tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/religion-in-schools-9090/articles
Religion in schools – The Conversation
2024-03-20T12:29:15Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225868
2024-03-20T12:29:15Z
2024-03-20T12:29:15Z
A century ago, one state tried to close religious schools − a far cry from today, with controversial plans in place for the nation’s first faith-based charter school
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582250/original/file-20240315-30-6vl8a7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1024%2C663&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Catholic schoolroom in the U.S. around 1930.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/catholic-elementary-school-class-portrait-usa-circa-1930-news-photo/629453645?adppopup=true">Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Almost 100 years ago, a group of nuns joined a suit against the state of Oregon – <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100326625">and made it all the way</a> to the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Their cause? Keeping Catholic schools open. In 1922, voters approved an initiative requiring almost all children ages 8-16 to attend public schools – a motion <a href="https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/pierce_vs_society_of_sisters_1925_/">aimed at closing faith-based schools</a> in particular.</p>
<p>But the Supreme Court’s 1925 ruling in their case, <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/268us510">Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary</a>, favored the nuns. The ruling became a Magna Carta of sorts for private schools, including faith-based ones, safeguarding their right to operate – both secular and religious. Equally as importantly, Pierce <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/udetmr78&div=25&id=&page=">has been used to protect parental rights</a> to make choices about their children’s education.</p>
<p>Nonpublic schools such as the ones run by the Society of Sisters no longer must defend their rights to exist. Today, the pendulum has swung the other way: In recent years, the Supreme Court has increasingly <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-funds-for-students-at-religious-schools-supreme-court-says-yes-in-maine-case-but-consequences-could-go-beyond-184618">allowed public funding</a> to go to faith-based schools, their students or both.</p>
<p>On April 2, 2024, Oklahoma’s Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in <a href="https://www.aol.com/oklahoma-supreme-court-hear-arguments-015922066.html">a case that could reshape rules</a> even further: whether to allow <a href="https://theconversation.com/oklahoma-oks-the-nations-first-religious-charter-school-but-litigation-is-likely-to-follow-207103">a Catholic charter school</a> to open its doors, which critics say would all but <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/06/06/oklahoma-s-new-state-funded-religious-charter-school-isn-t-ok/d50b4e5a-047d-11ee-b74a-5bdd335d4fa2_story.html">demolish the line between church and state</a> in education.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A dark wooden platform with several seats built in, and dark green velvet curtains behind them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582848/original/file-20240319-8759-3673sk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The state Supreme Court bench in Oklahoma City in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourtOklahoma/2400a4bf66084ec9bda3b443d26adf81/photo?Query=oklahoma%20supreme%20court&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=195&currentItemNo=127">AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki</a></span>
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<h2>Property and parenting</h2>
<p>In 1922, Oregon voters approved an initiative requiring parents of children ages 8-16 to send them to public schools. The act carved out many exceptions, including for children who had already completed eighth grade or lived too far away, but did not include private schools among them.</p>
<p>The law would have effectively outlawed nonpublic schools. This push came just as the influence of nativist groups such as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Know-Nothing-party">Know-Nothing Party</a>, which <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/nativism-american">opposed the largely Catholic waves of immigrants</a> as un-American, began to wane.</p>
<p>Officials from a Catholic school challenged Oregon’s act, as did officials from the secular Hill Military Academy. After the federal trial court in Oregon decided that the statute could not go into effect, Gov. Walter M. Pierce appealed, acting on behalf of the state. The U.S. Supreme Court then unanimously affirmed <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/268us510">in favor of the schools</a>.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court made two major points, both of which rely on the 14th Amendment’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv">due process clause</a>, which declares that no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”</p>
<p>The justices recognized the power of the state to “regulate all schools, to inspect, supervise, and examine them, their teachers and pupils,” whether private or public – though apart from health and safety issues, states typically impose fewer rules on nonpublic institutions. Yet, the Court agreed that the law would have seriously undermined the owners’ ability to operate their schools, while greatly diminishing the value of their properties. </p>
<p>Second, the justices turned to parental rights, identifying them as one of the liberties protected by the 14th Amendment. In often-quoted language, the court declared that <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/268/510/">the child “is not the mere creature of the state</a>; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.”</p>
<p>The justices thereby invalidated Oregon’s statute, because it “unreasonably interfere[d] with the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.”</p>
<h2>Nonpublic schools, public funds</h2>
<p>Recent battles over <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/education/eda/russo_charles.php">religion and education</a> at the Supreme Court are not about faith-based schools’ right to exist but about how much state funding they and their students can receive. Starting in 2017, the Supreme Court handed down a trilogy of cases greatly increasing the governmental aid available.</p>
