Cool School

Jul 23rd, 2006 | By
Category: Notes and Comment Blog

St Luke’s sounds like a fun school, doesn’t it?

The National Secular Society and Liberal Democrat peers used the Human Rights Act to force New Labour to give pupils over the age of 16 the right to boycott school assemblies. The climbdown followed a revolt by children at St Luke’s, a Catholic sixth-form college in Bexley, south London. They signed a petition that said their faith school was ‘more concerned with religion than education’…Instead of learning about computing, the use of English and other fripperies, pupils heard gruesome lectures at assembly from one Barbara McGuigan, an American anti-abortionist and founder of Voice of Virtue International.

Voice of Virtue International – that’s good, isn’t it? We are virtue and you are not. I know people like that – people who are brilliant at pointing out the faults of other people, ever on the alert to find a new one to make a fuss about, always wide awake and keen as mustard to spot any little foolishness or mistake or mere eccentricity – while being blind as a whole Arizona cave full of bats to their own glaring faults – one of which is in fact this propensity for playing Spot the Boo-boo and Then Point it Out. The Voice of Virtue International is also reminiscent of people who think, or assume, that whatever they think is synonymous with virtue (or kindness, justice, compassion, benevolence) and whatever people who disagree with them think is the other thing. I must say, I wish I had thought of founding something called the Voice of Virtue International. An opportunity wasted. Maybe it’s not too late – maybe I’ll found The Voice of Perfection International. You guys can join but I’ll be the most Perfect.

The head, who has since been suspended, also made them carry a statue of the Virgin Mary around the college while singing hymns and excluded for a day pupils who refused to attend Mass.

Yup – sounds like a fun school all right.

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