Let’s end sectarian stone-throwing

I WOULD take issue with the letter from Nora Bennis headlined “Irrational opposition to religion in schools” (November 30).

There is a big difference between removing overt religious influence from schools and turning them into centres of “theophobic indoctrination”.

The system that prevails leads to a good deal of duplication of educational facilities, particularly in smaller towns and country districts.

Two schools tend to be provided in areas where the population only justifies one.

There are very few religious still teaching and it is debatable if many lay teachers contribute much to any particular religious ethos.

The track record of some of the religious, and the silence of many of their colleagues, does not give much cause to sentimentalise about that era.

Since the average student spends about 36 hours weekly in class, that leaves enough time for the churches to attend to the spiritual welfare of their younger flock out of school hours.

It would be a very small price to pay for removing religious instruction from the curriculum if we gained by having better equipped schools with a greater range of subjects in more salubrious surroundings. I cannot see how Ms Bennis can equate religiously segregated education with “removing prejudices and divisions” — surely she must see that segregating children in this way tends to cause prejudice and division.

I would not claim that segregated education was the main factor in creating our history of sectarianism, but it most certainly has been a factor.

I recall attending a local national school many years ago in what was then a small village. At lunch break, Catholic children passed it on their way home and battles frequently ensued with the children using small stones as weapons. This sort of behaviour was quite wrong and was only mitigated by the fact that we were all poor shots.

None of us, on either side, could have explained the difference between a Protestant or a Catholic, but we were all aware that “they” were different and therefore “the enemy”.

This sort of thing is one of the fruits of the system which Ms Bennis appears to wish to retain. I am quite sure she is not alone in her attitude, but that does not make her right.

DH Roberts

‘Gloundine’

Castlegrove

Mallow

Co Cork