what do we think about faith schools?
There’s a lot of stuff about at the moment about faith schools. In particular, about whether they are a good idea, whether they promote a positive self-image for people of minority faiths (which, let’s face it in the UK is people of any faith), or whether they act against integration.
Now, on this divided issue I have to declare an interest. As with more than one person in the world, I haven’t always been an atheist. In fact growing up, I went to two different faith schools - primary and secondary. They were both really nice schools. Not perfect, but the kids were generally well-behaved, the staff were caring, the ethos was sound and the exam results were excellent. In short, these are the faith schools that people want to emulate.
If I ever have children, then I would want send them to a school that was like the schools that I went to. Caring, with a good sense of community, and the opportunity for them to reach their potential. As I’ve always had a positive experience with faith schools, before I realised that I was atheist, I assumed that I would want to send them to a church school.
However, these days I think that it’s a mistake to say that faith schools are particularly good. In general, parents have to jump through several hoops (usually of the church attendance variety) to get in. Which means that they are going to attract the sorts of parents willing to invest quite a bit of time and effort into their children’s education. I’m not sure the faith schools create the nice kids as select for them.
Also, more than I used to, I embrace multiculturalism. Whether or not you think, as I do, that it’s truly amazing to get to live in a diverse and vibrant community, the fact is that here in the UK we do. Better then to expose our children to it early on. No matter how much they try to provide a view of life on the outside, most faith schools have a limited population, not just in terms of belief, but in terms of race. The new Hindu Krishna-Avanti school has all Asian pupils. In the same education authority, I suspect that St John Fisher RC School has almost no Asian pupils, nor the Moriah Jewish Day School.
Where atheists are concerned I think there’s also a problem of children having sheltered ideas about non-faith. Until I was say 14 or so, I didn’t know anybody who wasn’t at least nominally connected with a religion. The idea that some people simply didn’t believe in god was completely alien to me. I still sometimes subconsciously confuse faith and being a good person - I automatically assume that someone who has a strong faith is therefore worthy. When I think about it, I can see the basic error I’m making, but I don’t always think about it.
The problem I see is that there isn’t separation of church and state in England. Given that, I can’t see any likelihood of existing C of E schools losing public funding. The Catholic church and the United Synagogue would undoubtedly also be up in arms if there long established schools were no longer in the state sector. And you definitely shouldn’t be promoting one faith above another (despite the established church) which means that you also have to allow state funded Hindu, Sikh and Muslim schools, and some are in existence.
Overall, I’m not sure that I like faith schools any more, although I still retain a soft spot for my own schools. But I don’t think that they’re going to go away. Maybe it would be better to have a semblance of a national, rather than local, curriculum in RE and ensure that all faith positions, and none, are taught in our schools.
Popularity: 36% [?]
