Dear Editor,
Once again, faith, education, indoctrination, extremism and radicalization are in the news.
Mr Cameron has warned that ‘teaching intolerance’ has to be stopped and the DfE has said it makes ‘no apology’ for wanting to ensure children are properly protected. New proposals would give inspectors powers to ensure children were ‘properly safeguarded’ in madrassas as well as in schools. The Northern Council of Mosques has said that such ‘control and monitoring’ over lessons would ‘effectively lead to a form of state sanctioned religious expression’ and ‘unduly encroaches on the legitimate right of faith providers to teach their children faith’.
I agree with the view that if what we are teaching children cannot be ‘inspected’ then we shouldn’t be teaching it – be it in schools, madrassas, church camps, or holiday Bible clubs. Jesus Christ taught openly, Mark 14.48, 49, and far from brainwashing people he asked over 150 questions in the NT, always encouraging people to question and think. The apostle Paul said that he was ‘not ashamed’ of the Christian message, Romans 1.16. If what we are teaching children cannot be ‘inspected’ then we shouldn’t be teaching it.
However, I also agree that the state cannot encroach on the ‘legitimate right of faith providers to teach their children faith’. It would cut across the very purpose of education to dictate what people should believe. The man voted the greatest Briton ever, Winston Churchill, said, ‘True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous and conflicting information’. Shouldn’t young people be encouraged to have strong beliefs, to be unafraid to go against the crowd, dare to say that society might be getting things wrong and hold counter-cultural views – so long as they are not hateful and violent, are themselves willing to be disagreed with and questioned, and can back up their views with reasoned arguments, kindness and respect?
It’s why ‘how’ we teach, as much as ‘what’ we teach, is so critical. At FBS, we never hide or dumb down the fact we are a school built upon Christian principles. We have created an environment that encourages thinking, questioning and scrutiny.
Yours sincerely,
