Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Blind Watchmaker behind the Maltese School Curricula


Religious teaching of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Faith shall be provided in all State schools as part of compulsory education.
Constitution of Malta, Chapter 1, 2.(3)


Beyond that title, I would not read this article myself. I usually avoid reading articles about the efforts of creationists to introduce the biblical account of the creation myth alongside evolution in the US school curricula. It induces a cocktail mood of sadness and anger which I would much rather do without. Last week I succumbed to the temptation of reading an article about the creationists which made me wonder. How come no holier-than-the-Pope self-appointed defender-of-the-truth has bothered starting a crusade to introduce creationism in the local curriculum? After all, we had letters in the local papers requesting the removal of Harry Potter books from school libraries.

Then it suddenly struck me.

Our primary school children are taught the Catholic creation myth from the age of five in public, private and church schools alike. It is an examined subject, and unless the child’s parents dare ostracize the child from his or her classmates by declaring themselves unbelievers in the one-and-only-true-faith, they have to sit for and pass the Religion (sic) exam to be able to go proceed with their studies in a Junior Lyceum. Getting straight As in English, Maltese, mathematics and social studies, but a D in religion will condemn you to the lower-grade state schools.

Then it suddenly struck me again.

Children are not being taught creationism alongside evolutionary theory in our schools. They are being taught creationism. They are not being taught the theory of evolution. They are not being taught science, except for possibly, a couple of times a year when a parapathetic science teacher visits the class to give them 45 minutes of science which goes unexamined, hence quickly forgotten.

Maybe, now that divorce is on the discussion table, someone might also have the balls to suggest that the curriculum should be revised to ensure that primary school children are exposed to views incompatible to the Catholic God having created the universe in seven days.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Creationism has changed its name to Intelligent Design (ID) these days. The issue is only a problem in the United States of America. It is only a news item in Europe.
The Catholic Church does not pronounce itself on the validity of scientific theories and hypothesis for the simple reason that it is not its place. It has learnt its lesson following the Galileo debacle. The Church's job is to comment on the moral and ethical aspects of such discoveries.
You may have not known that the Church runs one of the best observatories in the world (in Peru) ... so that practically rubbishes the idea that it is not abreast of scientifc development.
What does divorce have to do with anything?? It may have [conveniently] escaped your notice that the states pushing for ID as part of their curricula actually permit divorce. How does that square with your theory?
I am no defender of the faith, but I will not have prejudices and illogical arguments misguide readers who may not be up to date with current scientific issues.
And, had you attended anything higher than an A level Biology class you would have known that even Darwinism and Lamarckism are still taught in our schools. (Both "evolutionary" theories have since fallen into disrepute - Lamarckism much more than Darwinism. However they are important because they explain the path to our current understanding of evolution.)

Gordon Pace said...

Karmenoo,

Yes, Creationism has changed its name, but remains essentially unchanged in content. The point of my article is that in public primary schools we are teaching Catholic dogma, but no science.

The link between the religious-driven arguments put forward in the divorce issue and this? Don't you smell that whiff of fundamentalism in the air?

Anonymous said...

Gordon,

in the article you said that science is taught by peripathetic teachers. Admittedly it's not the ideal scenario. But surely it's not a strategy employed by the church so that "religion" gets more "air time"
What about "religion" teachers? Are there enough to go round?
The lack of scientific "literacy" across the board is not a phenomenon peculiar to Malta. Could you say that the church is orchestrating all this? Hardly.
The divorce issue, on the other hand, is a moral and ethical issue. The Church is entitled to explain its reasons for not accepting divorce as much as you are entitled to express your opinion. What smells of fundamentalism about that?
And I still fail to see the link between the stance of the church on divorce and evolution.

Gordon Pace said...

By definition, the opinion of the Catholic Church (or any other organised religion), is fundamentalist, in that it strictly adheres to what it considers its basic beliefs. I have no problem with that. The problem is when public opinion, the educational system or the state starts adhering to such beliefs as basic and immutable. My problem is not with the Catholic Church, but with the state-funded educational system, in which every primary school teacher has to give a dose of religious dogma to the students every day, but no dose of science. Indeed, science illiteracy is not unique to Malta, but here it is particularly acute - check out, for instance, the Eurobarometer studies, which always show Malta amongst the bottom three EU countries when measuring scientific literacy.

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