<p>The first, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/15-577_khlp.pdf">Trinity Lutheran Church v. Comer</a>, arose after officials in Missouri prevented a Christian preschool and day care center from purchasing recycled, cut-up tires to resurface their playground to enhance safety – a state program available to other nonprofits.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/16pdf/15-577_khlp.pdf">ruled in the church’s favor</a> in 2017. The <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">free exercise clause</a> of the First Amendment forbids the government from prohibiting the “free exercise” of religion. The majority reasoned that the free exercise clause means states cannot single out institutions or people by denying them generally available benefits, for which they are otherwise eligible, solely on the basis of religion.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A small statue of a child holding a book sits in the foreground, with a large columned white building in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582849/original/file-20240319-26-ssjqm7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 22, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/SupremeCourt/2df44ba2a63d402092e7559a7e8d5f71/photo?Query=supreme%20court&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=now-30d&totalCount=243&currentItemNo=31">AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein</a></span>
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<p>In 2020, the court again expanded the limits on aid for students at K-12 religious schools. This case, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/18-1195">Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue</a>, stemmed from a state program that allowed tax credits for parents sending their children to private schools. However, the state’s constitution prohibits public funding for religious education programs, so parents who sent their children to faith-based schools were barred from participating.</p>
<p>Using a rationale similar to the one it applied in Trinity Lutheran, the court held that this no-aid provision <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2019/18-1195">discriminated on the basis of religion</a>, violating the <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">free exercise clause</a> of the Constitution.</p>
<p>Most recently, in 2022, the court further expanded public funding for faith-based schools in <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/carson-v-makin/">Carson v. Makin</a>, a case from Maine. The Supreme Court invalidated a statute excluding “sectarian” schools from a tuition program for parents living in districts lacking public secondary schools. Because Maine’s constitution guarantees a free public education, the tuition payments allow parents in these districts to send their children to schools of their choice.</p>
<p>The justices also <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-funds-for-students-at-religious-schools-supreme-court-says-yes-in-maine-case-but-consequences-could-go-beyond-184618">struck the law down</a> because it violated the free exercise clause by treating religious people and institutions differently than others. Moreover, echoing Pierce, the court found that Maine’s statute failed to protect parents’ rights to send their children to the schools of their choice.</p>
<h2>Pushing the boundary</h2>
<p>Pierce also laid the groundwork for the “parental choice movement” in education, including charter schools. Typically, these schools operate under performance contracts, or “charters,” with public sponsors: either local school boards or occasionally colleges. While charter schools have more freedom to design their own standards and curricula, they can, <a href="https://www.law.com/thelegalintelligencer/almID/1202727802943/">unlike regular public schools, be closed</a> for failing to reach stated targets on student achievement.</p>
<p>In June 2023, Oklahoma’s statewide virtual school board authorized the creation of <a href="https://theconversation.com/oklahoma-oks-the-nations-first-religious-charter-school-but-litigation-is-likely-to-follow-207103">the nation’s first faith-based charter</a>, demonstrating how far the pendulum of allowing government aid into religious schools may be swinging. But <a href="https://stisidorevirtualschool.org/">St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School</a>, which plans to open under the direction of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa, will not start classes without a fight.</p>
<p>Oklahoma’s highest court has <a href="https://www.aol.com/oklahoma-supreme-court-hear-arguments-015922066.html">scheduled oral arguments</a> for April 2, 2024, as the state’s attorney general and others filed suit to stop St. Isidore from opening. Opponents of the school argue that the existence of a faith-based charter <a href="https://www.kosu.org/education/2023-10-23/oklahoma-attorney-general-files-lawsuit-against-state-board-over-catholic-charter-school">would violate the U.S. Constitution</a>, as well as Oklahoma’s state Constitution – according to which public schools shall be “free from sectarian control,” such that public funds cannot be used to support religious institutions – and various state statues.</p>
<p>Pierce remains a watershed moment for nonpublic schools’ rights to operate, including religious ones, and for parents’ rights. In light of recent Supreme Court developments, it appears that both of these rights are alive and well heading into Pierce’s second century – but not without controversy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225868/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In 1922, Oregon voters approved an initiative to require public school for most students ages 8-16 − but it didn’t hold up in court.
Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education and Research Professor of Law, University of Dayton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/215132
2023-10-26T12:31:24Z
2023-10-26T12:31:24Z
Public schools and faith-based chaplains: Texas’ new combination is testing the First Amendment
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555647/original/file-20231024-15-yneqdd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C0%2C2114%2C1409&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When public school counselors are in short supply, should chaplains be allowed to fill the gap?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/unhappy-young-girl-at-the-psychologist-royalty-free-image/1327949832?phrase=chaplain+counsels+a+child&adppopup=true">Vladimir Vladimirov/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1996, a school board in eastern Texas created a program called Clergy in Schools. Beaumont Independent School District recruited volunteer clergy <a href="https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/beaumont-school-district-target-of-lawsuit-over-2023594.php">to counsel K-12 students</a> on topics such as self-esteem, peer pressure and violence. The goal, officials said, was to create volunteer opportunities, encourage conversation about civic values and morality, and enhance safe learning environments.</p>
<p>Clergy in Schools didn’t last long. A federal trial court in Texas <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp2/224/1099/2490192/">invalidated the program</a> in 2002. The judge found that the program violated <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">the First Amendment</a>, according to which, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” More specifically, the court held that the program was unconstitutional because it was not neutral with regard to faith and conveyed the message that religion is preferable to a lack of religion.</p>
<p>But now, schools across the state are debating whether to open their doors to clergy. </p>
