Intelligent Design, Education, Gov't vs Parents

[Steely Glint]

Too much local government is what's wrong with the UK.

[Loki]

Or too many brainwashed social workers who probably graduated from SOAS.

[Steely Glint]

People go there so they can work in local government.

[Loki]

I thought it was to steal children from white people?

[RandBlade]

Not the UK, Rotherham. This goes completely against national UK standards and probably laws, but given that the children have already been sent to a new foster home a drawn out court battle isn't going to be able to fix this. Disgusting.

Rotherham is an absolute shit-hole, as rock-solid safe Labour as you can get. Stereotypically you could weigh rather than count the Labour votes.

So the local council democracy just doesn't exist. Local tin-pot dictators instead, that is the problem with entrusting local government with power - you get nutjobs like this able to make decisions.

[Aimless]

While this may indeed have involved malice and pettiness it may also have been a case of misguided/unguided people charged with ensuring the safety of children doing something wrong out of fear of doing something wrong. See the vague remark about being criticised for not seeing to the cultural needs of children in foster care.

It sucks, but I'm not sure this case is a good case for increasing the reach of a national govt or decreasing the authority of local governments. I struggle to think of an approach to child care or other such social services that would work without being run to a great extent by local officials.

[Loki]

Or more likely: white people have non-white foster children, social worker is a racist, and used any pretense to act on his racist beliefs.

[Aimless]

Or more likely: white people have non-white foster children, social worker is a racist, and used any pretense to act on his racist beliefs.

The kids are living with other white people right now

[Loki]

My mistake. They're just fascists.

http://standpointmag.co.uk/features-...C0%2C0%2C0%2C3

Interesting that the woman who made this decision is also unwilling to admit that there's a problem of Asian gangs targeting white girls. How do people like this make it this far in life? Oh right, government jobs.

[Aimless]

My mistake. They're just fascists.

http://standpointmag.co.uk/features-...C0%2C0%2C0%2C3

Interesting that the woman who made this decision is also unwilling to admit that there's a problem of Asian gangs targeting white girls. How do people like this make it this far in life? Oh right, government jobs.

Joyce Thacker, the strategic director of the children and young people's services directorate at Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, has a vast amount of experience in dealing with sexual exploitation of young people. She says that it is "interesting" to note that most of the men involved are Asian but that it is primarily an issue of the abuse of children by older men.

"What about the younger boys who are sent to befriend the girls in the first place?" says Thacker, "Are they also victims of abuse? Certainly we need to ensure that more work is done within all communities that explores positive, healthy relationships, or these young men may end up being the abusers themselves."

Shocking, a fairly experienced local govt official being careful and diplomatic in what she says and staying true to her role as someone who has to look out for all children at risk of being abused in her area.

[Loki]

Um, these same officials allowed white girls to be raped for years without reporting the abuse to the police for fear of provoking ethnic tensions.

[Aimless]

Um, these same officials allowed white girls to be raped for years without reporting the abuse to the police for fear of provoking ethnic tensions.

Source please, not because I doubt you have one but more because I'd prefer to get a more unfiltered version

[Loki]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/ma...-sex-ring-case
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...ng-racist.html

And most relevant for this case:

"Laura Wilson, 17, had been groomed by a string of men before she was stabbed and thrown into a canal to die for informing her abusers' families of the sexual relationships.

Her killer Ashtiaq Asghar, who was 18 at the time, was given a life sentence and will serve a minimum of 17-and-a-half years after he pleaded guilty to murdering Laura in October 2010.

But it emerged in June that Rotherham Council's social services were well aware she was at risk and had received information about certain adults suspected of targeting her from the age of 11."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...gs-decade.html

I.E. The person responsible for taking these foster kids away is the same one responsible for the inaction in this case.

[Lewkowski]

My mistake. They're just fascists.

http://standpointmag.co.uk/features-...C0%2C0%2C0%2C3

Interesting that the woman who made this decision is also unwilling to admit that there's a problem of Asian gangs targeting white girls. How do people like this make it this far in life? Oh right, government jobs.

