From Scoop 22-04-2013:

Charter Schools Give Opportunities to Teach Discrimination

Monday, 22 April 2013, 2:55 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Principals’ Federation

Let’s review their press release. 

Charter Schools Will Provide Opportunities to Teach Discrimination

The ACT party’s proposed charter schools will open the door to religious groups to teach Kiwi kids discriminatory practices, including that same sex marriage is wrong.

It is hard to believe just how daft this piece of writing is.  Does Mr. Harding, president of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation, not realise that the law practices discrimination ALL THE TIME.  That is exactly what the law is intended to do.

It may surprise Mr. Harding, but the new [marriage] law will also discriminate — against Christians and Muslims and many others.  Yes, it will discriminate in just the same way traffic laws discriminate against people who drive on the wrong side of the road.  Yes, the new law will discriminate against those who don’t agree with same sex marriage, and it will also discriminate against polygamists and children, neither of whom have a lawful right to marry whomever they choose.

I dare say that New Zealand school principals also practice discrimination.  Yes, I’ll bet some cold cash that they discriminate against betting at school.  I bet they also discriminate against students who cheat in exams, beat up other students, or swear at school principals.

‘Just as New Zealanders are celebrating the latest legislation change that brings an end to discrimination against same-sex couples having the right to be legally married, we are opening up a whole new opportunity for discriminatory practices to flourish,’ says President of the New Zealand Principals’ Federation, Philip Harding.

What exactly does Mr. Harding mean by “Just as New Zealanders are celebrating…”?  Does not know that New Zealanders are NOT overwhelmingly in favour of this new law.  Did he fail to educate himself with the 17,000 vote TV3 poll in which 78% of people were OPPOSED to the bill.  Is Mr. Harding really this ill-informed?  Was this Press Release reviewed by others in his organisation, and if so, are the rest of his staff likewise uneducated in this matter? 

There would be nothing to stop any group setting up a charter school and teaching Kiwi kids that discriminatory practices are to be valued and that evolutionary theories of science are wrong.

Notice how Mr. Harding mixes his morality with evolutionary theory.  This guy really needs to listen to Kim Hill’s interview from last Saturday morning with Professor John Lennox from Oxford University.  Like Kim Hill, Mr. Harding just does not get it.  Perhaps I should quote from Professor Richard Dawkins or Professor Will Provine.  Yes, these darwinist atheists agree with each other that if darwinism is true then there is at rock bottom no right, no wrong, just matter in motion.  Yes, free will is an illusion and the wrongness of rape is a social construct.

Notice the irony, and the lack of thinking.  Mr. Harding wants to prescribe his morality on 78% of New Zealanders, yet at the same time wants to cuddle up to a theory that removes any basis for logically prescribing any objective morality.  And if Mr. Harding’s moral values are “no right, no wrong…” then why should anyone really care what he thinks anyway?  Oh, that’s right, it’s not about right and wrong —  it’s really about power.  Yes, the power of Mr. Harding to force his spaghetti bowl morality upon the rest of us.

As for evolutionary theory, perhaps Mr. Harding would care to do what Richard Dawkins (cowardly — not my word, see this link) has failed to do, and step up and debate his beloved theory.

‘Interest in charter schools from religious groups has been significant,’ said Harding, ‘and the religious beliefs they follow are inconsistent with the values of wider New Zealand society,’ he said.

The significant interest Mr Harding refers to is presumably PRIOR to this latest law being passed, in which case what exactly is his point?  And of course we really have no idea what ‘significant’ means because Mr. Harding failed to educate us sufficiently by defining “significant” and providing a numerical figure.

‘There has never been any evidence that the New Zealand tax payer is crying out for another choice of school and no political party, including John Banks’ ACT party, promoted such policy during the last election campaign,’ said Harding.

This is self refuting and illogical.  In the previous paragraph Mr. Harding says that “interest… has been significant” and only one paragraph later he is claiming the opposite: “There has never been any evidence that the New Zealand taxpayer is crying out…”.

Seriously, if this what the sort of buffoonery that is coming from the leadership of New Zealand schools, then I hope every child moves to “another choice of school”. And shame on Mr. Harding for tarring the New Zealand Principals’ Foundation with his poorly reasoned politics and ‘morality’.