Faith Schools

"Faith schools should not select pupils on basis of religion, says report" read the headline to an article that caught my eye earlier today. At first sight it sounds quite ridiculous that a school with a faith focus can't use that focus to choose its pupils. Would a science based academy school not want pupils who have an interest in science? Would you expect a drama school to major in nuclear physics?

But the truth behind the headlines is a little more challenging than that.

I've always had an uneasy feeling about faith schools as they are presented to us today. I remember when some evangelicals began starting schools in order, it would seem, to protect their children from non-faith education. This bothered me then and it bothers me now because I think it serves to separate Christians from the people we're trying to reach. It's a ghetto mentality and it does our children little good to be so separated from others who think differently.

As far as I can tell, the original faith schools were not focused on faith but on making education available to those for whom it generally wasn't. In other words it had nothing at all to do with teaching one faith but everything to do with expressing the values of a faith that said everyone deserves education. In the UK faith schools existed because there was no such thing as state education. The isolationist agenda was never part of the package.

So have faith schools had their day? I don't know, but when I was once asked whether, if we ever got the opportunity, the church would open a Christian School, my answer was, "Only if it's not just for Christians." For me a Christian School would run on Christian principles, have a Christian ethos but would not be there to make sure creationism was taught on the biology syllabus.

That, I have to say, is simply daft and only serves to make faith schools look anti-intellectual. Have we learnt nothing from past attempts by the church to suppress scientific thought and investigation?

If we're in favour of faith schools then we need to make sure our motives are less about self-preservation and more about excellence in education.