<p><a href="https://legiscan.com/TX/text/SB763/id/2686268">Senate Bill 763</a>, enacted in September 2023, allows school officials to hire unlicensed chaplains, either as staff members or volunteers. Those who can pass background checks will be allowed to perform duties typically provided by counselors, such as mental health support. Local boards have until March 1, 2024, to choose whether to allow chaplain programs in their schools.</p>
<p>SB 763 generates significant questions around the First Amendment. These questions are all the more high stakes given that the Supreme Court has recently <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-supreme-courts-football-decision-is-a-game-changer-on-school-prayer-184619">signaled shifting views</a> about the limits on religious activity in public schools – themes I teach, write and speak about regularly as <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/education/eda/russo_charles.php">a faculty member</a> specializing in education law.</p>
<h2>Lone Star State</h2>
<p>Across the nation, local boards have difficulty <a href="https://www.tasb.org/services/hr-services/hrx/recruiting-and-hiring/national-school-counselor-shortage-rates.aspx">filling counseling positions with qualified staff</a>. In fact, Texas ranks 23rd in the nation <a href="https://missoulian.com/news/national/most-states-have-a-school-counselor-shortage-heres-where-theyre-needed-the-most/article_1169c039-88da-5f13-8489-3ed8cdf09b76.html">in student-to-counselor ratios</a>, with almost 400 students for every counselor.</p>
<p>However, SB 763 was also enacted amid a seeming push to allow religion to <a href="https://www.expressnews.com/politics/article/republicans-push-christianity-texas-schools-17915163.php">occupy a greater place</a> in Texas’ public schools. </p>
<p>One bill <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/24/texas-legislature-ten-commandments-bill/">requiring officials to display</a> a 16-by-20-inch copy of the Ten Commandments in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/21/texas-bill-ten-commandments-public-schools-religion/">every public school classroom</a> was passed in the state Senate but died on the floor of the House in May 2023. <a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/88R/billtext/pdf/SB01396E.pdf#navpanes=0">Another bill</a>, passed by the Senate and sent to a House committee, would allow boards to require schools to provide students with <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2023/04/21/ten-commandments-and-prayer-in-public-schools-texas-senate-approves-religious-bills/">time to pray</a> or read religious texts.</p>
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<span class="caption">The Texas legislature has debated several proposals over the past year to give religion more of a role in public schools.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-exterior-of-the-texas-state-capitol-is-seen-on-news-photo/1661520774?adppopup=true">Brandon Bell/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Shifts at SCOTUS</h2>
<p>The Supreme Court, too, has displayed a friendlier attitude toward prayer and religion in public education, as reflected in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/21-418">Kennedy v. Bremerton School District</a>: its 2022 decision upholding the right of a Washington state football coach <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-supreme-courts-football-decision-is-a-game-changer-on-school-prayer-184619">to pray on the field</a> at the end of games.</p>
<p>In so doing, the justices acknowledged that the Supreme Court abandoned the tests it used over the past 50-plus years to assess whether government actions appeared to endorse religion, and therefore whether they violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment.</p>
<p>The most famous of these was often called “the Lemon test,” referring to the court’s 1971 decision in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1970/89">Lemon v. Kurtzman</a>. In order to be permissible, the court ruled in Lemon, an activity involving religion and state had to <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/403/602/">meet three criteria</a>: that it have a secular legislative purpose; that its principal or primary effect neither advance nor inhibit religion; and that it not result in “excessive entanglement” between religion and the state – though the court did not define “excessive.”</p>
<p>The court also abandoned what was known as the “endorsement test,” which stems from 1984’s <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/465/668/">Lynch v. Donnelly</a>, in which a man <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1983/82-1256">challenged a Rhode Island city</a> over its Christmas display and Nativity scene – and lost. According to the endorsement test, a policy is permissible if a “reasonable observer” would not think it was endorsing or disapproving of religion. </p>
<p>Finally, in 1992, the court abandoned a test it applied only once, in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/90-1014.ZD.html">Lee v. Weisman</a>: coercion. The justices invalidated prayer at a public school graduation ceremony on the basis that it coerced people present into listening.</p>
<p>Instead of these tests, the court wrote in 2022’s <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf">Kennedy v. Bremerton</a> that “the Establishment Clause must be interpreted by ‘reference to <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/21-418">historical practices and understandings</a>.’” However, it remains to be seen exactly what this means.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555651/original/file-20231024-29-2b6fmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People kneel on a large piece of pavement, looking toward a large white building with columns." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555651/original/file-20231024-29-2b6fmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555651/original/file-20231024-29-2b6fmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555651/original/file-20231024-29-2b6fmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555651/original/file-20231024-29-2b6fmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555651/original/file-20231024-29-2b6fmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555651/original/file-20231024-29-2b6fmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555651/original/file-20231024-29-2b6fmi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People kneel and pray as Christian singer-songwriter Sean Feucht performs outside the U.S. Supreme Court after the Kennedy v. Bremerton ruling on June 27, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-kneel-and-pray-as-christian-singer-songwriter-sean-news-photo/1241572598?adppopup=true">Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Crossing the line?</h2>
<p>Even so, SB 763 raises at least three thorny issues about how to assess whether a policy violates the First Amendment.</p>
<p>Initially, assuming the lower courts apply the new test enunciated in Kennedy v. Bremerton – that the First Amendment must be interpreted in light of “historical practices” – there do not appear to be traditions supporting the presence of faith-based chaplains as staff members or volunteers in public schools, regardless of whether they were formally credentialed.</p>
