Educational cream - rich, thick and a mental health risk

I have long suspected that private education - for all the massive fees and tiny class sizes - cannot deliver the goods. Seeing some of the ‘products’, you might also be forgiven for thinking they are increasingly havens for thickos too posh to be branded ‘special needs’. 

Like their forebears, once graduated such numbskulls get packed off to some far flung place where they can crash about and wreck lives without news ever leaking back here and ruining the family name. Certainly, there is always a risk they might retire here later and enter Manx politics – and some have – but as they will have civil servants to tie them into their chairs and spoon-feed them until they go totally gaga this need not worry us unduly.

After spotting this bunkum (seehttp://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/isle-of-man-news/sisters-fundraising-bed-bid-1-4733901) about an exercise to further line the pockets of a dodgy overseas mission I am surer than ever that my suspicions are correct. With even basic research they would have discovered that this orphanage - like other fronts for evangelical Christianity in India - is technically a criminal organization.

It will do no useful work, and like similar organizations in other ‘poor’ countries, actually prevent genuine local projects and government agencies from getting international funding. Such scams are only tolerated by the Indian government because previous attempts to crack down on faith-based fraud (most notoriously Mother Teresa’s misogynist, homophobic fundraisers posing as ‘homelessness shelters’ and ‘hospitals’) got them into trouble with the powerful political allies of the hatemonger.

Any worries I had that my child could lose out against privileged kids are over. If any parent is dumb enough to shell out several grand a year for ‘teaching’ of this quality, they also deserve to pay for the lifetime of care in a secure mental institution they have condemned little Tarquin or Tabitha to when they grow up.

Being mugged by Teletubbies on Prozac

I’ve just joined the board of the One World Centre – which provides Manx schools with their material about the developing world, environmental and human rights issues. It was set up as a joint initiative by volunteers for Oxfam, Amnesty International, Save the Children, Christian Aid and local environmental groups, and is also a source of advice to government on overseas aid policy.
The encouraging thing is that I was asked to join by the Christian Aid worker who chairs the committee and the Anglican lay reader who runs the centre. They recognise the usefulness of a secular campaigner who will point out unwitting faith monopolies and generally challenge the lazy view that ‘morality’ should be left to churches.
This was a welcome advance. Previously, as with other ‘moral’ concerns, church leaders tended to think they should control the Centre even when they can’t be bothered to do the work.
I still thought hard before accepting. At its best, Overseas Aid can be ineffectual feel-good dabbling, and at its worst it patronises people to death and doesn’t even have the guts to admit it does it for neo-colonial reasons.
The AGM was a useful guide to the current state of affairs. The well meaning staff and volunteers were so obsessed with ‘positive thinking’ and not giving offence that it was like being mugged by Teletubbies on Prozac. After an hour of relentlessly cheerful annual reports I was ready to slash my wrists even before the ‘entertainment’ - an earnest gap year student armed with a didgeridoo. After that I ran into the night before I could be dragged back for three compulsory choruses of ‘Kumbaya’ and a group hug.