Catholic family “not Catholic enough” for school
A mother claims her daughter was banned from attending a London church primary school because she was “not Catholic enough”.
Emma Murphy says she was told her application to get four-year-old Mae into the school, where she attended nursery, was refused because the family attended Mass once a fortnight instead of weekly.
According to St Teresa Catholic Primary School in Dagenham, it meant they were not “practising Catholics”, Ms Murphy said, although she and her three daughters were all baptised in the faith.
The decision was today criticised by education campaigners.
Ms Murphy claimed she could only attend church every two weeks after suffering complications while carrying her youngest daughter, Ria, including sciatica and gestational diabetes.
She said: “I could barely walk at the time. I had to use crutches, but I still got to Mass every other week. I haven’t the heart to tell Mae she has been refused a place. She loves that school and really wants to go.”
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Fiona Millar, chairwoman of Comprehensive Future, said: “There should be fair and open criteria for local schools so every child has the chance to learn there regardless of social background, religion or how clever they are.”
Andrew Copson, of the British Humanist Association, said Mae’s case revealed “extreme discrimination”.
Full article: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23871516-church-school-turns-down-girl-from-family-not-catholic-enough.do
Perhaps young Mae will now be spared the indoctrination that would be forced upon her at a faith school. Let us all hope she will be lucky enough to get a place in a good secular school (which of course, would be the ideal for ALL children in the UK)
I totally agree with Mike Reynolds. I believe this child to be very fortunate to be refused entrance to
this so-called school. Perhaps her mother will hear/read these comments and ponder over the
danger of these twisted mind-bending religist establishments?. Just thought of the saying by the jesuits-
(I think), *Give me a child until the age of 7 and I,ll give you the man*. What should be added is *Who will be
probably brain washed for the rest of his life*
Bein a Catholic & wanting a Catholic upbringing for children doesnt mean that they will be ‘brain washed’. I was brought up at the same school as a Catholic and I am certainly not brainwashed, I feel it gave a sense of moral direction, it wasnt forced upon me, and as a grown woman I have decided I want my children being brought up in the same way.
My daughter is the child mentioned in the above article & whilst I am grateful for all the support I am receiving, the comments you have left have no baring on my situation. Its not a ‘twisted mind-bending’ religion or anything else, and my children will make thier own decision to either carry on with that faith or not. I will continue to fight to get my child into the school as it is a fantastic school.
I agree with Emma, having been raised catholic and taught in a catholic school, I am in no way brainwashed.
What we have here, is clearly an old fashioned view of people who do not understand the system. In a Catholic school a child is taught religious education as part of the curriculum (correct me if I am wrong, but I believe RE is actually part of a “non faith” based school too). During these lessons, children do not only learn about teachings from the bible, they learn about other faith groups too. If only all children learned a little more about different religions, then maybe we wouldn’t have such non founded and naive views about education and faith alike.
Lets all remember too, that this is not a question of religion, it is about how this little girl was the only girl out of her entire nursery, not to be awarded a place in her school. I am aware of people this has also happened to in non faith schools, it is a discriminatory injustice and should be highlighted.
Good luck with it all Emma, I hope Mae wins the place that is rightfully hers.
Thanks Tasha. Exactly.
Children are taught ‘moral issues’ too, which all falls under the religious education part of the curriculem. Just because people have a faith doesnt mean theyre a type of extremist. And I completely agree, if children are taught from an early age that there are many religions, maybe we’d have less ignorant adults in the world.
I too was brought up in a Catholic School but for some reason, I did not swallow the religious indoctrination in the same way my 30 other classmates did. And believe me, today, 35 years after leaving the school, I am appalled at how “brainwashed” my former classmates (more than half of whom I continue to be in touch with) remain.
Emma & Tasha, you and I are the lucky ones. Due to one reason or another, we have managed to retain our independent and rational way of thinking. But not everyone is like us, and not everyone reacts in the same way to education. My sister, younger by one year, believes the Catholic Church can do no wrong and cannot contemplate the non-existence of God. Simply put, she is scared to death of God’s judgement. You do not have to be an extremist to be “brainwashed”.
Between 4-5 years old, a child’s cognitive ability to understand abstract concepts begins to develop; it is also at this stage that they start to empathise with others and determine who is in their group, and who is not. Do not underestimate the ability of 4 year olds to start to develop biases which may be very difficult to change later in life. However, Emma sounds level-headed and I am sure that she would balance any bigoted notions that a Catholic education may try to impose on her daughter’s way of thinking. Also, however critical I may be of Catholicism, or any form or religious indoctrination, there is no doubt that Catholic schools do generally provide good education, and I am who I am now, atheist and all, because of one.