<p>Second is the question of endorsing religion. As noted, the Supreme Court repudiated its earlier tests about whether a policy appears to “endorse” a particular religion or no religion, or coerced people into participating. But the fundamental principle still holds: The First Amendment prohibits government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.” It thus appears that SB 763 straddles, if not crosses, the line into establishment. Having faith-based chaplains – a move <a href="https://bjconline.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/LETTER_-Texas-Chaplains-Say-No-to-Public-School-Chaplain-Programs.pdf">many Texas chaplains themselves oppose</a> – arguably puts the power of the state behind their actions.</p>
<p>Third is the question of which faiths will be represented and whether the chaplain program would appear to endorse some religions over others. Even if SB 763 were to survive a challenge on establishment clause grounds, one must question whether having chaplains from only some faith traditions is wise in an increasingly pluralistic American society, in which the number of <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/">people no longer identifying with religion</a> is growing.</p>
<h2>Votes ahead</h2>
<p>Not surprisingly, SB 763 has its supporters and critics. A board member in one Texas district <a href="https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/north-east-independent-school-district-san-antonio-tx-chaplains/">described the bill</a> as “a great opportunity to bring some spiritual guidance into the schools.” Another supporter, without offering a rationale, suggested that affording religion a greater place in public education could help to make schools safer, including <a href="https://www.expressnews.com/politics/article/texas-republicans-tout-christianity-campus-deter-18073417.php">reducing the risk of mass shootings</a>.</p>
<p>Conversely, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2023/08/23/texas-school-chaplains-letter/">more than 100 chaplains</a> from various Christian denominations – including the Catholic Church, United Methodist Church and Seventh-day Adventist Church – as well as Jewish and Buddhist leaders signed <a href="https://bjconline.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/LETTER_-Texas-Chaplains-Say-No-to-Public-School-Chaplain-Programs.pdf">a public letter</a> opposing the bill. “It is harmful to our public schools and the students and families they serve,” the signatories wrote, because it neither prevents individuals from proselytizing in schools nor insures that they would have the necessary qualifications to serve students.</p>
<p>Boards have begun to vote on whether to allow chaplains in their schools. So far, boards <a href="https://www.keranews.org/education/2023-10-20/dallas-isd-wont-employ-chaplains-as-counselors">including those in Dallas</a> and <a href="https://www.kvue.com/article/news/education/schools/san-marcos-cisd-rejects-school-chaplains/269-026bbf9c-285c-4db5-be3d-14c09b40e678">San Marcos</a> have chosen not to do so, while others such as <a href="https://communityimpact.com/austin/round-rock/education/2023/09/26/round-rock-isd-officials-choose-volunteer-policy-for-local-chaplains/">Round Rock</a> <a href="https://www.ketk.com/news/local-news/mineola-isd-approves-chaplains-as-counselors/">and Mineola</a> have decided to allow chaplains in their schools.</p>
<p>SB 763 raises serious questions about what crosses the line toward establishing religion that, I believe, will likely result in litigation. Thus, both sides – whether in favor of or opposed to having chaplains in schools – should be mindful of the aphorism to “be careful what you wish for.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215132/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Recent Supreme Court decisions have signaled a shift in how the country’s highest court interprets the limits on religion in schools.
Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education and Research Professor of Law, University of Dayton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209579
2023-07-21T12:27:57Z
2023-07-21T12:27:57Z
How after-school clubs became a new battleground in the Satanic Temple’s push to preserve separation of church and state
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538563/original/file-20230720-15-z7dxq3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C1%2C1017%2C623&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lucien Greaves, spokesman for the Satanic Temple, which has pushed to establish after-school clubs. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/lucien-greaves-is-spokesman-for-the-satanic-temple-a-group-news-photo/584806518?adppopup=true">Josh Reynolds for The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the start of the school year rapidly approaches, controversy can’t be far behind. But not all hot-button topics in education are about what goes on in class.</p>
<p>Over <a href="https://www.kalw.org/show/crosscurrents/2017-09-12/after-school-satan-club-tests-the-limits-of-church-and-state">the past few years</a>, conflict has trailed attempts to establish <a href="https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/after-school-satan">After School Satan Clubs</a> sponsored by <a href="https://thesatanictemple.com/">the Satanic Temple</a>, which the U.S. government <a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-6addf2f0ecb646919cb1cfcfdacfc6c1">recognizes as a religious group</a>.</p>
<p>Organizers have tried to form clubs in <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article269038922.html">California</a>, <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/colorados-first-ever-after-school-satan-club-to-launch-at-elementary-school/">Colorado</a>, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/01/14/fact-check-after-school-satan-club-meeting-illinois-school/9189958002/">Illinois</a>, <a href="https://www.pressconnects.com/story/news/local/2023/02/17/afterschool-satan-club-at-maine-endwell-elementary-what-to-know/69914321007/?fbclid=IwAR1pwxyKXGdCJ4xvz-GRkByBhnToi3oCd5kcF1YAQJYCwKkqvPbkdRjpgdE">New York</a>, <a href="https://www.fox19.com/2022/01/31/after-school-satan-club-ohio-ag-dave-yost-urges-lebanon-superintendent-allow-free-speech-protesters-too/">Ohio</a>, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3981851-federal-judge-rules-pennsylvania-school-district-must-allow-after-school-satan-club/">Pennsylvania</a> and <a href="https://wng.org/roundups/satan-school-clubs-stir-liberties-debate-1673378465">Virginia</a>. Organizers in Broome County, New York, also formed <a href="https://www.wbng.com/2023/07/01/after-school-satan-club-launches-first-ever-summer-club/">a summer Satan Club</a> that meets at a local library.</p>
