In a Facebook exchange I had earlier on an obliquely related matter, one friend wrote: “I also believe that religious schools should be closed so that children of all faiths and none can be educated together. Integration and valuing difference and diversity should be the order of the day. In short we need a far more ‘socialist’ (with a small ‘s’ ) society where immigrant integration can be properly managed rather than the ‘throw it into the mix and let’s see what comes out’ that has been the attitude of successive governments since the 1980’s…”. It got me thinking once again about what has long been a subject where I hold strong views  …

Some will know that as a parent, I like many agonized over what school my child should attend. When it came to primary education, we opted for a faith school as opposed to a good local non faith school. The reason for our choice was that we felt the ethos of the school was sufficiently important to outweigh other considerations. I felt it rather naive to expect that one can be neutral on such matters because like it or not all schools will present a view and this may oppose that of the parents. While I do not regret that decision, I still wonder whether it was the right one given my rose tinted view of what I felt a faith school would be able to offer was only partly realized. My take on the faith dynamic at its best, is it will provide a contribution to addressing the key issues of life and helping to instill in children the right sort of attitudes, that is altogether positive.

Given the problems we see in society when it comes to matters like sex and relationships, British values and citizenship and how to harmonise an increasingly diverse population, it is tempting to want to put more onus on schools to address these. I can quite see why some will see faith rather than making a positive contribution might add to division and put out a message that goes against their own views on how such matters should be approached. My worry is that by creating this one size fits all approach in order to put forward the politically correct indoctrination on these assorted matters, there will be an ethos imposed on the schools by those whose worldview I profoundly disagree with. For this reason, I will continue to support faith schools. If there is to be an ethos, it ought to be the right one.