Thank u to Ankhsey…..I respect ur opinion and understand that in all religions, people can become ‘brainwashed’. However, altho the school is a catholic school, that is just one part of the school, its not a convent. It teaches children about all sorts of religion, so that children do have more of an open mind as they get older & arent like some of the bigoted, racist and generally ignorant people we hear about and have to see every day.
If my daughter does decide to follow the faith into adulthood then thats her decision, I’ll bring her up in the Catholic faith as I believe it’l provide her with a good moral upbringing and having gone to a catholic primary & secondary school I feel it provides a good education too.
Thank u again for ur comment. Its nice to know that people can have beliefs & opinions but respect others at the same time.
I find it strange that anyone would want to send their children to any sort of faith school.
You get your morals from mainly your parents, and to a degree your school teachers.
Fair enough Emma you want the same upbringing you had for your own children, but Cathoholic?
I can’t actually see one good thing that the Cathoholic church is good for in today’s society.
Saying no to contraception in an AIDS ravaged country is tantamount to murder.
The priesthood is rife with unprosecuted paedophiles who rape, yes, rape children.
The guy at the top is complicit in the cover up too!
The list goes on and on and on.
Is it really wise sending children into a school where the people who run the place see no wrong in their church. Are they also in so deep they can’t see the damage their church does to people. If not why not? and if so, why the hell don’t they do something about it like choose another faith?
While I appreciate you wanting the best for your children (don’t we all) I’d like to be able to understand your thinking.
Hello Emma,
perhaps if your school had wasted less time on “belief” training you would be able to write
in a more literate fashion ! What is ” it’l ” ?
To chris peters….when u can spell ‘Catholic’ you may then be able to understand.
To colin cuddehay……u r clearly a sad, old, pathetic man. If that is all you have to pick out oif the entire article and all the comments listed there then clearly u are the one who lost out on a decent education…..and a brain.
It will be a shame if this debate descends into picking on people’s spelling. I always try to maintain a high standard of spelling and grammar but occassionally I have a slip of the fingers and make unintended mistakes.
I can understand that all parents will want their offspring to have a moral education. Morals are absolutely essential in a civilised society. Morals though are part of human nature and, although they have been adopted by major religions, they were not invented by the religions.
In fact, some examples of morals one can find in the bible, the old testament in particular, frankly disgust me. A man who is held up as an example of good, refuses his neighbours access to the two beautiful men visiting his house. That is good. He then offers the neighbours his virgin daughters in place of the men. This is also classified as good! Sorry, you can keep biblical morality as far as I am concerned!
One question for Emma, if you have been brainwashed, how would you know you are brainwashed?
Thank u, at least u are being civilised & actually have an opinion on the article.
I know I am not brainwashed because if I were I would believe and live by every single thing in the bible…..and I dont.
I dont think being gay is a sin for example, Im also not married but I have three children.
As a Catholic, you are first baptised as a baby by your parents, then you go on to the your first holy communion, then at the age of 14/15 you do your confirmation……to confirm your practise as a Catholic. I chose to do this as did my sister, my brother however didnt. You have a choice to follow the faith or not.
As for morals, I agree, you do take on board the morals your parents set for you, but in the area where I live, sending my children to a community school isnt an option in my eyes, the closest ones to me are on special measures and based purely on OFSTED reports the Catholic schools are the best. Infact I have looked at Catholic schools in general in different areas and they seem to come on top.
The article isnt there to question my religion, its there to highlight that children as young as four, are being taken out of nursery classes and told they cant have a place in the recption class. Whether thats a faith school or non-faith school. It happens in both.
I think its terrible that Poor Mae was refused a place at this school, Most faith schools (catholic or other) these days accept children from a number of religious backgrounds.
Emma wishes her daughter to be brought up the same way she was- and that is entirely Emma’s choice, no one else’s…and like she has mentioned she is in no way forcing Mae to continue with the religion after she has left school, she is purely giving her the option to go to a faith school and make her own choices.
I too was raised a catholic and taught in catholic schools-both primary and secondary…..I can’t see a reason for the comments about this article to need to be about trashing each other’s religions out of ignorance or lack of understanding.
Although brought up in a catholic school (the Same as both Emma and Tasha….i have chosen to put my child in a non catholic school..purely because although i still believe in God i do not feel the need to attend church and practise my faith in my own way. And yes non religious schools still teach the same amount of religious studies as religious school….where parents choose to put their children is entirely up to them.
Brainwashing does not come into it.