“Ofsted is not looking for answers to questions which are contrary to their faith, simply that they are able to express views which are neither intolerant nor discriminatory towards others. This is vital if we are to make sure young people are ready for life in modern Britain.”
The actual questions asked make life in modern Britain appear pretty one-dimensional:
An association of Orthodox schools has said Ofsted inspectors left young girls “traumatised” after asking them if they had a boyfriend, how babies are made and whether they knew that two men could marry.
The National Association of Jewish Orthodox Schools (NAJOS) said it was “appalled” at reports that inspectors also “quizzed the girls on their views about Facebook and queried how they managed without a Smartphone”. …
It expressed “grave concerns” after other headteachers reported that girls “felt bullied into answering inspectors’ questions” and the pupils and staff were left feeling “traumatised and ashamed”. …
One Orthodox girl in Year 9 reported feeling “uncomfortable and upset” after inspectors started telling them that a “woman might choose to live with another woman and a man could choose to live with a man, it’s up to them”.
Another girl from Year 11 said: “They made us feel threatened about our religion. They asked ‘Do you have friends from other religions?’ They asked this many times until we answered what they wanted us to say. We felt very bullied.”
NAJOS said that during another recent inspection, 9-year old girls in an Orthodox Jewish primary school were asked whether they know how babies are made and whether they know any gays.
To summarize: Orthodox Jewish children were “tested” (Ofsted’s word, remember) by school inspectors on whether they have friends from other religions, whether they agree (or “know”) that same-sex couples can marry, whether they know any gays, and what their attitudes toward smart phones are.
The duplicity of reducing the state’s interest in two very different situations – the Trojan Horse Islamist plot, and the operation of Orthodox Jewish schools – to the same theme of “preparing young people for life in modern Britain” is breathtaking.
There is no reasonable comparison, in terms of consequences for society or for national security, between Orthodox Jews teaching their children the traditionalist social-morality tenets of Judaism, and Islamist extremists teaching their children and other people’s children the precepts of radical Islamist ideology. Only the latter leads to evil domestic/social results like roaming gangs beating up on gays, or young women being exploited for sex in the name of Allah and killed by family members for exhibiting modern Western behavior.
But the impetus from the Islamist school plot ends up giving cover to a leftist campaign within government to inflict intrusive, sexually-themed questioning on Orthodox Jewish schoolchildren.
This latter-day Inquisition – bureaucratic Stalinism, whatever you want to call it – is coming to America. Interestingly, the Common Core program has as its major goal preparing America’s children to “succeed (or thrive, or function) in the modern world.” (Do a search on “common core thrive modern world,” and verify for yourself that this is a kind of motto for the program, repeated over and over again.) It certainly sounds bland and innocuous enough.
And, as documented in my “Big Data” post on 11 October, the U.S. Department of Education anticipates state education systems collecting and maintaining data on students and their families that closely mirror the topics the Jewish schoolchildren in Britain have been “tested” on. A reminder of what this data will entail is in the graphic below. Data which the FERPA law, as revised by DOE, is to require states to have policies on, for retention and disclosure. (Source; Stop Common Core Illinois. Link in text.)