<p>Though there are estimates that only a handful of <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/good-news-club-says-satan-clubs-attack-on-teaching-christianity.html">Satan Clubs</a> are up and running, the groups raise significant questions about freedom of speech in K-12 public schools, particularly around religious issues – topics I teach and write about frequently as <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/education/eda/russo_charles.php">a faculty member specializing in education law</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538557/original/file-20230720-21-oq91lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A handful of people stand at a protest, with one holding a rosary and a sign that says, 'Satan is evil. EVIL HAS NO RIGHTS.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538557/original/file-20230720-21-oq91lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538557/original/file-20230720-21-oq91lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538557/original/file-20230720-21-oq91lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538557/original/file-20230720-21-oq91lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538557/original/file-20230720-21-oq91lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538557/original/file-20230720-21-oq91lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538557/original/file-20230720-21-oq91lp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Christian activist group demonstrates outside the Satanic Temple’s SatanCon, a convention held in Boston, on April 28, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-a-christian-activist-group-hold-a-demonstration-news-photo/1486162397?adppopup=true">Spencer Platt/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More ‘science’ than ‘Satan"</h2>
<p>Members of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-satanic-temple-is-and-why-its-opening-a-debate-about-religion-131283">the Satanic Temple</a>, which was founded in 2013, do not profess beliefs about supernatural beings. The group emphasizes “<a href="https://thesatanictemple.com/blogs/the-satanic-temple-tenets/there-are-seven-fundamental-tenets">the seven tenets</a>,” which celebrate ideas like rationality, compassion and bodily autonomy.</p>
<p>What often draws attention, though, are the temple’s political and legal activities. The group has a history of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/abortion-religion-lawsuits-idaho-lobbying-f82f0d311692a9fe5fd4474a282cb4af">filing suits</a> to try to gain <a href="https://www.startribune.com/satanic-temple-loses-court-battle-over-placing-monument-in-belle-plaine/600104852/">the same rights</a> afforded to Christian groups, in an attempt to <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/10/31/16560150/religion-god-resistance-satanic-temple">highlight and critique</a> religion’s role in American society.</p>
<p>Because <a href="https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/after-school-satan">organizers of Satan Clubs</a> object to introducing religion into public education, they try to offer an alternative at schools hosting faith-based extracurricular groups. The Satanic Temple promotes clubs that focus on science, critical thinking, free inquiry and community projects, emphasizing that “<a href="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0428/0465/files/ASSC_Brochure_5-24-2022.pdf?v=1653598764">no proselytization or religious instruction takes place</a>” in meetings.</p>
<p>Litigation around Satan Clubs arose in 2023 when a school board in Pennsylvania refused to allow a club to meet in an elementary school. In May, a <a href="https://www.aclupa.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/38_opinion_re_pi.pdf">federal trial court</a> ruled that the school board could not ban the club, since it allowed other types of clubs. By allowing groups to use school facilities, the court explained, officials had created a public forum. Therefore, excluding any group because of its views would constitute discrimination, violating organizers’ <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-1/">First Amendment</a> rights to freedom of speech.</p>
<h2>Equal access</h2>
<p>The principle that all student-organized extracurricular groups have equal access to educational facilities was established in 1981 with <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/454/263">Widmar v. Vincent</a>, a dispute from a public university in Kansas City, Missouri. The Supreme Court determined that once campus officials had created a forum for the free exchange of ideas by student groups, they could not prevent a faith-based club from meeting solely due to the religious content of its speech.</p>
<p>That requirement was extended to secondary schools under <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/20/4071">the Equal Access Act</a>, which Congress adopted in 1984. The act applies to public secondary schools where educators create “limited open fora,” meaning non-instructional time when clubs run by students, not school staff, are allowed to meet. Officials cannot deny clubs opportunities to gather due to “the religious, political, philosophical, or other content of the speech at such meetings.”</p>
<p>The Equal Access Act specifies that voluntary, student-initiated clubs cannot “materially or substantially interfere” with educational activities. Further, groups cannot be sponsored by school officials, and educators may only be present if they do not participate directly. Finally, the act forbids people who are not affiliated with the school, such as local residents or parents, from directing, conducting, controlling or regularly attending club activities. </p>
<p>The Supreme Court upheld and extended the Equal Access Act’s logic in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/91-2024.ZO.html">two major cases</a>. In 1990’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/496/226">Board of Education of Westside Community Schools v. Mergens</a>, for example, the justices reasoned that because allowing a religious club in a public school in Nebraska did not endorse religion, it had to be permitted. Afterward, federal courts in <a href="https://casetext.com/case/colin-v-orange-unified-school-district">California</a>, <a href="https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/franklin-cent-gay-str-893638475">Indiana</a>, <a href="https://casetext.com/case/gay-straight-al-of-yulee-h-s-v-s-bd-of-nassau">Florida</a> and <a href="https://casetext.com/case/boyd-county">Kentucky</a> expanded the act’s reach to GSA Clubs, formerly known as <a href="https://www.aclu.org/documents/gsa-court-victories-guide-lgbtq-high-school-students">Gay-Straight Alliances</a> – clarifying that “viewpoint discrimination” was impermissible against other nonreligious clubs. </p>
