Scottish Union for Education – Newsletter No40 – Part 2
Newsletter Themes: should schools teach social justice?, SUE public meeting (Edinburugh), sex education in schools
Should Schools Teach Social Justice?
This is a summary of the October 29th Battle of Ideas session discussing this topic.
Alka Sehgal Cuthbert (Director of Don’t Divide Us, an educator, academic, author and campaigner)
Schools should not teach critical social justice (CSJ). We need to recognise that the very meaning of social justice has changed. Today, it is a radical ideology that destroys education.
Indeed, there is nothing social about social justice, rather, it is reductionist – reducing complex issues and ideas down to some basic and indeed base concepts. It presents us with fixed identities, placing people in boxes and using labels that in the past would have been thought of as racist. White people, for example, are recast as necessarily problematic, as people who should feel guilt, while black people, en masse, are portrayed as victims.
Nor is there anything ‘just’ about social justice, as it rejects universal standards – standards that apply to anyone, regardless of their race or sex. People are no longer thought about as individuals who are morally and legally equal agents. Instead, we find arguments for the preferential treatment for ‘oppressed’ groups.
What we see with social justice education in schools is a situation where politics is pushed onto children. Politics should be for adults, not children, but social justice education can sidestep the difficulty of facing grown-ups who may disagree with you and allows educators to push their ideas as a dogma onto kids, so that even children are prevented from questioning of criticising these ideas.
Some say that this is not happening everywhere or in every school, but the point is that all institutions have adopted this approach, and even where there is concern, most refuse to stick their necks out and to show dissent. It is a national problem that the professional bodies, exam boards, etc. are singing from the same hymn sheet and damaging a generation of young people.
Debbie Hayton (physics teacher, trade unionist, columnist for the Spectator and UnHerd, and author of Transsexual Apostate: my journey back to reality)
Teaching PSHE depends on pre-packaged resources which push the one line: critical social justice and gender ideology. This is a problem, and as a teacher I try to avoid teaching this. I tell my students that sex and gender are different concepts and that there are only two sexes.
As far as I am concerned, these issues should be argued out in the staffroom and not in the classroom. Ironically, I used to teach a critical thinking course, looking at arguments for and against a proposition, evidence advanced, bias, etc. And the government cancelled critical thinking teaching!
Michael Merrick (director of schools, Diocese of Lancaster, former teacher, education and social commentator)
I am cautious about woke ideas, but I am prepared to look to see if there is anything salvageable about critical social justice. I also disagree about the idea of neutrality when looking at the question of decolonisation.
The Catholic view of education is that it is about the formation of the entire person, that is, inculcating morality and values. Intellectual development cannot be separated from moral or value evaluation, and education needs a framework of good: truth and morality.
I would reframe the question and ask, what social justice do we want?
There may be disagreement, but a set of values needs to be argued for and these values should not be ones that are simply serving the state.
Eric Kaufman (professor of politics, University of Buckingham, author of Taboo: how making race sacred produced a cultural revolution)
A major problem we face is that activists cannot be trusted to deliver parts of the curriculum. In one survey of university students, we find that 80% had heard of one or more of the five core critical social justice concepts, and the majority had been taught about gender ideology.
In other polling, (unsurprisingly) 18- to 25-year-olds were much more likely to think that actions against J. K. Rowling or Kathleen Stock were justified than 25- to 35-year-olds.
It is the role of government to stop the political indoctrination of pupils in schools. And we need to define what issues are being taught as dogma and stop it.
Unlike institutions that have been captured by this ideology, governments are elected and are democratically accountable to the electorate and can therefore be pressurised into acting against indoctrination.
Let kids be kids! What’s wrong with the government’s sex and gender education?
SUE Public meeting: Monday 6 November, Edinburgh
Speakers include:
Dr Jenny Cunningham author of Transgender Ideology in Scottish Schools: What’s wrong with government guidance?
Murray Allan expelled from a Scottish school for saying there are two genders
Maggie Mellon social worker and expert in child protection
Dr Stuart Waiton chairperson of the Scottish Union for Education
If you are free on Monday 6 November and live in the Edinburgh area, please come and join us at our meeting at 6.30 p.m. at Lauriston Hall, EH3 9DJ.
You can order tickets on Eventbrite here.
Stuart Waiton in conversation with Sarah Fraser
Sara is a parent from the Highlands of Scotland who is standing up against the sexualisation of children
Watch the video
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