Let's hear it for Martin in the Margins

Let's say a big no to tory bloggers placing themselves as the arbiters of what makes a good left wing blog shall we! Added to my list of links is Martin in the Margins - a very fine Labour supporting politics blog with decidedly secular humanist leanings. Lots of interesting and well argued material including this explanation of how multi-cultural education in primary schools can go horribly wrong:

"As a parent, and an erstwhile school governor, it's irked me the way that multi-cultural education often gets translated, especially in primary schools, into multi-faith education. Learning about 'other cultures' is reduced to finding out about the religious beliefs and customs of different groups. Non-white, non-indigenous groups are characterised as unchanging, homogenous cultures defined mainly by faith. Schools think if they've 'done' Diwali, Ramadan and Passsover, then they've fulfilled their multicultural obligations. In my experience, there's very little sense (at least at the primary level) of migrant communities as diverse, living entities, shaped by historical events, and very little sense of the secular and political forces at work within communities.

Defining non-white children primarily in terms of a nominal faith privileges that aspect of their identity above others, including loyalties based on nation, locality or cultural tastes. It also makes it more difficult for children to put any distance between themselves and their faith-of-origin, or to experience school as a neutral, secular space in which they might explore alternatives to the beliefs they were brought up in. And it has a spin-off for 'indigenous' children: they get categorised, by default, as 'Christian'. This subtle re-introduction of sectarian identities is ludicrous, in a nation where a majority are not active believers in any religion."

Comments

[Richard]

Hear hear! Excellent stuff.

Any list of left-wing blogs which doesn't include yours is obviously wildly off course.

-Richard (No 75 fo no discernable reason)

[Mike Ion]

I do rather resent be defined and categorised by a Tory!

On a more serious note I am concerned that Conservativehome are highlighting a video by the Christian Institute - click on the link below for more details.

http://mike-ion.blogspot.com/2007/09/conservative-home-and-christian.html

[The Labour Humanist]

Mike

I don't understand, have we categorised you as a tory...it's a slanderous thing to be sure....but i can't see where?!

TLH

[Martin]

Thanks for recommending my blog - just the kind of boost that every (relatively) new blogger needs. As a by-product, I've discovered your blog - which is now added to my blogroll. Keep up the excellent work.
Martin

[Mike Ion]

'Let's say a big no to tory bloggers placing themselves as the arbiters of what makes a good left wing blog shall we!'

Apologies for the confusion - my comment related to the statement above.

[The Labour Humanist]

Hi, just my jaded swipe at iain dale's self appointed (money-making) ranking of political discussion on the web.