<p>In the recent dispute from Pennsylvania, the Satan Club’s organizers relied on <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/99-2036">Good News Club v. Milford Central School</a>, a 2001 case from New York. The dispute arose when a school board refused to permit <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/good-news-club-says-satan-clubs-attack-on-teaching-christianity.html">the Good News Club</a> – a non-school-sponsored, faith-based group that has several thousand branches in the U.S. – to meet after class with participants’ parental consent. Yet officials allowed the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and 4-H Club to meet and talk about similar topics from secular points of view in an elementary school, so the Supreme Court decided that its refusal constituted unlawful viewpoint discrimination. Given students’ ages, parents or other adults are allowed to be involved in elementary school activities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538568/original/file-20230720-23-8kccrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Eight teenagers, seen from above, Istand in an empty church while holding hands and bowing their heads." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538568/original/file-20230720-23-8kccrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538568/original/file-20230720-23-8kccrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538568/original/file-20230720-23-8kccrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538568/original/file-20230720-23-8kccrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538568/original/file-20230720-23-8kccrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538568/original/file-20230720-23-8kccrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538568/original/file-20230720-23-8kccrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In many districts, religious groups can meet in schools after classes – but only under certain conditions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/teens-worship-together-royalty-free-image/154934243?phrase=christian+club&adppopup=true">pastorscott/E+ via Getty News</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Expose children to new ideas?</h2>
<p>Following the Equal Access Act, some boards banned all <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/tools-and-strategies/student-initiated-religious-clubs">non-curriculum-related clubs</a> in attempts <a href="https://www.hillmenmessenger.com/opinions/2011/03/22/school-in-texas-bans-all-clubs-in-leiu-of-gsa/">to avoid controversy</a>. Perhaps the Pennsylvania board will go this route as well.</p>
<p>In an increasingly intellectually diverse world, though, children are bound to encounter ideas with which they disagree – and I would argue each encounter can sharpen their critical thinking. As <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp2/30/1175/2416990/">a federal trial court judge in Missouri</a> once observed, provocative speech “is most in need of the protections of the First Amendment. … The First Amendment was designed for this very purpose.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209579/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The controversial – and often misunderstood – extracurricular groups tend to raise controversy. But under equal access laws, schools can’t discriminate against a club based on its point of view.
Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education and Research Professor of Law, University of Dayton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/185500
2022-06-28T02:49:01Z
2022-06-28T02:49:01Z
Shifting from chaplains to secular student welfare officers can be divisive. Here’s how schools can manage the risks
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470705/original/file-20220624-18-cfq05j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=210%2C867%2C3253%2C2141&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The new federal Labor government is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jun/17/labor-confirms-it-will-allow-schools-to-hire-secular-workers-under-chaplaincy-program">ending the compulsory religious aspect</a> of the A$60 million-a-year <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/national-school-chaplaincy-program-nscp">National School Chaplaincy Program</a>. The change comes as newly released census data show only <a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-are-more-millennial-multilingual-and-less-religious-what-the-census-reveals-185845">44% of Australians</a> now identify as Christian. The new rules will give Australian schools a fresh choice between a chaplain or a secular student welfare officer, but this change creates a potential for conflict within school communities. </p>
<p>Chaplains of various denominations are now embedded in <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/national-school-chaplaincy-program-nscp">thousands of schools</a> across Australia. Considering <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-chaplains-may-be-cheaper-than-psychologists-but-we-dont-have-enough-evidence-of-their-impact-148521">past angst</a> within school communities about the program, guidance is needed for parents and school administrators who wish to shift to secular welfare support for students. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-give-schools-real-choice-about-secular-school-chaplains-latest-change-needs-to-go-further-185487">To give schools real choice about secular school chaplains, latest change needs to go further</a>
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<p>My interest in this issue arises from my personal experience of the chaplaincy program as a parent. But it is informed by <a href="https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/29788/1/29788_Dale_et_al_2013.pdf">my wider research</a> on governance systems and how institutions’ decision-making affects communities. I’m currently researching inclusive approaches to community development. This includes how local schools make decisions to achieve positive outcomes for students and diverse local communities. </p>
<p>In this article, I hope to offer a low-conflict pathway for school communities seeking to change from a religious chaplain to a secular officer. </p>
<p>In schools where there is strong support for incumbent chaplains, particular care needs to be taken. Religious communities, students, parents and school professionals all need to feel comfortable that respectful processes are followed and that resources for student welfare deliver maximum benefit. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-years-of-covid-fires-and-floods-kids-well-being-now-depends-on-better-support-184848">After years of COVID, fires and floods, kids' well-being now depends on better support</a>
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<h2>How the program could lead to tensions</h2>
<p>As a parent in a rural state high school during the past decade, my family experience of the chaplaincy program was vexed. The program facilitated extracurricular activities at the school with religious themes. Religious activities beyond the school gate were also promoted. </p>
<p>While operating within the program guidelines, I believed these activities weakened the separation of church and state. Some of them lacked any form of secular and multi-faith context setting. There were visits by a creationist artist, a Christian magic show and contested programs like <a href="https://hillsong.com/contributors/contributor/shine-strength/">“Shine” for girls and “Strength”</a> for boys.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110218143009/Www.straighttalk.org.au/">Straight Talk Australia</a>” presenters handed out postcard pledges encouraging students to commit to sexual abstinence until entering “a covenant marriage relationship”. I encouraged the school to consider prefacing the talk by outlining state education department policy on sex education and stressing that the activity represented just one organisation’s view on relationship-building and sex education. </p>
