Uncategorized Archives | Teach Dont Preach

June 18, 2019 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

Irish schools breach GDPR rules regarding religious and nonreligious beliefs

Irish schools are breaching their obligations under GDPR and human rights law, in relation to the right of parents and students to not attend religious teaching and worship while not disclosing sensitive information. Atheist Ireland has written to the Data Protection Commissioner, the Department of Education, and the ETBI about ...

April 16, 2019 1 Comment Teach Dont Preach

National Schools show children cartoon images of young boys being tortured on crosses

At Easter in our publicly funded National Schools, young children are shown images of a bearded man and two young boys being tortured on crosses This can obviously be very disturbing for small children, but it is part of the Catholic indoctrination process for children. For many parents, trying to ...

March 29, 2019 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

NCCA Religious Education course; Opting out is a Constitutional Right

If you are a non religious parent you have a Constitutional Right to opt your child out of the NCCA Religious Education course in second level schools. If any teacher forces your child into the NCCA Religious Education course complain about their behaviour to the Teaching Council. Don't let schools ...

March 18, 2019 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

The State now plans to fund teachers to design and conduct Catholic faith-based retreats

The Minister for Education, Joe McHugh has decided to fund the training of teachers to design and conduct Catholic faith–based retreats and other faith-based programmes for adolescents. The courses are due to start this year. The Minister won’t oblige schools to provide another subject for students who opt out of ...

February 18, 2019 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

New Junior Cycle Religious Education course still breaches constitutional and human rights

The new specification for the Junior Cycle Religious Education curriculum, due to be introduced in schools in September 2019, disrespects the rights of parents who seek secular education for their children based on human rights. The new course reflects the disrespect that the State has for non-religious parents and their children. ...

January 29, 2019 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

Atheist Ireland welcomes Education Committee report supporting objective sex education

Atheist Ireland welcomes the Oireachtas Education Committee report on Objective Sex Education. The report has recommended, as Atheist Ireland asked it to do, that the law must be changed to remove the role of ethos as a barrier to the objective and factual delivery of sex education curriculums. It has ...

January 3, 2019 1 Comment Teach Dont Preach

Community National Schools learning outcomes were changed from understanding religion to respecting it

The Catholic Bishops wrote to Education and Training Boards Ireland (ETBI) in February 2017 stating that the Goodness Me Goodness You course (GMGY) in Community National Schools did not constitute a viable programme for faith nurturing and sacramental education. This was after the Senior part of the GMGY course was ...

November 20, 2018 1 Comment Teach Dont Preach

The CNS religion course promotes respect for religious codes of conduct that breach human rights

The Goodness Me Goodness You religion course in Community National Schools requires children to respect ‘codes of conduct’ that influence the way people live in a range of belief traditions. But many religious ‘codes of conduct’ are used to undermine the rights of others. This includes the denial of access ...

September 27, 2018 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

Our new submission to the NCCA on Religious Education – please make your own submission tomorrow

The NCCA is accepting submissions on a new specification for second level Religious Education. You can read below a joint submission made by Michael Nugent and Jane Donnelly of Atheist Ireland, Imam Ibrahim Noonan of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland, and Pastor Nick Park of the Evangelical Alliance of ...

September 13, 2018 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

The Education Act does not oblige schools to promote moral and spiritual education through religion

For some reason, some ETBs and the Catholic Church believe that the Section 9 of the Education Act obliges them to promote the moral and spiritual of all children through religion. They equate the word ‘spiritual’ in Section 9 with religion, and have simply jumped to conclusions from that. This ...