CAROLINE Lynch on behalf of the Scottish Secular Society claims its vision of education is one "where children are not segregated according to the beliefs of their parents".
(Letters, January 20.)
Within a few miles of my home children are segregated between schools in numerous ways: by whether their parents can afford the fees, and by whether the pupils can pass the entrance examinations (in the private sector); by gender (in both the private and state sector); by whether their parents can afford to buy or rent a home in the catchment area; by the pupils' physical disabilities; by their mental disabilities; by their emotional and behavioural needs; by the educational language medium of English or Gaelic; as well as by the pupils' aptitude for dance and for sport (all in the state sector).
Within these schools children are further segregated by age into year groups and within year groups into classes. Classes are often segregated by setting - placing pupils in groups of similar ability. Whether this takes place or not, teachers are required to differentiate lessons for the various pupils within a class. Pupils may be segregated by gender for physical education as well as health and social education.
Younger pupils will generally have these choices about segregation made on their behalf by parents and teachers as the young people themselves are insufficiently competent to do so, whilst senior pupils largely segregate themselves by their selection of individual subjects and by their preference of educational pathway post-16.
In this context it seems strange to me the fixation so many have with the additional option of denominational schooling chosen by a minority of Catholic, Jewish and Episcopalian parents.
Short of corralling every school pupil in the land into one vast monolithic classroom, all education separates children. These specialisations always serve practical educational purposes, are more often directed by choice than by necessity and deliver valid and reasonable educational ends.
Chris McLaughlin,
71b Braidpark Drive,
Giffnock.
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