A chara, – Brian Whiteside, arguing for a secular school system to replace our denominational one, wrote the following quite puzzling lines: "Have our largely religious-run schools produced citizens who have displayed great integrity and, in a real sense, 'done their country some service'? Looking back over the quite recent past I think this is a fair question to ask." ("We need secular primary schools to reflect changes in religious practice," Opinion & Analysis, March 20th).
Is he really trying to say that the current system has produced no one of integrity, and no one who who has served their country in any way? While no one would dispute that we have a few bad apples in our society, as in all societies, to suggest that the entire barrel is rotten and that it is entirely the fault of the school system is an extremely sweeping generalisation – and one that I think that most reasonable people would reject.
In any case, is he actually trying to persuade us that the secular system he proposes would be absolutely perfect and would usher in a new dawn, where every child would be moulded into some secular superman or superwoman, diligently serving the state from graduation to the grave, never once slipping or failing to live up to the standards drilled into them? If he is, I think it only fair to ask how on earth he plans to guarantee such an amazing claim! – Is mise,
Rev PATRICK G BURKE,
Castlecomer,
Co Kilkenny.