Rally to mark Universal Children's Day and International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

The British Humanist Association, with whom Dorset Humanists is affiliated, participated in a rally in Hyde Park, London, calling for secular law and universal human rights. Naomi Phillips, BHA Public Affairs Officer, who spoke at the rally, said, 'Humanists have always been deeply committed to human rights, equality, democracy, and an end to irrelevant discrimination. The BHA has a long history of active engagement in work for an open and inclusive society. In such a society, people of all beliefs would have equal treatment before the law, without exception - and that law must be one that is secular. We are deeply concerned, therefore, by any attempts to uphold in British law judgments made in Sharia tribunals that stray into family or criminal matters and we fundamentally oppose any such moves.'

See Naomi's speech here
See Distinguished Supporter A C Grayling's speech here
See Vice President Evan Harris's speech here



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Assisted Suicide Guidelines - Take action before 16th December 2009

Have your say on assisted suicide guidelines and help support the BHA's campaign for patient choice and dignity at the end of life. The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) has issued guidelines clarifying the issues that will be taken into account when deciding whether or not to consent to the prosecution of individuals who assist someone to die, including when people have accompanied friends and family abroad for an assisted death.

These issues are now open for a public consultation period that ends on 16th December, and we strongly recommend that Dorset Humanist members and supporters express their views. Take action now! 


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Dorset Humanists welcomes withdrawal of plans to close the only non-religious primary School in Swanage

Dorset Humanists discussed Faith Schools at our 26 November 2009 evening meeting. The Swanage area school issue was debated.



See the Save Our Schools campaign for latest info.

Swanage was in danger of losing its only Community primary school but local action has forced the Council to rethink.

Faith Primary Schools: Better Schools or Better Pupils? (2009)

Further to our meeting on 25 November, The Accord Coalition has a summary of recent research into faith schools (pdf) including this abstract:

Faith Primary Schools: Better Schools or Better Pupils? (2009) By Stephen Gibbons and Olmo Sliva, London School of Economics.
ABSTRACT 
We provide estimates for the effect of attending a Faith school on educational achievement using a census of primary school pupils in England. We argue that there are no credible instruments for Faith school attendance in this context. Instead, we partially control for selection into religious schooling by tracking pupils over time and comparing attainments of students who exhibit different levels of commitment to religious education through their choice of secondary school and residence. Using this approach, we find only a small advantage from Faith primary schooling, worth about 1 percentile on age-11 test scores.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/dp4089.pdf?abstractid=1369835&mirid=2 

Moreover, this is linked to autonomous admissions and governance arrangements, and not to religious character of the schools. We then go on to show that our estimates vary substantially across pupil subgroups that exhibit different levels of sorting on observable characteristics into Faith schooling, and provide bounds on what the ‘Faith school effect’ would be in the absence of sorting and selection. Pupils with a high degree of observable sorting into Faith schools have an age-11 test score advantage of up to 2.7 percentiles. On the other hand, pupils showing a very low degree of sorting on observables have zero or negative gains. It appears that most of the apparent advantage of faith school education in England can be explained by differences between the pupils who attend these schools and those who do not.”

Terry Pratchett on assisted dying - BHA YouTube channel



BHA has a YouTube channel. Watch and listen to Terry Pratchett on assisted dying, plus videos on Darwin, Humanism & Science and Dan Dennett.

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Go MAD - the art of making a difference - a 'self development' book

update 20 February 2010: Now you can take an MSc in GoMadThinking!

When I was in my 20s & 30s I read several Steven Covey self help books and listened to his cassettes. I found them useful and inspiring both for my business activities and in my relations with family and friends.
Have Dorset Humanists found any good self-help material that they have found useful over the years? Please leave a comment if you have.
Recent Dorset Humanist Dave E is now searching for secular self-development material. He says (the links are all mine): "Finding supernatural free self-improvement literature is proving more of a challenge than I'd expected. Whilst some are overtly religious such as Covey's "7 habits" almost all seem to give God, or a higher cosmic power, at least a mention. There's a fair amount of borderline stuff but whenever I think I've found an example totally free of divine, or cosmic, influence references, the author blows it by stating something like "and as sure as God made those little green apples.....", or "as the scriptures state....". Even eminent psychologist, Martin Seligman, pioneer of "positive psychology", author of "Learned Optimism" and a lifelong non-believer has apparently gone a bit mystic towards the end of his more recent book, "Authentic Happiness".

