Religious Crackpot Of The Month — September 2007
September 13th, 2007I recently read in The Times that the government plans to make more faith schools in an effort to integrate minorities better. This is a clearly stupid idea. It’s a bit like trying to put out a fire by pouring napalm on it. Like most newspaper articles, it refers to a document that nobody could read. In science articles these are unpublished research, and in politics stories they’re documents that haven’t been published yet. In this case, the document was published a few days after the article, and here it is. I’ve skimmed it, and I think I can safely summarise that it’s a lot of emotional but empty sentiment and nothing very much of any substance. What substance it contains is almost entirely aimed at downplaying the differences between faith schools and what it calls “schools without a religious character”.
In one way, this is a very bad thing, because including any kind of religious “service” (forgive me if I think “service” is a rather grand term for “indoctrination”) in a context where science, mathematics and history are taught is effectively teaching religious beliefs as facts, which is not fair on children, who have a right to be taught objectively about the world. Any blurring of the line between religious beliefs and facts is a very dangerous thing. Children must be taught to question beliefs — all beliefs — or else they will grow up vulnerable to exploitation by fundamentalists, con artists, and fraudulent and deluded “alternative” therapists. Faith schools also segregate children, which reduces their contact with people of other backgrounds, which causes more segregation and intolerance in the future. Both of these things will have serious repercussions when these (comparatively) indoctrinated, ignorant and intolerant children grow up and adopt positions of power.
In another way, though, this is a good thing: the difference, according to British law, between a faith school and a “school without a religious character” is very small. The document, Faith In The System, reminds us that “all maintained schools [including non-faith schools] are required to have a daily act of collective worship”. If the school has no other faith then Christian worship must be practised. That makes them Christian faith schools in all but name, and this is a big problem which shouldn’t be ignored. The school is required by law to teach children that two thousand years ago a man, whose father was an omnipotent but invisible being, raised the dead, turned water into wine, walked on water, then died and went to Hell at the request of his supposedly benevolent father and rose again, before ascending bodily into a paradise world. The government claims that this plays a vital role in “exploring social and moral issues and [children's] own beliefs”, despite the fact that this worship is mandatory — parents can withdraw their children from it but the children themselves have no say in what, or how much, religious dogma they are exposed to. That is not “exploring their own beliefs”. That is indoctrinating them with their parents’ and the state’s preferred beliefs. RE lessons, which I certainly do approve of, show children a wide variety of beliefs and explores them sensibly. “Collective worship” just shows them one of the available options and teaches them to believe it unquestioningly. That is clearly detrimental to a child’s psychological development.
The rather patronisingly named Department for Children, Schools and Families would appear to think that if we have a load of faith schools anyway then we might as well make some for other religions as well. Whereas actual common sense, and indeed teachers and large sections of the public*, would say that we must remove all influence of religion on education. Neither parents nor the state have the right to dictate what children believe, either directly, by simply telling them what to think, or indirectly, by controlling what influences they are exposed to. Instead, children must be given the right to be educated without also having religious beliefs forced upon them, and to make up their own minds after hearing what everyone has to say.
So this month I’m awarding Religious Crackpot Of The Month jointly to these five crackpots (who all have suitably ridiculous job titles): the “Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families” Ed Balls, the “Minister of State for Schools and Learners” Jim Knight, the “Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools and Learners” Andrew Adonis, the “Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families” Beverley Hughes, and the “Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children, Young People and Families” Kevin Brennan. These publicly elected ministers run a department which has publicly endorsed a document suggesting — and repeatedly made it a matter of policy to — back faith schools and increase their numbers. If one of them is your MP then you can write to them, and if they’re not then you can write to them anyway. Or more simply you can just sit back, wait for a snap election and vote them out of office. Well assuming someone can muster up some less ignorant opposition.
*The public is, as it is wont to be, split on the issue, but here’s a few samples. This petition against faith schools gained 3,191 signatures and this response from the PM’s office, which really misses the point on every possible level. This petition, in favour of faith schools and more alarmingly, in favour of creationism, got 18,699 rather depressing signatures from 18,699 rather depressing signatories, and this response from the PM, which is bang on about creationism but rather vacuous on faith schools. This anti-faith school petition has only 33 signatories. It’s new. Sign it. Similarly this one, with 19. This one’s been going longer, and has 17,401 signatories, but there’s still time to sign it if you want. (It’s been in the links panel for ages now so you may even have signed it already, I don’t know.) At present this means there are more people who have signed a pro-creationism petition than any anti-faith school one. But it’s close so let’s push it over. Petitions aside, it seems that the general public are mostly against faith schools. Good old general public.
Tags for this article: Beverley Hughes , Ed Balls , Faith schools , Jim Knight , Kevin Brennan , Lord Adonis , Religious Crackpot of the Month , The Department of Children Schools and Families
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15 Responses to “Religious Crackpot Of The Month — September 2007”
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September 14th, 2007 at 01:16
There was a moment there where I really believed you must have misread something with that “collective worship” business. That is absolute nonsense. Even if there was absolutely no further specification, that’s not at all appropriate. I don’t think that worship, whoever it may be directed at, is a healthy activity for anybody.
