How misguided of the Church of England to use a ‘pyramid of white supremacy’ to teach children they are morally flawed

Jul 18, 2023 by Jill

by Catherine Pepinster, Mailonline:

Give me a child until he is seven years old,’ said the Jesuit priest St Ignatius Loyola, ‘and I will show you the man.’

The Collins Dictionary of Quotations cites a more chilling version of those words, as an old English proverb: ‘Give me a child for the first seven years and he is mine forever.’

Inspirational message — or a warning against indoctrination? The question has renewed relevance this week after a Church of England diocese revealed it is teaching a controversial ‘pyramid of white supremacy’ in its primary schools.

Children’s minds are uniquely impressionable. They can be moulded in any way, according to how they are taught. I believe passionately that it is crucial to ensure all British children, from every background, grow up free from the taint of racism.

But I strongly oppose the use of this unproven teaching tool. Far from helping pupils understand the importance of loving their neighbours — perhaps the most important of all Christian doctrines — it emphasises the differences between children on the basis of their skin colour and it encourages them to think of themselves as morally flawed.

It is a poisonous system, damaging young minds. And precisely because they are so young, most children will lack the critical faculties to analyse the teaching material and reject its errors.

On the contrary, pupils in this age group assume that whatever they are taught must be correct. To inflict this ‘pyramid of white supremacy’ on them is an abuse of the trust they and their parents have placed in the schools.

The pyramid graphic can be seen on the website for the Church of England’s Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, as part of a document called Responding To Racism.

Read here