Al-Medinah school wants (or pretends to want) incompatible things. It says so right on its home page.
Our vision
…
One of Al-Madinah Schools’ strong characters is the schools extended services program in which pupils will learn independence, self-control, social skills and community conscientiousness. These skills are vital if our pupils are to become self-regulating teenagers and adults. [para 3]
…
One of Al-Madinah Schools’ distinct features is the offering of an Islamic Studies program, which will include Quran reading with pronunciations (Tajweed), translation of the Quran (Tafseer) and Quran memorisation (Hifz). We will also teach Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh), biography (Seerah) of the Prophet Mohammed (SAW), History of Islam, the Oneness of God (Tauheed) and Islamic Beliefs (Aqeedah). [para 5]
Those two things fight each other. Pupils can’t learn independence and at the same time learn slavish dependence via indoctrination in “Islamic jurisprudence” and the like.
Yeah. This is what happens when the (UK) government semi-privatises the education system.
I loathe Tony Blair and all of his works.
What is meant here by “independence” is internalization of dogma. The goal is for people to be so deeply indoctrinated that they will make the approved choices without needing a cleric to manually tell them what to do each time.
Independence as in sheep following sheep because it seemed like the sensible thing at the time.
Tell the Minister of Education to activate the Apostrophe Police Tac Team.
Btw, Hairy Chris … @ # 1 – your link is foo.
@2 and @3:
“Independence” is a largely meaningless purr word, just like “self-control”, “social skills” and “community consciousness”. That whole sentence could be replaced with “One of Al-Madinah Schools’ strong characters is the schools extended services program in which pupils will learn things that you, our funders, would approve of” and nobody would notice.
Also, is it just me or does whomever wrote that copy not understand how to apostrophe properly?
“community conscientiousness”?
Yes, as long it is an ‘Islamic community’ and that only. No word of multiculturalism then… There is only one culture according to Islam, all others are inferior and dirty.
Independence from the non-Islamic world, of course. Being able to say “no” to ‘bad’ influences.