Richard Dawkins interested in setting up atheist 'free school'

[naomi24]

http://www.telegraph....eist-free-school.html

Good idea or not?

Would you choose such a school for your children, and if not, why not?

Your thoughts?

[woofgang]

IMO the religion a school does or doesn't profess is the last bit i would be interested in. I would want to know the school has a good standard both in academic and practical subjects, good discipline and high expectations on the manners morals ethics front.
My two sisters and I went to a high Church of England Grammar school. the religion bit didn't rub off on any of us, but the manners and ethics did.

[joggerjayne]

I just wonder whether religion (either as believers, or non-believers) is much of a foundation stone for a school ?

[WaldoMcFroog]

It's a very loaded headline, given that a few paragraphs down Dawkins explicitly states:

"“Thank you for suggesting that I should start an atheist free school. I like the idea very much, although I would prefer to call it a free-thinking free school.

"I would never want to indoctrinate children in atheism, any more than in religion. Instead, children should be taught to ask for evidence, to be sceptical, critical, open-minded."

Who could honestly disagree with teaching children how to think critically?

[jake-the-peg]

dunno

Perhaps the people who framed the 1998 School Standards and Framework Act that says:

"each pupil in attendance at a community, foundation or voluntary school shall on each school day take part in an act of collective worship."

[mollykins]

atheist free school sounds like you can't be an atheist which he definatly is.

[LazyGun]

I do have many concerns about the standards of education within the UK. The last governments tacit encouragement of faith schools worried me a lot, since I think faith schools are divisive - nor is a school with a faith-centric agenda the best place to bring up rational enquiry.
This movement towards "free schools" builds on that uneasiness, because I think it most likely that those with a faith agenda will be the most active in setting up these schools.
Prof. Dawkins was responding to the a suggestion from concerned mothers on Mumsnet, who talked about him setting up an atheist "free school" ( note: not an atheist-free school Molly ) as a response or balance to these likely faith based institutions.
I would certainly choose any school run on the ethos as stated by him;
“I would never want to indoctrinate children in atheism, any more than in religion. Instead, children should be taught to ask for evidence, to be sceptical, critical, open-minded. "
and
“I would also teach comparative religion, and teach it properly without any bias towards particular religions, and including historically important but dead religions, such as those of ancient Greece and the Norse gods, if only because these, like the Abrahamic scriptures, are important for understanding English literature and European history.”
Sounds excellent to me.

[123everton]

Good luck to him.

[Greedyfly]

I was sent to Catholic school run by nuns when I was a child and I have never been or ever will be religious. My family btw are also not religious, so I have no idea why I was sent there.

[mibn2cweus]

In another fifty years or so one would hope that it would seem incredible that questions such as these were being ask as recently as the turn of the millennium. Teaching our children critical thinking skills . . . what a novel concept.

[modeller]

Liike molly I think the term "atheist free school " can interpreted in different ways .
It struck me as a school free of atheism . The term a secular school would be a better description. How that would be done is a different matter.
All beliefs consist of mumbo jumbo but that's what makes them more interesting and entertaining. That is the problem with atheism . How do you make a non-belief interesting and entertaining.

[jno]

University College London was set up in 1826 as a purely secular university because at the time fellows at Oxford and Cambridge had to be in holy orders (and celibate). Not an atheist school, because it wasn't concerned with whether you were an athist of a Christian - much the best set-up, if you ask me - but it's been successful.

[jno]

*atheist or a Christian*

[mollykins]

Should there be a comma in 'atheist free school' after the atheist to not make it as though you have to religious to get in?

[jackthehat]

You've missed out the hyphen..........

atheist free-school is very different from an atheist-free school.........

[mollykins]

Yes a hyphen would stop the ambiguity of the phrase.

[jackthehat]

Seeing as it is correctly placed in the newspaper headline, how did you manage to become 'confused' by the intent of it, then ?

[jake-the-peg]

I think jno the requirement to be in holy orders to go to Oxford or Cambridge vanished quite a long time before UCL was set up.

You did however have to be a member of the Church of England which abrred all sorts of people like Methodists, Jews, Quakers, Unitarians etc

There was quite a fuss and Thomas Arnold referred to it as "that Godless institution in Gower Street"

Kings Colledge London was founded shortly after as a direct response

[jno]

jake, I believe the requirement for Oxbridge tutors to take holy orders remained until the 1850s or thereabouts; I don't know about students, though.

[naomi24]

Molly, I thought the headline might be misinterpreted, which is why I put inverted commas around 'free school'. I think everyone knows what we're talking about.

[chakka35]

Waldo has already pointed out what Dawkins actually said so why are we still talking about atheism here?

Dawkins has always been confident (as I am) that if children were free of religious indoctrination when in their impressionable stage, trusting everything that a grown-up says, then as they grew up and learned to think rationally they would be no more inclined to believe in religion than in astrology - though a small minority would, of course. A school specifically dedicated to teaching children how to evaluate the teaching they are given would be a superb thing.