Dave E says further "I've just finished reading Andy Gilbert's, "Go M.A.D - The art of making a difference" and I'm relatively sure that I've not seen a direct mention of any mythological entities, or cosmic forces (unless I've subconsciously filtered them) and he provides a fairly mechanical treatment of most of the principles.

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Dorset Humanists & Humanists4Science welcomes new legislation making teaching of evolution compulsory in primary schools



Dorset Humanists & Humanists4Science welcomes new legislation, introduced today, on primary curriculum reform in England, which introduces compulsory teaching of evolution to ages 5-11 year old children.


Chris Street (Dorset Humanists Education Officer) reports that following his Humanist4Science July 2009 proposals to the Government, legislation was introduced today (11 November 2009), to make evolution compulsory and explicitly taught to children aged 5-11 years in Primary Schools.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) (19 November 2009) press release states that Evolution will be compulsory in the Primary curriculum from September 2011.


However the Humanists4Science proposal for compulsory teaching of  'The Scientific Method' in Primary Schools, was not taken up.

In July 2009 Chris Street authored the Humanists4Science submission to the Primary Curriculum reform consultation by Jim Rose.

Chris Street of the Humanists4Science group said "this is brilliant news because now children will learn about evolution as early as five years rather than when they are fourteen. I met Desmond Swayne MP on 10 July to discuss teaching evolution in Primary Schools  and he who wrote to Diana Johnson MP (Parliamentary Under Secretary for State for Schools at the DCSF). I think Humanists4Science have had a direct input into successfully changing National Primary School curriculum legislation."

Andrew Copson, BHA Director of Education and Public Affairs, said, ‘It is fantastic to hear final confirmation that, for the first time, evolution will now be included in the national primary curriculum. Evolution is arguably the most important concept underlying the life sciences. That it had not originally been included in the revised primary curriculum was of great concern and we are pleased to see that has now been rectified.’

sourcewww.DCSF.gov.uk, 19 November 2009, Major reform to curriculum at the heart of a renewed push to drive up standards.
sourceHumanists4Science submission to the Jim Rose Primary Curriculum reform consultation.

Department for Children Schools and Families Press Release


The Department for Children Schools and Families dcsf.gov.uk 19 November 2009 Press Release stated that from September 2011 in Primary Schools:-
"Evolution made compulsory and importance of British history confirmed in new areas of learning"

"Schools Minister Vernon Coaker has today confirmed plans to bring in a new curriculum to shake-up primary education – with overwhelming support from pupils, parents, teachers and experts."
"New legislation introduced today on primary curriculum reform in England will drive up education standards across the board. Vernon Coaker confirmed that evolution will become a compulsory part of science education"
"Due to the positive response to Jim Rose’s proposals, few changes were made to the proposed Areas of Learning. However, after consulting with parents, teachers, the science community and other interested parties, pupils will be expected to explicitly cover evolution as part of their learning. Learning about evolution is an important part of science education, and pupils already learn about it at secondary school."
Background


The independent review of the primary curriculum, the first in ten years, was led by educational expert Sir Jim Rose and began in spring 2008. The new legislation is based on his report, which sought the views of teachers, parents, pupils and subject experts and took over a year to complete. The Government accepted Jim Rose’s recommendations in full in April this year. The BHA, Humanists4Science and others commented on his review by 24 July 2009.





Humanists4Science Proposals on Evolution - Author: Chris Street, Dorset Humanists
  • in the Science, Life and Living sections include:-
    • Charles Darwins’ theory of Evolution by Natural Selection - the single most important idea underlying the life sciences. 
    • how organisms are adapted to their environments and how variation can lead to evolutionary changes.’ 
    • children should understand that, over time, organisms have evolved.
  • the Key Stage 4 curriculum (pg 224) states: -
    • Organisms and health - In their study of science, the following should be covered: 
      • a) organisms are interdependent and adapted to their environments 
      • b) variation within species can lead to evolutionary changes and similarities and differences between species can be measured and classified 
  • Humanists4Science recommend that part of the Key Stage 4 curriculum be included in the later stages of the Primary Curriculum viz. 
    • ‘to apply knowledge and understanding to describe how organisms are adapted to their environments and how variation can lead to evolutionary changes’ 
  • Humanists4Science recommend addition of notes:-
    • L14. to apply knowledge and understanding to describe and explain the structure and function of key human body systems including reproduction 
    • L15. to investigate the structure, function, life cycle and growth of flowering plants and explain how these are linked 
    • L16. to investigate, identify and explain the benefits of micro-organisms and the harm they can cause 
  • Humanists4Science welcome the example of the study of Evolution and Darwin (page 48) included in the report under Cross-curricular studies:-
    • ‘Schools that chose the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth to launch a study of this famous Victorian and his lasting contribution to science included learning about the journeys of the Beagle, mapping the route to the Galapagos Islands and the climate and conditions revealed through the voyage which furnished Darwin with a wealth of evidence for his theory of evolution.‘ 
  • Conclusion: 
    • Humanists4Science consider that Evolution be specifically mentioned in the Primary Curriculum.

