Donald Trump’s Education Secretary Pick Wants To Make Christianity A Bigger Part Of Schooling

Secularism

For the Muslim Times’ Encyclopedic collection on Separation of Mosque-Church and State, click here.

Source: Huffington Post

By Rebecca Klein; Education Editor, The Huffington Post

Religion plays a major role in the way Betsy DeVos thinks about education.

Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, spoke at a 2001 conference with her husband, Dick, about using educational philanthropy to promote their conservative Christian worldview to children.

trump-and-education

President-elect Donald Trump stands with Betsy DeVos after a meeting in Bedminster Township, New Jersey, on Nov. 19.

The conference was hosted by The Gathering, a group of elite Christian philanthropists. Researcher Bruce Wilson, co-founder of the website Talk To Action, unearthed the audio after going through archives on The Gathering’s website. The recordings have since become unavailable, but a cached version of the website lists the DeVoses as “general session speakers” at the conference, which carried a $1,200 per person registration fee.

This week, The Huffington Post had contacted spokespeople for DeVos, the Trump transition team and The Gathering to confirm that it was the president-elect’s education secretary pick speaking on the audio. No one responded. However, a summer 2001 newsletter that The Gathering published, and which Wilson obtained, also confirms that they were set to speak at the group’s upcoming conference.

During the question-and-answer portion of the recording, Dick DeVos can be heard lamenting that the “church, which ought to be, in our view, far more central to the life of the community, has been displaced by the public school as the center for activity,” Politico also reported on Friday.

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3 replies

  1. The demand for state funded Muslim schools is nothing to do with segregation or integration. It is purely an educational issue. British society and schooling is the home of institutional racism and native teachers are chicken racists.

    In education, there should be a choice and at present it is denied to the Muslim community. In the late 80s and early 90s, when I floated the idea of Muslim community schools, I was declared a “school hijacker” by an editorial in the Newham Recorder newspaper in east London. This clearly shows that the British media does not believe in choice and diversity in the field of education and has no respect for those who are different. Muslim schools, in spite of meagre resources, have excelled to a further extent this year, with couple of schools achieving 100% A-C grades for five or more GCSEs. They beat well resourced state and independent schools in Birmingham and Hackney. Muslim schools are doing better because a majority of the teachers are Muslim. The pupils are not exposed to the pressures of racism, multiculturalism and bullying.

    Speaking English does not promote integration into British, American and Australian societies, and broaden opportunities. English speaking Muslim youths are angry, frustrated and extremist, thanks to English language. English language is not only a lingua franca but also lingua frankensteinia. Human right are also covers linguistic right. Cultural and linguistic genocide are very common. British schooling is murdering community languages like Arabic, Urdu and others. English is today the world killer language. Linguistic genocide is a crime against humanity and British schooling is guilty of committing this crime.

    English is an important world language, but the latest cutting-edge research shows that, in the 21st century, speaking only English is as much of a disadvantage as speaking no English. Knowledge of other languages – and of other cultures – is important for education and skills, the economy, international engagement, defence and security and community relations. The medium of instruction in all Muslim schools is English. Muslim children must learn and be well versed in standard English to follow the National Curriculum and go for higher studies and research to serve humanity. On top of that Muslim schools teach Arabic, Urdu and other community languages so that Muslim children do not find themselves cut off from their cultural heritage and enjoy the beauty of their literature and poetry. All Muslim schools are inspected by Ofsted. I do not hate British vales, culture and education system. Muslim children need Muslim schools with Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. They must develop their spiritual, cultural and linguistic identities before they are exposed to wider society, otherwise, they would be lost in western jungle.
    IA
    http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk

  2. I totally disagree. What you advocate is segregation and will lead to apartheid and hostility which we know is on the rise. Muslims generally already tend to live within their own communities, many of the older people don’t even speak English, and don’t assimilate. According to an article in today’s newspaper, many Muslims believe that they live in a Muslim country. If you choose to live in the UK or any other country, it is necessary to adapt and assimilate. That means sending your children to schools where they coexist with others and learn about the culture. That is what most other immigrants do. You cannot expect the host country to accept you if you don’t want to fit in. You are creating your own problems for the future.

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