{"id":1890,"date":"2019-03-18T23:34:31","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T23:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/?p=1890"},"modified":"2019-03-19T08:48:13","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T08:48:13","slug":"denying-school-kids-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/?p=1890","title":{"rendered":"Denying school kids Human Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“(i) Everyone has the <\/em>right<\/em><\/strong> to education … (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the <\/em>human<\/em><\/strong> personality and to the strengthening of respect for <\/em>human rights<\/em><\/strong> and fundamental freedoms.” (Article 26 Universal Declaration of Human Rights)<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This piece for the Barking and Dagenham Post looks at how religious die-hards are trying to deprive kids in this country of their rights.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

“An old argument over \u2018religious freedom\u2019 has hit the headlines again. The new row concerns a curriculum called \u2018No outsiders in our school.\u2019<\/em> The new curriculum\u2019s aim is that all children leave primary school understanding about, and respecting, diversity. Areas covered include ethnicity, religion and disability.\u00a0 The aim is more important than ever given the amount of grief caused by division, fear and hatred. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in February several hundred\npredominantly Muslim parents threatened to withdraw their children from a\nschool in Birmingham planning to introduce the lessons. Some ultra-orthodox\nJews and Christians have also voiced concerns. They all object to their children\nbeing taught about homosexuality and transgender issues. This is despite the\nlessons being factual and age appropriate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giving in to the demands of these religious conservatives will take us further down the road of a two tier school system: Those which give children factual information about diversity in all its forms, and teach respect for equal rights, and those where the ultra-religious hold sway. It risks many pupils leaving school ignorant and disdainful to anyone who is \u2018other,\u2019 and children who are \u2018different\u2019 being isolated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freedom of religion and belief is a cornerstone of a modern secular democracy. But that freedom belongs to everyone. It doesn\u2019t permit the religious to trump the rights of others. It doesn\u2019t justify depriving children of the right to learn facts. And it doesn\u2019t excuse outdated ideas and intolerance of ‘difference’ going unchecked in our schools.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Kaufman
Chair East London Humanists
For publication 21 March 2019<\/strong>

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“(i) Everyone has the right to education … (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.” (Article 26 Universal Declaration of Human Rights). … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9c4oP-uu","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1890"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1894,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1890\/revisions\/1894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}