Free Schools put to the test.

A rather big challenge has come up for Michael Gove, a man who has proved adept at flapping every policy announcement he's ever made, and so we can expect an entertaining response. It comes as the very reputation of his 'free schools' programme is put on the rack, with a school which teaches Creationism making an application.

It might look pretty, but is toxic to your brain.

Now, I'd imagine most of my readers have intelligence above the level of a baboon and so can see fairly clearly that evolution is only a theory in the same way as the earth being round is a theory. It is not about opposing views, evolution is fact, creationism is ridiculous. So to subject young children to the idea that these two ideas deserve equal merit is very dangerous indeed. We may as well teach them at the same time that 'the earth might go around the sun, but it's just one possible theory'.

Surely, this application has to be turned down? For if it isn't, the free schools programme instantly loses all credibility and you literally have a free market to put whacky ideas in childrens minds. It is one thing to say that a school doesn't have to follow a national curriculum, it is quite another to say they can teach them fairy stories in place of hard science.