Segregation - Faith Schools

The idea of having faith schools is a widely debated topic. Many of us will agree that faith schools are completely unnecessary, especially in a multi-cultural society. To be honest, faith schools are unnecessary in any society, regardless of whether or not it is multi-cultural, or basic, this being so for a number of reasons.

One of the problems facing faith schools is that calling them “faith” schools can seem redundant. Many parents will “convert” or convince authorities that they are of a certain religion just so their child can attend a faith school. Many do not hold these religious beliefs, or follow the religious practice, which begs the question on why they want their child to go to a faith school.

Proximity may be one of the reasons why. In 2011, about a third of all state funded schools were faith schools (BBC News, 2011). The fact that such a large amount of schools in the UK are faith schools, may leave some parents in a situation where faith schools are the closest option which makes them more inclined to send there. Obviously, there is so much more that motivates a parent to go through such extreme measures just to send their child to a faith school.

Generally, faith schools perform better than regular schools. Surveys have shown that at a primary level, 85% of kids left school with a decent grasp of basic subjects and skills, as opposed to 79% of other non-faith schools. One may argue that faith schools perform so much better, because of the religious morale that kids are given at a young age. They are told that they should do certain things and act a certain way, many being extremely disciplined, and taught to value education. This culture of religious discipline makes those in faith schools perform so much better. However, the performance of faith schools is dictated by so much more than what the religion teaches, especially if we consider that many of the kids going to faith schools do not actually hold certain religious beliefs.

In general, schools which are selective will make parents have to face certain loop holes. In faith schools, parents may need certificates, evidence of a baptism, evidence of mass attendance etc. Overall, this attracts more ‘organised’ parents who take a particular interest in the quality of their child’s education. Because in general, the people who go to faith schools have more ‘pushy parents’ and they are typically nurtured and encouraged into being more intellectual beings. As a consequence, faith schools tend to outperform other state funded schools, which makes more and more parents willing to go through loop holes to get their kids to go there, even if they aren't religious.

Again, this encourages segregation between the kids with pushy parents, and the kids whose parents don’t think that the type of school their child goes to matters. It seems only the kids with pushy and arguably immoral parents are separated from those who do not place education as the biggest priority in their  child's life. Children should be able to be around various types of people, rather than being with people who have the ‘same beliefs as them’.

I say “the same beliefs as them” very cautiously, as it seems quite stupid to assume that the kids in these faith schools abide by a certain religion, and willingly practice it as an independent. Clearly, kids will only go to a faith school because their parents hold that religion, and if we take into account that faith schools have complete control over their religious education lessons, it seems likely that children are not being opened up to wider religions, and pretty much being told about one religion, for the mere fact that it is the only religion and belief they have ever been taught. Personally, I think this is dangerous for the social construct of a person.

I’m not exactly a huge fan of Richard Dawkins and his attitude that those who are religious as he can just be simply ignorant. However, I completely agree with many of his arguments with regards to the religion of a child. In his book, he said that “Just as feminists wince when they hear ‘he’ rather than ‘he or she’ or ‘man’ rather than ‘human’, [he] wants everybody to flinch whenever we hear a phrase such as ‘Catholic child’ or ‘Muslim child’.” (Dawkins, 2006). One cannot simply throw a religion on to a child, just because their parents believe in it. Children are young a naïve and will believe a lot of the things adults tell them, so throwing a religion upon them would be immoral, as it’s forcing an opinion to them when they are vulnerable, and can’t think for themselves. Some may argue that it’s perfectly okay, as many of these children will abide by this religion all their lives and be perfectly happy with it, which seems like a very utilitarian approach to the well-being of children. Just because it makes society a whole lot more easy when children just succumb to one religion, that being their parents, doesn't mean that it’s justifiable to just let them only be taught one religion all their life.

I see this kind of thing every day in school. Many of my classmates will be intolerant, frown upon, and bastardise the beliefs of others, just because all their lives, they have only ever been taught what to think, and not how to think.

Understandably, a child who grows up in a household adhering to one religion, will most likely also stick to that religion, despite being taught about other religions, which I can certainly understand and can’t exactly argue against. But that is all because one of the reasons behind having a faith is “tradition”, and arguably an unjust reason to have a faith. Everybody else believes in this certain ideology, and has done so for a number of years; therefore, I should do so? Tradition isn't really a justified reason to do anything, because things change and as a rule the way the world operates needs to adapt to that. If we believe in something, just because everybody else has for a long time, we will live in a world that doesn't evolve for the greater good.  But sometimes, our family shape who we are as people and it seems quite stupid to try and force complete discretion with regards to religious beliefs, just so a child can ‘make up their own mind’, because when you are young, it’s hard to let things like that go over your head completely, and it’s nice to have children involved in certain aspects of society. But we need to give them opportunities to look at things from different perspectives, and not limit them to one belief.