And this is why we need fewer government jobs and fewer unions in general (unions protect bad workers).

[RandBlade]

Source please, not because I doubt you have one but more because I'd prefer to get a more unfiltered version

Its true, its been in the news here (mainstream sources) for months. Many girls reported being abused to the authorities and the investigations (if any) were all sloppy and haphazard. Frankly many of the young girls were dismissed and accused of being liars and making it up, they weren't believed. The abuse went on for many years, and continued years after it was first reported to the authorities.

[GGT]

And this is why we need fewer government jobs and fewer unions in general (unions protect bad workers).

And you're a one trick pony.

[RandBlade]

Even though the trick is right here

[Veldan Rath]

Even though the trick is right here

You rang?

Oh, wrong trick.

[Timbuk2]

I became concerned quite some time ago about the "Free Schools" system set up by Tony Blair.

These are schools which receive state funding, but are run independently of the state-school system, and as such can be set up by private organisations, charities, parents etc.

The infamous car salesman Reg Vardy set up several of the first few schools in this vein. Vardy, it seemed, had a creationist agenda, and his schools reflected that.

Now, at last, something is being done ...

Teaching evolution key to free school funding deal

Any attempt to present as scientific fact the view that God made the world could lead to new free schools losing their funding under government changes.

The new rules state that from 2013, all free schools in England must teach evolution as a "comprehensive and coherent scientific theory".

The move follows scientists' concerns that free schools run by creationists might avoid teaching evolution.

Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, said it was "delighted".

Sir Paul told BBC News the previous rules on free schools and the teaching of evolution versus creationism had been "not tight enough".

'Creationist myth'

He said that although the previous rules had confined creationism to religious education lessons, "the Royal Society identified a potential issue that schools could have avoided teaching evolution by natural selection in science lessons or dealt with it in a such a perfunctory way, that the main experience for students was the creationist myth".

So far 79 free schools have opened in England with 118 more due to open in 2013 and beyond. They are funded directly by central government but unlike other state-funded schools are run by groups of parents, teachers, charities and religious groups and do not have to abide by the national curriculum.

The new rules mean if a free school is found to be acting in breach of its funding agreement - for example, teaching creationism as a scientific fact or not teaching evolution - the Department for Education will take "swift action which could result in the termination of that funding agreement".

In a letter to the Royal Society, the Schools Minister, Lord Hill, said: "While we have always been clear that we expect to see evolution included in schools' science curricula, this new clause will provide more explicit reassurance that free schools will have to meet that expectation."

Sir Paul Nurse said: "The new clause in the funding agreement should ensure that all pupils at free schools have the opportunity to learn about evolution as an extensively evidenced theory and one of the most fundamentally important tenets of modern biology.

"The development of the theory of evolution is an excellent example of how science works and there is a clear consensus within the scientific community regarding both its validity and importance."

A spokesman for the Department for Education said that the new clause would apply to the Grindon Hall Christian school in Sunderland and two others that this year became the focus of concerns about the teaching of creationism in free schools.

Grindon Hall, which was independent, reopened as a free school in September. The two others approved by ministers are not due to open until 2013.

In July the principal of Grindon Hall said that creationism would never be taught in science lessons.

'Additional safeguards'

Rachel Wolf, director of the New Schools Network, which provides advice and support for groups who want to set up free schools, welcomed the funding agreement changes but said that the existing rules meant free schools already had to teach evolution in science lessons.

"To my knowledge free schools have always had to teach evolution in science, but it is great that the government has reaffirmed its commitment to this," she said.

Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, organisers of a Teach Evolution not Creationism campaign, said: "A requirement to teach evolution in free schools is an excellent additional safeguard against state-funded creationist schools and must be welcomed.

"However, we continue to be concerned about the three free schools recently approved which are supportive of teaching creationism as science and which we must worry will continue to find ways to circumvent a ban in practice."

[RandBlade]

Free schools should be expanded and are a potential improvement - but the curriculum should be set nationally. The government can and should dictate the standards, but then doesn't need to actually operate the schools simply measure how pupils match up to those standards.