As a kid in Palmy, we lived next door to this Catholic family, the O'Connors. Nice family and huge too. I was mates with the youngest, him something south of ten years old. The eldest sibling was thirty-something with a vast record collection. Lots of kids in between too. They all lived under one roof, in a house only slightly larger than our own.
Although the O'Connor's hadn't yet reached 17 at that time, the old Mum might have still had it in her. So, no grudge against the Brunton family for the size of their clan. No, it was their Old Testament names that DPF quoted that set off my Fundy-ometer. Then the mention of home schooling triggered the electric neon crucifix alarm. A look at the photo confirmed their identity.
Boys to the front, little sign of the daughters. I presume only two girls dressed in the blue sacks at the back, although it appears from the story there's about a 50:50 split of sexes in the clan. The mother's role in life is much the same as that extolled by that fascist patrician Adolf Hitler. Women are for breeding purposes only.
The HoS covers this angle to this sect in a secular society:
A copy of an employment agreement obtained by this newspaper lists some remarkable requirements: teachers must disclose their "personal circumstances", forgo union membership and agree that evolution is a falsehood.The equal opportunity to education that is every New Zealander's birthright is being eroded. Religious schools with state funding, among which the Exclusive Brethren are a more extreme example, must not get away with crippling their children's education to fit their narrow world view. Telling the women they are not good enough for university is female circumcision of their intellect. Temporary New Zealander Katherine Mansfield was onto it when she yearned to be all that she was capable of.
The government cannot continue funding fundamentalist ignorance of this ilk if it wants a true R&D base in NZ. If you have to piss off a few fringe elements, so be it. We need gronks not neo-Amish. We don't lobotomise our kids with creationism at our state schools.
4 comments:
Does this rant actually have a point, Will? Having homeschooled my kids, I know that the education they recieved was significantly superior to the trash available in state schools. I used source material commonly used in Christian schools and, yes, it did advocate creationism (and it's slightly more respectable sibling Intelligent Design). Niether of my daughters were brain damaged in any way. It was no effort to ensure that they had a proper understanding of evolution as well.
Methinks the Atheist doth protest too much...
PS. Love the Monty Python - one of my favorites!
I consider homeschooling in the same category as home open-heart surgery. As a last resort it has its uses, but I wouldn't have to force it on anyone when there's a perfectly serviceable hospital down the road.
I also trust your faith is impervious to a few slings and arrows from this humanist, but I'd like to one catch up with you over a bottle or two of red wine to discuss the finer points of my rant ;-)
It is not just the women: the Brethren do not want any of their children going to university. Consequently, there are no Brethren with the qualifications to teach the Brethren children, so they have to employ outsiders. These teachers are suspect, just as are all outsiders.
Onya Paul, a point I completely skipped over. There will never be a Brethren Marie Curie OR a Louis Pasteur.
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