Tradition is probably one of the only arguments backing faith schools, as any other argument they could make would clearly be immoral. We are not allowing change for the better, if we throw all kids into a school where all their parents believe in the same thing; allowing this ideology to be “passed on” ad infinitum. Many of the kids thrown in these schools don’t actually recognise how restricted they are, many being so restricted by their religion, that whatever they do is seen through a “religious lens”.

In a documentary into faith schools by Richard Dawkins (‘Faith School Menace?’, 2010), he investigated the religious education of an Islamic school. A science teacher, upon being asked a question with regards to evolution (“How come if we are descended from apes, there still are apes?”), was unable to answer, as she simply didn't know. She claimed that every single person in her classes disproved of the theory, however, that still doesn't justify her not being able to answer a question that relates to what is on the syllabus. It is clear that in these science lessons, little emphasis is being placed on teaching the theory of evolution, simply because of the apparent religious beliefs of the many. This is why many young people are so close minded, because again, all their life, they are only ever taught one thing to think, and are never taught how other people may think. They see everything through a religious lens, but the syllabus shouldn't change because of that. I understand that one’s religion is essentially one’s life, but if we live in a world where people get a different education because of their religion, it all seems rather ignorant of multiculturalism.

Since many of the kids that go to faith schools see everything through a religious lens, they only ever relate what they do to their religion, and not to any other greater aspect of life. Yes, it may not affect the mental well-being of a child, but it certainly affects the skills, tolerance and open mindedness of a child.  

Another reason why it affects the tolerance of a child is precisely because of the segregation. It separates one faith from other mainstream opinions, creating a “them” and “us” type of society. As I have repeated many times, many of the kids that go to faith schools grow up in families with pushy parents, many of which will enforce a religious ideology onto their kids. I have seen students that have though that what their religion teaches is right and there is very little doubt about it.They have thought what it says in their holy book is true, and whatever everyone else says is to them  being ignorant. Once in an R.E lesson over a year ago, I was told that all non-believers have a metaphorical blindfold on, and had cotton in their ears for not having faith in this particular religion. This isn’t in a faith school, and isn't down to the schooling the child who would say this kind of thing is given. Much of the time, it is down the parental influence, and the kind of religious culture you grow up in. I fear the problem may be worse in faith schools, especially when everyone is used to believing the same thing, therefore when encountering someone with differing beliefs, perhaps feeling quite uncomfortable, because all their life they have been separated from people with different beliefs from them. Another thing is that faith schools place emphasis on what you believe in, because you are essentially selected on what you believe in. This only makes the problem worse by making young people inconsiderate about other people’s beliefs, because their own beliefs have been placed at I suppose a greater importance than other beliefs, hence why they go to school where everyone believes that same thing. Furthermore, it is hard to know how much of their own religion is being shunned on them, since faith schools have complete control over their R.E lessons and have their own “religious inspectors” who inspect their R.E lessons. It seems quite suspicious, and I suspect that many just learn about their own religions in these R.E lessons, rather than about other mainstream religions.

The sad part about faith schools is that it is a child attending the school that follows the teachings of their family’s religion.  It seems quite silly to create faith ‘schools’ when those who attend school are most likely not old enough to be completely certain of their religious beliefs, providing they haven’t just stuck to family tradition. It would be like creating schools for socialist children, or conservative children, because not only does it encourage this division of beliefs kind of attitude, but by separating them completely, it would be with beliefs that they are perhaps too young and not experienced enough to be entirely sure that they even hold.

A very poorly made argument on the side of faith schools is that it gives many kids a “sense of identity”. Going to faith school ‘gives’ them a faith to worship, and become good people of a certain religion. Emphasis of the verb “gives”. I think it is nice that at school, students are building identities for themselves, but by sending them to a faith school, you are building it for them.

As a summary, I feel it is appropriate to abolish the idea of “faith” from a school, and make them more open, to people of all religions and cultures rather than segregating, based on religion. In general, schools should not segregate based on factors that children don’t necessarily always control, especially with regards to faith, because then it just encourages a form of racism and intolerance.