have no experience of the Erasmus school but this description tallies very closely with my experience at St Vedast many years ago. St Vedast pupils were also made to repeat the "This is perfect" verse, the meaning of which was, as far as I can recall, never properly explained to us and was certainly not up for debate. It was just another thing you had to do to avoid being hit. The verse seemed like nonsense to me back then and it still seems like nonsense now. We were also taught Hindu creation myths as fact along with other so-called 'Natural Laws', reincarnation, etc. We also had to do 'sounding' for hours at a time and were made to sit still, again with no proper explanation or debate, and with the ever-present threat of violence.