Some people object to the existence of 'faith schools', because they worry that children are being 'indoctrinated'. In his 2010 Channel 4 documentary Faith School Menace? Richard Dawkins expressed concern that young people were being taught particular beliefs about the origins of the universe, and argued, most importantly, that they were not being taught how to think or question. The Oxford geneticist has argued in the past that 'it is immoral to brand young children with the religion of their parents' (Independent, 2006).
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| Richard Dawkins presenting Faith School Menace? in 2010 (Source: Channel 4) |
When I was last commuting into London a few months ago the Evening Standard was waging a campaign against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), calling on schools to be at the front line, arguing that teachers are in the best position to spot where a girl is at risk, or is showing signs of having undergone this process whilst on a trip abroad to see family. Yet here we saw another protest - the Standard reported that often teachers were anxious to get involved for fear of offending cultural sensitivities. FGM is at the forefront of the debate into when we just agree to disagree and let everyone be entitled to their own view, and when we fight for what we believe is right.
Thirdly, people in my life have expressed concern about the future of education, saying 'I don't want the state bringing up my children, and telling them that their parents are wrong.' Much of this centres around the controversial and heated topic of sex and relationships education, where everyone has a view and awareness of what actually goes on in these lessons is actually very varied and often affected by the media blowing things out of proportion. However, there is reason for any parent to concern themselves with this. I don't know what the current messages will be when it comes to the time that I might have school-age children, but I will want to teach them certain things I believe to be important about sex and relationships, because everyone has values around this area. So, you may not mind whether your child is married first, and that's where you and I differ, but going back to topics such as FGM, I'm sure you'd join me in wanting both girls and boys to be taught that abuse is not acceptable, showing that everyone does have things they are willing to make a stand for.
So, the big question is what role schools should play in instilling values. You may not want the state, church, mosque or secularist instilling their values into your children, or anyone else's, and may want to have an education system that is not about 'indoctrination', but about growing young minds and readying people for the world of work and to contribute to society.
Well, I've come to the conclusion that doing this without values is a myth.
Here's my interpretation on how schools came to exist:
At some point in history we learnt how to make enough food that some people didn't need to be involved in food production. The division of labour occurred and this made things more efficient. Some people went out and produced food, and whilst they were doing this, other people were doing other things to provide for the community. The community decided to set aside some people to teach the children - this became a school.
Schools were borne out of the need of a community. Such a community would have had shared values, and would have wanted to instill these values in their children. Now, I use the word value in an entirely neutral way. Believing your daughter needs to go through FGM in order to make a good marriage is still a value which drives your behaviour, even though I think it's wrong. So is empowering people to make their own choices.
Every community has values and British state schools are still the product of a community with a set of values that wants to educate its children. That community, however, is no longer a unified community with one set of values, but an artificial one. The values behind state education come, therefore, from the government who are elected to represent this huge community. Of course, such a small amount of people can't represent 60 million people, and, more to the point, the values and beliefs of that people in this country hold are diverse and contradictory, and therefore it is impossible to have an education system that instills all of them.
And so, our education system reflects the values of the government, an artificial reflection of our 'community.' These include, and I'm not saying whether these are 'right' or 'wrong': multiculturalism, 'tolerance', sexual liberalism, academic skills, readiness for the world of work, gender equality, thinking critically, and I'm sure many others. Now, do I blame the decision-makers in state education for wanting to drive education to these values? No! Because everyone wants their children to be educated in the things they think are important. I do believe that politicians choose their careers for a reason, and even if it's just the votes than encourage you to try and lower teenage pregnancy rates, or fight gang culture, you still want to make a change.
They might not realise it, but the new atheists who object to faith schools do not do so because the faith schools are teach values, but because they values they teach are ones they disagree with. The values of humanism centre around the idea that people shouldn't waste their lives worshipping a God that doesn't exist and society should value human beings instead (if God doesn't exist, then fair enough!). These are values by which people live their lives and make decisions. The reason why Richard Dawkins argued so passionately against faith schools is because he believes so wholeheartedly in living according to the values of evidence-based reasoning. This isn't about how he came to that conclusion, what it means for how we should live our lives.
And then with young children, you have to 'indoctrinate' them in order to teach them anything! People indoctrinate their children into looking right and left before they cross the road. I want any future children I have to be safe, and to know they are loved, and so I will do all I can to get that message into their heads. For me, part of knowing they are loved will be knowing the love of God. I would be a terrible parent to not teach my children something I believe is so important, regardless of whether it is right or not.
So, what can we do? We can't get away from value-driven education. It is impossible. How on earth can we have a state education system that brings up our children in the way we want? And what do we do about the education that goes in the opposite direction to what we value?
Those, my friends, are the questions.