<p>Encouraging students to attend non-school-supervised activities beyond the school gate and school hours was equally of concern to me. This could draw students into places where proselytising could occur. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/school-chaplains-may-be-cheaper-than-psychologists-but-we-dont-have-enough-evidence-of-their-impact-148521">School chaplains may be cheaper than psychologists. But we don't have enough evidence of their impact</a>
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<h2>Lessons on changing from religious to secular welfare support</h2>
<p>In 2011, the Gillard Labor government <a href="https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2011/09/schools-given-choice-under-chaplaincy-changes/">institutionalised the same change</a> (but a short-lived one) as the Albanese government has just announced. My school’s Parents and Citizens Association successfully made the shift from a <a href="https://scriptureunion.org.au/we-are-su-australia/">Scripture Union</a>-hosted chaplain to a secular welfare worker. This was achieved with a minimum of conflict despite strong support for the chaplain among many parents and some local Christian groups. </p>
<p>For me, at least three lessons emerged from this process.</p>
<p><strong>1. Not seeking removal of the incumbent chaplain</strong></p>
<p>It is important to not personalise problems associated with the chaplaincy program to individual school-based chaplains. Chaplains have been appointed through legitimate processes under program rules. Many Australians support chaplains as having performed an important role. </p>
<p>Once the rules changed in 2011, our school did not actively seek an immediate transition from the chaplaincy position. Discussion and decision-making were delayed until the position became vacant. </p>
<p><strong>2. Finding a suitable secular host for the welfare worker</strong></p>
<p>Finding a suitable secular organisation to host the welfare worker was perhaps the most difficult challenge the school faced, as there were few organisations well positioned to cover the costs associated with the program. At that time, the funds available for the position were meagre (A$20,000 a year). This meant any hosting organisation would likely, to some degree, need to subsidise overheads. </p>
<p>Religious institutions are often motivated to host the chaplains. That’s why they’re willing to help cover the costs. After a complex national search, our school eventually found a not-for-profit organisation with a secular focus on improving child welfare (and a commitment to trial a hosting arrangement). </p>
<p><strong>3. Framing the school-based decision well</strong></p>
<p>Of utmost importance is the need to positively frame the transition decision within the relevant school-based body. When the chaplaincy position became vacant, my school’s Parents and Citizens Association explored a range of options such as not re-appointing anyone, re-appointing a chaplain, or transition. </p>
<p>I argued we should seek the best-qualified person (religious or not) to service the needs of all school students. Doing so, in my view, made the transition option less contentious. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/school-chaplaincy-debate-ignores-what-secular-actually-is-30997">School chaplaincy debate ignores what 'secular' actually is</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Transition need not be divisive</h2>
<p>My interest here is in encouraging good local community and school governance and preserving the integrity of our secular school system.</p>
<p>I hope that sharing this experience can guide all schools in considering this complex decision while meeting the wider needs of the entire school community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185500/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allan Dale has received no funding in relation to this article. While the views represented are based on his personal experience, they are informed by his extensive research and practical background in governance systems analysis and place-based approaches to community development. At the time of the events discussed, Allan was an ordinary member, and his partner an office bearer, of the P&C referred to. His separate research efforts receive Australian and State Government funding. </span></em></p>
It’s not the first time Australian schools have been given a choice of a religious school chaplain or a secular welfare officer, and for some schools the decision can be divisive.
Allan Dale, Professor in Tropical Regional Development, The Cairns Institute, James Cook University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184619
2022-06-27T22:26:44Z
2022-06-27T22:26:44Z
Why the Supreme Court’s football decision is a game-changer on school prayer
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471181/original/file-20220627-14-1wpxt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C9%2C1013%2C671&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Joe Kennedy poses in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building after his legal case, Kennedy vs. Bremerton School District, was argued before the court on April 25, 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/former-bremerton-high-school-assistant-football-coach-joe-news-photo/1393643656?adppopup=true">Win McNamee/Getty Images News via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. Supreme Court has <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-62.ZO.html">consistently banned</a> <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/90-1014.ZO.html">school-sponsored prayer</a> in <a href="https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/usrep/usrep370/usrep370421/usrep370421.pdf">public schools</a>. At the same time, lower courts have generally forbidden public school employees from openly praying in the workplace, even if no students are involved. </p>
<p>Yet on June 27, 2022, the Supreme Court effectively gave individual employees’ prayer the thumbs up – potentially ushering in more religious activities in public schools.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf">Kennedy v. Bremerton School District</a> – the Supreme Court’s first case directly addressing the question – the court ruled that a school board in Washington state violated a coach’s rights by not renewing his contract after he ignored district officials’ directive to stop kneeling in silent prayer on the field’s 50-yard line after games. He claimed that the board violated his First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and the Supreme Court’s majority agreed 6-3. The coach <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/high-school-football-coach-lost-job-praying-field/story?id=92113822&utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=de3b036ce8-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_10_26_01_29&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-de3b036ce8-400258905">will be reinstated to his position</a> by March 2023, according to court documents filed on Oct. 25, 2022.</p>
