MetaCatholic

There’s a story in today’s Observer about a headteacher who wanted to turn his school into a secular school. On the one hand, it serves as a useful illustration of how confused the UK is as a country, not just over education but over having an established Church. On the other hand, it’s a but baffling that the headteacher thought he could try this:

Head: Dear Government, I’d like my school to be exempt from the law.
Gov: Sorry, everyone has to obey the law.

Universal education in the UK was effectively the result of a church initiative to provide education for those who couldn’t afford it. As a result, virtually every non-fee-paying school was set up by, and run by the Church of England. Then universal education was provided by statute, and over a period of time, and with successive revisions, these church run schools became state schools, and new state schools were set up. The church schools continued, as part of the deal, to retain something of their foundational character and ethos. In addition, and as part of the intertwining of church and state, all schools were expected to provide acts of worship that reflected the formal status of Christianity in the (unwritten) constitution, what was probably a general view that the country was Christian, and its historical roots.

None of that history has prepared either legislation, education or constitution for dealing with the very different kind of society which the UK now is. Things have been further complicated by the change in language from “church schools” which were nearly always desired and desirable community schools, to “faith schools.” The former were defined in part by the church’s relationship to the entire community, the latter are potentially more identified by what sets them apart from the wider community.

The situation in the Church of England was complicated under George Carey’s leadership when increasing the number of church schools became seen as a good example of holistic mission. This ignored the fact that there are comparatively few Christian teachers who are willing to work in them, so that Christianity becomes a rather vague ethos instead of a life-defining faith, and worship is led by many who are not themselves regular worshippers. It also ignores the fact that many parents who are not themselves interested in living as members of the church, choose the school either for its results, or for a vague sense that it will give their children guidance they themselves might struggle with. Finally, it ignores the fact that such schools have not only being wonderfully unsuccessful in creating Christians, but have even managed to put them off for life. It all smacks of the “We must do something. This is something. Let’s do it” approach to life.

There are still some good church schools, just as there are some good schools belonging to other faith communities. The best have staff and an atmosphere that models and enables participation in an overarching view of life through the eyes of their faith, while teaching a common nationally mandated curriculum, in which prayer and worship are a genuine and not an artificially imposed part of the framework. There is no reason why such schools can’t continue, and continue with state funding, provided they deliver the curriculum properly. And in this context that means, for example, that evolution is taught in science classes as the only viable theory going. And if you;re going to have “faith” schools in that sense, I see no reason why “humanist” schools can’t be allowed under that umbrella.

But just as I think establishment has pretty much had its day, and only falters on because no-one’s got the energy to unpick so much convoluted history and legislation, so I think this idea of a watered down religious patina smeared gently over the whole of education has also had its day. If the church could put its educational energy into overtly Christian after-school clubs, that made no pretence to be other than pastoral, educational and evangelistic work with children, for those parents that chose them, supported them, and helped fund them, then it would be doing a far better job with its limited resources than this pretence to be a necessary and historic part of the system.