September 14th, 2007 at 08:08
The “collective worship” rule isn’t universally observed; when I was at school the head would talk to us about what he’d read in the paper that morning. Nevertheless, it’s a law that should have been got rid of a long time ago. It’s quite unenforceable, and therefore its application is at the whim of the head, who may or may not be a religious crackpot.
Here in France we’ve had secular schools for over a century, and the general consensus is that it’s a good thing. In fact, it’s taken so seriously that pupils are not allowed any ostentatious display of religion. This has upset some of the more vocal Muslims, (though I don’t see them complaining about Turkey, which bans religious symbols from all government buildings), but no religious group here is seriously demanding special treatment or public funding to help them indoctrinate their kids.
September 14th, 2007 at 08:11
Forgot to add: Faith is a belief in something for which you have no evidence. If “faith schools” were called by their true name, they’d be “belief without evidence schools”. How long would they last then?
September 14th, 2007 at 10:08
I don’t think that Mr Adonis actually is an MP. He certainly wasn’t last time i checked.
September 14th, 2007 at 12:15
He may not be. I assumed he was because he’s listed as running a major government department.
I blame this on the fact that I no longer share a house with Mark’s Yes Minister box set.
Edit:
It amuses me that if I call a government minister a crackpot that’s fine but if I call a crackpot a government minister someone calls me on it.
I’d never really thought about this but you’re quite right, worship is a decidedly dodgy thing for anyone to encourage.
Also I fixed your tags.
It’s also a scary phrase if you think of it alongside other similar phrases: law schools teach law; business schools teach business; medical schools teach medicine. Faith schools teach faith. Great idea, guys.
September 14th, 2007 at 16:57
I saw lots of comments on this and assumed that an argument had broken out. Boo.
September 14th, 2007 at 17:19
Adonis isn’t an MP, and never has been AFAIK. Tony Blair made him a peer in order to make him a minister - ministers have to be members of the Commons or the Lords. In other words, this guy has never had to face the voters.
British democracy at work: “I like your ideas! Fancy being in the Government? What’s that? Getting elected? No need to worry about that…”
September 14th, 2007 at 19:15
I remember having to pray in Infant School, but I also learnt recently that the Infant/Junior School I went to (Beechwood, in Luton) were aware that my parents were Pagan and would often ask them their thoughts on allowing my sister and I to participate in Religious activities such as that morning prayer and, later, the school nativity plays, which my parents didn’t object so so long as neither of us were playing Joseph, Mary or Jesus (in the end I was a narrator and my sister, in the great tradition of removing Christianity from Nativity plays, played a Cuckoo two years later).
Paganism actually came up during our RE classes, and my parents were often contacted by the school to ask for advice or information on the subject. My Dad had a book published which the school ended up ordering copies of to keep in the school library. Oh, and one of our teachers was a Pagan. Lovely lady, she was. I forget her name.
Beechwood Infant and Junior School became a Charter Mark school in 1994 and, so far as I’m aware, still is. If I were still living in Luton I’d probably have my kids go there (assuming I ever had any). It maintained the perfect balance of what the Government wanted (the manditory prayer), what the parents wanted (involvement in their child’s religious and spiritual upbringing) and the children’s own spiritual future (providing them with informed knowledge about various faiths and beliefs).
September 14th, 2007 at 19:22
I reckon there’s something wrong if there’s any discrepancy between what the government wants, what the parents want, and the children’s future.
September 15th, 2007 at 00:54
Oh, look, this page contains an email address you can complain about the department’s policies to.
I’ll edit that into the main article now.
September 15th, 2007 at 11:12
There’s still the question of whether the Government is right to demand “mandatory prayer”, and surely comparing and exploring different faiths can be done just as well in a secular school, if not better as all the main religions can then be presented in a neutral environment.
Has it never occurred to anyone in Whitehall that faith can be misplaced?
September 16th, 2007 at 13:15
The latest on how faith schools fail to promote community cohesion:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2170337,00.html
September 20th, 2007 at 00:13
It would appear that the public majority is with me on this one:
http://www.secularism.org.uk/thepublicdontwantmorefaithschool3.html
http://www.learning-together.org.uk/docs/quotesPolls.htm (added to blog)
I can’t for a second understand what would cause government ministers to want to support bad ideas that the public are against. There’s just no defence for any of it. Not one single bit.
September 20th, 2007 at 19:06
Maybe its time for a Shazanity faith school? Lets make a mockery of the system from the inside
January 11th, 2008 at 19:12
You know, for a moment there it looked like the government might be beginning to see sense, but their spokesperson was ready and willing to assure us that they hadn’t seen much.