Humanists4Science Proposals on Scientific Method. - Author: Chris Street, Dorset Humanists
Humanists4Science proposed (pages 16-17) that the 'scientific method' be included in the Primary curriculum.

We recommended that the scientific and technological curriculum be amended to:-

Pupils develop valuable skills in applying scientific method, that is generating and testing ideas, gathering and making sense of evidence, developing possible solutions, and evaluating processes and outcomes. They learn to distinguish evidence from opinion and communicate their findings in a variety of ways."

"essential knowledge should include "a direct reference to the value of science as a way of finding out true facts.

"addition of "how the scientific method enables us to learn truths about reality". Humanists4Science proposed that key skills, taken together, make up the scientific method. and that  scientific method skills are needed by children to make progress:’

"Conclusion: Humanists4Science consider that Scientific Method be specifically mentioned in the Primary Curriculum."

Submission by Humanists4Science





Who are Humanists4Science?
Humanists4Science group is for humanists with an active interest in science. We believe that science is a fundamental part of humanism but also that it should be directed to humane and ethical ends. Science is, in our view, more a method than a body of facts. Humanists4Science seek to promote, within the humanist community and beyond, the application of the scientific method to issues of concern to broader society.

Campaign Success!! Dorset Humanists welcome inclusion of evolution in primary school science.

A statement from the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) that the theory of evolution is to now be included in primary school science lessons in England.

In April this year the government began consultation on a new primary school curriculum, which like its predecessor, failed to make any mention of the theory of evolution or process of natural selection.

During the summer the BHA organised a public letter from a group of distinguished scientists and science educators, calling on government to include evolution in the primary curriculum. The BHA made its own submission to the consultation and encouraged members and Dorset Humanists to do the same, as well as petitioning MPs and ministers on the issue.

In a letter to the BHA from the DCSF, minister Diana Johnson MP has now stated that ‘We have considered the consultation reports...and the views expressed on this issue by the BHA and members of the science community. As a result of the consultation you will be pleased to know that evolution is now included in the programme of learning for scientific and technological understanding.’

Read crabsallover blog about the Campaign to Introduce Evolution into Primary School science.


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What is Humanism? by Stephen Law




What is Humanism?

VERY ROUGH DRAFT FOR COMMENTS.

The word “humanism” has had, and continues to have, a wide variety of meanings. At its broadest, “humanism” means little more than a system of thought in which human values, interests and dignity are given central importance. Understood in this way, almost everyone qualifies as a “humanist”.

However, as understood by contemporary humanist organizations, the term “humanist” means something much narrower. Those who sign up to “humanism”, understood in this narrower, contemporary sense of the term, are embracing a particular sort of worldview that by no means everyone accepts. That worldview is the focus of this book.

So what distinguishes the humanist outlook? It is hard to be very precise. The boundaries of the concept are somewhat elastic. But most humanists would probably agree on something like the following minimal, seven-point characterization.
The 7 points at Stephen Law's website... and more.

Debate on Humanism in Lords

Lord Harrison  to ask Her Majesty’s Government, with reference to the agreement of July 2006 between the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and the BBC, what is their assessment of the extent to which the BBC has paid sufficient regard to the importance of reflecting humanism in its programmes, particularly in relation to Thought for the Day. (1 hour)


Moses Room - Meeting started on Wednesday 4 November
View from 3 hours 10 minutes - timings in ( ) of Humanist Lords
Transcription of entire debate from 6.51 - 7.44 pm



6.51 pm (3hr 10 mins) Lord Harrison

7 pm (3hr 19 mins) Baroness Massey of Darwen

7.04 pm (3hr 23 mins) Baroness Young of Hornsey

7.15 pm (3hr 34 mins) Lord Birt

7.20 pm (3hr 39 mins) Lord Warner

7.22 pm (3hr 41 mins) Lord Macdonald of Tradeston

7.26 pm (3hr 45 mins) Lord Joffe

7.30 pm (3hr 49 mins) Lord Taverne



Source: http://www.humanism.org.uk/news/view/385