<p>From my perspective as a <a href="https://udayton.edu/directory/education/eda/russo_charles.php">specialist in education law</a>, the case is noteworthy because the court has now decided that public school employees can pray when supervising students. It also helps close out a Supreme Court term when the current justices’ increasing interest in claims of religious discrimination was on full display, with another “church-state” case <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-funds-for-students-at-religious-schools-supreme-court-says-yes-in-maine-case-but-consequences-could-go-beyond-184618">decided in religious plaintiffs’ favor</a> just last week. And on June 24, 2022, the court <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-revolutionary-ruling-and-not-just-for-abortion-a-supreme-court-scholar-explains-the-impact-of-dobbs-185823">overturned Roe v. Wade</a>. The debate over abortion is often framed in terms of religion, even though the court’s holding focused on other constitutional grounds.</p>
<h2>Facts of the case</h2>
<p>In 2008, Kennedy, a self-described Christian, worked as head coach of the junior varsity football team and assistant coach of the varsity team at Bremerton High School. He began to kneel on the 50-yard line after games, regardless of the outcome, offering a brief, quiet prayer of thanks.</p>
<p>While Kennedy first prayed alone, eventually most of the players on his team, and then members of opposing squads, joined in. He later <a href="https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/03/18/20-35222.pdf">added inspirational speeches</a>, causing some parents and school employees to voice concerns that players would feel compelled to participate.</p>
<p>School officials directed Kennedy to stop praying on the field because they feared that his actions could put the board at risk of violating the First Amendment. The government is prohibited from making laws “<a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/establishment_clause">respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof</a>” – language known as the establishment clause, which is often understood as meaning public officials cannot promote particular faiths over others.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a blue shirt sits as he holds up a color photograph of a young man in a football uniform." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471208/original/file-20220627-18-ulkozd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471208/original/file-20220627-18-ulkozd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471208/original/file-20220627-18-ulkozd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471208/original/file-20220627-18-ulkozd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471208/original/file-20220627-18-ulkozd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471208/original/file-20220627-18-ulkozd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471208/original/file-20220627-18-ulkozd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Paul Peterson holds a photo of his son, who played football for Bremerton High School in 2010. Peterson participated in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the district’s case against Joe Kennedy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PrayingFootballCoach/7b02f7bcc12d4d4280c65368ca01246c/photo?Query=kennedy%20bremerton&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=7&currentItemNo=5">AP Photo/Ted S. Warren</a></span>
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<p>In September 2015, school officials notified the coach that he could continue delivering his inspirational speeches after games, but they had to remain secular. Although students could pray, he could not. Even so, a month later, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/10/17/us/washington-football-coach-joe-kennedy-prays/index.html">Kennedy resumed his on-field prayers</a>. He had publicized his plans to do so and was joined by players, coaches and parents, while reporters watched.</p>
<p>Bremerton’s school board offered Kennedy accommodations to allow him to pray more privately on the field after the stadium emptied out, which he rejected. At the end of October, officials <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/10/29/us/washington-football-coach-joe-kennedy-prays/index.html">placed him on paid leave</a> for violating their directive and eventually chose not to renew his one-year contract. Kennedy <a href="https://www.deseret.com/2016/8/15/20593931/fired-for-praying-on-field-football-coach-sues">filed suit</a> in August 2016.</p>
<h2>Two complicated clauses</h2>
<p>Kennedy raised two major claims: that the school board violated his rights to freedom of speech and also to the free practice of his religion. However, the Ninth Circuit <a href="https://casetext.com/case/kennedy-v-bremerton-sch-dist">twice rejected</a> <a href="https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2021/03/18/20-35222.pdf">these claims</a> because it concluded that when he prayed, he did so as a public employee whose actions could have been viewed as having the board’s approval. Moreover, the Ninth Circuit agreed with the school board that the district had a compelling interest to avoid violating the establishment clause.</p>
<p>During <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2021/21-418_3dq3.pdf">oral arguments</a> at the Supreme Court, though, it was clear that the majority of justices were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/25/us/politics/supreme-court-prayer-football-coach.html">sympathetic to Kennedy’s claims of religious discrimination</a> and more concerned with his rights to religious freedom than the board’s concern about violating the establishment clause.</p>
<p>Writing <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf">for the court</a>, Justice Neil Gorsuch noted that “a proper understanding of the Amendment’s Establishment Clause [does not] require the government to single out private religious speech for special disfavor. The Constitution and the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike.” </p>
<p>One aspect of Kennedy with potentially far-reaching consequences is that it largely repudiates the three major tests the court has long applied in cases involving religion.</p>
<p>The first, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/403/602">Lemon v. Kurtzman</a>, was a 1971 dispute about aid to faith-based schools in Pennsylvania. The Supreme Court’s decision required that interactions between the government and religion must pass a three-pronged test in order to avoid violating the establishment clause. First, an action must have a secular legislative purpose. In addition, its principle or primary effect must neither advance nor inhibit religion, and it cannot result in excessive entanglement between the government and religion. Regardless of whether one supported or opposed the “Lemon test,” it was often unwieldy.</p>
<p>A decade later, in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/465/668">Lynch v. Donnelly</a> – a case about a Christmas display on public property in Rhode Island – the court determined that governmental actions cannot appear to endorse a particular religion.</p>
<p>Finally, in 1992’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/505/577&lang=en">Lee v. Weisman</a>, a dispute from Rhode Island about graduation prayer, the court wrote that subjecting students to prayer was a form of coercion.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court has backed away from the Lemon test for years. In 1993, