Sir, – As the principal of a modern, inclusive, faith-based school, I am getting a bit tired of the stereotyped images of our schools in the media of late. I refer in particular to Martyn Turner's cartoon in The Irish Times (March 24th) portraying an austere clergyman holding up his hand to stop a child entering a school with the words "baptism certificate?" and the child looking for an "opt-out conscience clause".
This is really just indicative of a media campaign which sees at least one article a week stereotyping our schools as backward, insular, bigoted places where newcomers and children of other faiths are made to feel unwelcome or second rate. This simply isn’t true of the faith-based schools I know and I object to it.
I admire the Educate Together ideal of “respecting and celebrating the different and unique identities of all”. Let’s live it, by respecting faith-based schools and multidenominational schools equally. – Yours, etc,
MARIA O’ROURKE,
Carlow.
Sir, – It is hardly surprising that the Humanist Association of Ireland, an avowedly non-religious body, should whinge yet again about preference being given by church schools to baptised children in cases where demand exceeds the places available ("Religious schools' preference for baptised children criticised", March 25th). What makes your report more remarkable than it might otherwise have been is that it is positioned directly below an article which informs us that 93 per cent of children in the Republic are baptised and that over a third of them are regular attenders at Mass ("93% of Irish parents baptise their children", March 25th). This tells us what really worries the humanists – levels of religious practice in Ireland remain high by western European standards. Catholicism is still strong in terms of affiliation and participation. That's more than can be said for organised irreligion; the Humanist Association's website appears to be silent on the subject of its size. – Yours, etc,
CDC ARMSTRONG,
Belfast.