This next topic is a bit of a controversial one but it's something that is very personal to me, so here it goes: Faith Schools.
Faith schools in Britain are on the rise. Around 7000 public-funded schools (1 in 3) now has a religious affiliation, and our current con-dem government wishes to increase this. Why? Yes I am aware that David Cameron is a stuck-up prick and Nick Clegg is like the majority of men on this planet; a lying, cheating, two-faced, back-stabbing spineless bastard, but more faith schools is the last thing that we need.
Now as some of you may know, I am an atheist, I don't believe in any sort of God, higher power or afterlife. My view is that religion was created through a lack of education and a fear of death, and is nothing but a large inconvenience that causes prejudice and wars.
However, my grandad, my mother's father, was a strict catholic. When I say strict he went to church every Sunday and forced my Mum, my aunts and uncles to go to midnight mass even when there was 2-foot of snow on the ground. My mum isn't as against religion as me, but because it was forced upon her at an early age she didn't want the same for me so chose not to have me baptised (thank god - pardon the pun). But, because of my grandad's wishes, I still had to go to the Roman Catholic primary school that my mum had attended.
Now I've decided against naming and shaming this school, but it is an absolute disgrace. At the time I was way too young to realise that their practices were very wrong and discriminatory, but I now know that when I have children I will never allow them to attend a faith school. And you know why? Because I want them to have a good education and not be exposed to prejudice and unfair treatment from an early age.
Reception class, pre-5, whatever you call it, is meant to be an exciting, educational first experience of school for a child. For me, it is when the bullying started. Not from the students, from the teachers.
I was never naughty or misbehaving as a child, I was just how I am now, cheeky, opinionated and slightly rebellious. I couldn't read until I was 7. Now, I am quite an intelligent and literate person, so clearly this was through no fault of my own. I wasn't Dyslexic either, my teachers just cared more about prayers and Jesus than making sure I was getting the basic educational needs. Yet the blame was put upon me, I recall my Reception class teacher telling me that I was lazy and an embarrassment to the school. I was 5 years old.
And that's not all. There were only a few non-catholics in my school. I remember one day we had an assembly and they segregated us all and told us how lucky we were to be in a Catholic school, and that this might mean that we might be lucky enough for God to forgive our 'sins'. When I think about it now, what the fuck?!
We also used to have to go Church once a fortnight as a collective. Us non-catholics were made to sit on a separate bench, we weren't allowed the bread and wine, we had to make a different signal with our arms to inform the priest that we weren't catholic and we would instead receive a blessing. Again, what the hell?
When I got to about the age of 9, I started to get really frustrated. I was a geek, I actually enjoyed learning things. And it used to annoy me greatly that valuable education time was constantly taken up by the unnecessary need to say prayers ten times a day. So there came a day when we were having to say mid-afternoon prayers and I just said no. I said no, I'm not saying prayers, it's stupid and there's no Jesus and there's no God so stop lying, I'm gonna go sit over there and read a book instead. My mum was called in to speak to my teacher, and my mum as always actually defended me, and just gave them the reply of 'it's a free country', what a legend <3
I've found that as I've gotten older, I have done everything in my might to rebel against that awful school. We used to have handwriting lessons where we were made to trace intricate calligraphy writing with a fountain pen and practise our perfect joined-up writing, because joined-up writing shows that you are a Catholic. Erm what? That is a load of bollocks. I still refuse to join up my handwriting now as a further 'fuck you'.
We also used to get punished for using the lord's name in vain. 'Oh my god, for god's sake, jesus christ'...if we said anything along those lines we were made to skip playtime and write 200 lines of 'I shall not use the Lord's name in vain, Jesus Christ is great'. If I'd known back then what I know now I'd have told them to shove their lines up their arse.
The final point of discrimination came in year 6 when we had to choose which high school we wanted to go to. It was the norm for people from my primary school to attend the local Catholic high school which was about 7 miles away, meaning I would have to get on the school bus there and back. My grandad was again insistant on me going there, but my mum was more keen on the idea of me going to the normal high school in my town. Lucky we chose that option really as we were informed that if I'd wanted to attend the Catholic high school, my mum would have to pay £200 a year for a bus pass, whereas Catholics received a free bus pass. But it was ok, we were told, because if I got baptised within the next two months I too could have a free bus pass. How unfair is that? Even though that was my mum's old high school she too agreed that it was absolutely disgusting.
I am so glad that I stood up to that vile, discriminatory school, I'm just annoyed that my Mum didn't get me out of that shambles of an education establishment before my primary education was complete as I still firmly believe that I could have done a lot better in school and college if I'd received adequate teaching at primary levels.
I came out with the best results in the school in the year 6 SATs, not bad for a girl who couldn't read and was an embarrassment to the school, but if I'd been taught better from the start I could have done even better and been able to gain a free scholarship to a private high school, which other people of my intellect were given from their primary schools. This still angers me. I came out with decent GCSEs and A-Levels but I was never a straight A student, I should have been though.
David Cameron and Nick Clegg shouldn't have bothered raising university fees if they plan on increasing the number of faith schools in Britain, I doubt there will hardly be any adequately educated students to get accepted into university, especially if they're non-catholic.
It's no wonder I think Jesus is a complete and utter wanker, and so is his imaginary dad in the sky.
