To “celebrate” the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, Theos (the religious think-tank) commissioned a survey into the public perceptions of Darwin’s theories. The results were published yesterday and do not make comforting reading. It seems that about half of the UK don’t accept Darwin’s findings and only about a quarter of us… Continue reading Creationist Idiocy in the UK
Category: education
Faith Schools Petition
I mentioned this when I signed it a year ago, but I’ve just noticed that today is the closing date for the petition to abolish faith schools. There are currently 19,063 on the petition. It would be great if it could get to 20,000 by the end of the day. So if you’re the kind… Continue reading Faith Schools Petition
Literacy
The BBC has a worrying report on levels of literacy in the UK Bedtime stories are proving a struggle for many parents who are not confident readers, says a survey from adult learning agency Learndirect. More than 10% of the 1,000 parents asked had struggled to understand some words in the stories they had read… Continue reading Literacy
The Wrecking of British Science
Excellent article in today’s Guardian by Nobel laureate Harry Kroto. I was happy enough when he was making points like Thirty per cent of physics departments have either been closed or merged in the past five years. What is one to make of the deafening silence of ministers when, last year, the small Sussex chemistry… Continue reading The Wrecking of British Science
We’re Doomed
Evidence mounts that the UK education system is giving up on teaching maths to any reasonable level. Firstly, there’s this story from yesterday. Schools are measured on the results they get. And as maths is hard, some people don’t do very well in maths exams. The solution seems to be to discourage pupils from taking… Continue reading We’re Doomed
Readin’ and Writin’
The BBC has a report about a survey from LearnDirect which estimates that over 14.6 million people have lost their employers money due to a lack of basic literacy and numeracy skills. Almost two in five of the people surveyed said that they relied on someone else at work to check their calculations. There was… Continue reading Readin’ and Writin’
Worthless Religions
Why do so many people get so irrational when discussing religion? I realise, of course, that religion itself is completely irrational, but there’s no excuse for not discussing it rationally. There’s a story on the BBC News site today about an Islamic school in West London. People are complaining because it uses textbooks that are… Continue reading Worthless Religions
Science or Superstition?
Tony Blair apparently thinks that we should be encouraging more young people to become scientists. Well, maybe he should stop trying to send them to superstition schools.
Kids These Days
If we ever met, I’m sure that Boris Johnson and I would have plenty of ideological differences. But I have to admit that he’s never less than entertaining and his blog is well worth reading. Today’s entry is a good example. He’s interviewing for a new researcher and can’t resist the urge to compare today’s… Continue reading Kids These Days
Faith Schools
To celebrate easter, Comment is Free gives you both sides of the faith schools argument today. So you get Polly Toynbee talking sense: But how odd that in this heathen nation of empty pews, where churches’ bare, ruined choirs are converted into luxury loft living, a Labour government – yes, a Labour government – is… Continue reading Faith Schools