Mike Matthews considers what seems to be behind the government’s approach
It was a veiled attack, but still very much an attack.
Amanda Spielman, Chief Inspector of Schools, in her speech to a Church of England foundation, quoted Psalm 119, commending leaders who focus their schools on teaching ‘knowledge and good judgment’. But she also said that ‘Ofsted inspectors are increasingly brought into contact with those who want to actively pervert the purpose of education.’ Since Psalm 119 is all about the Word of God, one would therefore assume that these people would be those who wish to undermine knowledge and pervert good judgment by removing or twisting God’s Word. But no – the target is those who ‘actively undermine fundamental British values or equalities law.’1
Hunt down conservatism
She went on to identify the Christian Institute as ‘the most conservative voice’ in Anglicanism (it is not, in fact, linked to any denomination), and then said that ‘it means that practices that limit young people’s experiences and learning in school’ should be ‘called out’. The inference is that conservatism in education is to be hunted down and eliminated. By inference she also suggests that this could be ‘fundamentalist practice’ which should be challenged ‘in schools and communities’.
It is true that in her speech she specifically dealt with the case of some schools where there has been an issue with the Muslim faith, but mention of the Christian Institute and other references to ‘mainstream Christianity’ leaves us in no doubt that her target is as much evangelical Christian influences. Whilst she mentions Sunday Schools as being ‘positive’, she still wishes to bring them under control, and is saying that she needs ‘more powers’ to tackle ‘out-of-school’ provision. In effect, she wants control over everything that is taught to children, including by their parents, who cannot be trusted to teach their children the ‘correct’ things.
The opposition
We have to be clear as to what these statements really mean.
Firstly, there are senior figures (if not the government itself) that want to effectively supplant parents as those who control their children’s education. This principle of parental choice has been the bedrock of our law for a century and is something we as Christians believe to be God’s clear ordering of society. The children belong to God, who has entrusted them to parents to care for them and teach them (even if part of the formal education is delegated to others). They do not belong to the state: and this puts us into direct confrontation with many influential voices who claim that, at best, the state has ‘shared ownership’ of children2. This position is not new3, but there is now a realistic possibility that the state will take the control of children away from parents – not just their formal education, but ‘out-of-school’ activities as well, in other words, everything they are taught.
Secondly, there is a head-on confrontation between the government’s view of the purpose of education and that of the Bible. ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’4, we are told in Scripture, and this is the foundation of knowledge and sound judgement. However, the government (and indeed all political parties – this is not a party issue) have made their views clear, that the fear of the Lord is dangerous, constricting and intolerant.
Amanda Spielman’s speech pointed clearly in this direction and in particular she said: ‘Freedom of belief in the private sphere is paramount, but in our schools it is our responsibility to tackle those who actively undermine fundamental British values or equalities law’.
‘British Values’
The government’s ideas of ‘British values’ are not always the values of Christian believers, due to the way many are interpreted – e.g. tolerance has been redefined to mean acceptance and promotion. As Christians, we are under an obligation to bring up our children ‘in the training and instruction of the Lord’5: our values are those given to us by God and we have a legal right (as well as a duty) to raise our children according to those eternal values, not those invented arbitrarily and undemocratically by politicians – who may add and subtract from them as they see fit.
The obvious dichotomy between God’s view of issues such as homosexuality and that expressed in equality legislation has been there for some time, but the current debate about ‘transgender’ has brought it to the fore. The practical implications of this latest piece of insanity (the idea that we can declare ourselves to be other than we are) are serious indeed6: in this context the government is proposing to mandate that all children be taught that these things are both acceptable and normal (to say nothing of the formidable issues of child protection). How can we, as Christians, allow our children to be taught such evil? How much more of this mischief are we going to allow the powers-that-be to feed our children? Is it not ‘make your mind up’ time?
Thirdly, it is clear that those who believe the teaching of the Bible (amongst other faiths, and other books) and wish to teach its principles to children are viewed as dangerous, disruptive, and ‘perverting the purpose of education’. When Ahab saw Elijah, he said to him: ‘Is that you, you troubler of Israel?’ 7 We have to face it – the rulers of our country are confronting us with the same accusation. According to them, we are the ones who are perverting children’s education, and causing damage to the children and the nation itself.
Elijah’s reaction is instructive. He did not attempt to reason with Ahab, or prove that his actions were reasonable, in order simply to protect the rights of the 7,000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal: he confronted Ahab with the truth out of a wider concern than his own skin. ‘I have not made trouble for Israel,’ Elijah replied. ‘But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the LORD’s commands and have followed the Baals.’
For the sake of the children
We need to be clear: it is the current powers-that-be that have perverted the purpose of education (albeit a process that has been proceeding for decades). It is they who are corrupting the nation’s youth. It is they who are guilty of gross child abuse, by feeding even primary children with images and ideas of perversions and telling them ‘it is good’. For the sake of the nation’s children, and the future of our country, we need to ‘call out’ these people and their ungodly ideas.
The troubles in education – and in the country – have come about, at least in part, by the abandonment of the Lord’s commands. We have allowed the forces opposed to what we stand for to take over all the key levers of power in education, bit by bit, until they want everything: to control all we teach our children, and to rob that teaching of any content that is opposed to their sinful agenda. They wish to rob faith schools of any expression of the faith that they profess, so that it is no more than an empty aspiration over the entrance.
We should counter every attempt to impose the world’s agenda with a clear declaration of who is truly the force for evil.
We still have the choice
In addition, we need to cease to allow our children to be taught that practices which God condemns are normal and acceptable. We need to restore the Creator to his rightly place, in science as in every part of the curriculum, as the basis for our roles as men and women. We still have the choice: are we going to exercise it? The powers-that-be want to remove that choice, and it may soon be too late. This is not just a battle for the souls of the children of Christians: we are concerned for all the children of our land, and indeed for the moral chaos that atheistic education is bringing to our nation.
Forty years ago I wrote an article about just these issues in education, stating: ‘If we do not heed the alarm bells soon, then we will wake to find the ship has sailed without us, but taking our children into the uncharted seas of atheism’8. If it was bad then, how much worse is it now? Are we still determined to keep our eyes shut and our mouths closed, or will we, with Elijah, spell it out: those who are perverting the true purpose of education, which is to inculcate the fear of the Lord, are those who are trying to impose the teaching of wickedness.
Mike Matthews is a retired architect living in Wales.
FOOTNOTES
