Faith Schools - a good education?
Discuss.
In my 5 Minute Break of 28th November last year, I set out what I saw as the compelling case against religion, and my own journey from being a young, casual Christian to being a rational secularist grown-up. While my parents had sent me to schools that were nominally Church of England, these schools had restricted God and Jesus to within chapel services, rather than making them a core part of school life.
But what about Faith Schools, where Christianity or other religions are totally central to the school’s mission? Around one third of schools in the UK state education system are classified as Faith Schools, and many parents have little or no choice but to send their kids to one.
So I wondered – what sort of education might I have had if I had gone to such a school, where faith is so fundamental to its ethos?
I googled a few and I found statements such as: “We do aim to deliver new skills and knowledge very much through the lens of the teachings of Christ” and “Christ is at the centre of everything we do.” There’s even one which I understand has a quote by the late Pope Benedict XVI as part of its mission – “We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God.”
I mean, what? WHAT? How on earth can you educate kids to be the next generation of scientists, leaders and thinkers that we so desperately need, while confusing their minds with such stupidity? Teaching them that they must not question religious dogmas, then (presumably) teaching them actual proven facts? Thank goodness I didn’t go to one of these schools! It defies belief (and I chose those words deliberately), to think what such teaching is doing to impressionable young minds. How much could it confuse them?
Let’s consider some key topics:
Scripture vs Science
Do the kids go from a Christian scripture lesson where they are told not to question anything, to a science class where they are taught to question everything? Confusing or what? And does the science teacher explain that it is not possible to walk on water, turn it into wine, conceive without sex or rise from the dead… BUT, you can if you’re good ol’ JC, as the laws of biology, chemistry and physics don’t actually apply to him?
Sex and Relationship Education
What are children told in these sessions? That the things society says are perfectly acceptable and lawful – such as sex before marriage, divorce and homosexuality – are actually ‘wrong’? Does that come from the Bible? In which case (according to Genesis), incest is completely fine? And are they told that their sex lives (and innermost thoughts) are voyeuristically and intrusively monitored by Christ at all times, just in case they even think of straying? I must say, that really creeps me out. Might it do the same to impressionable young minds?
Geology
Do they learn that the accepted age of the earth is 4.5 billion years, or does the teacher make little ‘inverted comma’ signs when he/she tells them this, then add a little aside? Does he/she say that (according to the Bible) it was actually created by God only a few thousand years ago, and in just six or seven days? If so, I am sure the kids must also find this confusing and contradictory.
Evolution
Aha – the elephant in the classroom! How can the teachers reconcile the comprehensively proven scientific fact of evolution with their ‘made by God’ faith? Kudos to them if they find a way – perhaps someone could enlighten me?
Thou Shalt Not Kill
Here’s an interesting one. Do they teach the kids that murder is wrong, but point out that there’s a ‘get-out-of-jail’ pass for the genocidal maniac that is the God of the Old Testament? Do they explain how this benign, loving deity laid waste to large swathes of the bronze age population for crimes like ‘not believing in him’? And for crimes of general immorality, such as when he took out Sodom & Gomorrah? Or when he drowned everyone (apart from Noah) in the Flood? Are they told that he even bumped off Lot’s wife, just for turning round? Do the kids get taught that while murder is wrong, all these ones were OK because they were done by God?
Morality
Or maybe these Faith Schools just gloss over the shortcomings of the Old Testament God, and focus instead on the touchy-feely fluffiness of Jesus Christ? But – and it’s a big but – there is also stuff here they’ll need to gloss over as well. Such as the bit where Jesus says he loves you, but if you don’t love him back, he’ll torture you in hell forever. Nice. Or how human sacrifice and ritualistic cannibalism are central tenets of the faith. And do they acknowledge that Christianity is really a ‘pick-n-mix’ morality; where you use higher, non-Christian principles of human decency and empathy to select which bits of biblical teaching to accept and which to reject?
So I am left wondering how such Faith Schools square the circle, and teach kids on the one hand to ask questions that must be answered, while on the other hand telling them that there are answers that can’t be questioned. It’s not physically possible to do both, without compromising one or other. I fear that the schools where the ethos is such as “Christ is at the centre of everything we do”, will sacrifice genuine education on the altar of their ‘faith’. In which case I worry deeply for these kids, and for our nation’s future.
In conclusion, whichever their teaching methods, I cannot see how any Faith School has a valid place in our modern society. Which is why I support the National Secular Society’s No More Faith Schools campaign. And if you agree with me, please check out the campaign website and add your support to this very worthwhile initiative.
We should be making sure our children get a proper education; one that equips them for life in the twenty-first century.
Not the first century.
* References on file.
My day job is as an author of action and adventure stories set in Tudor England.
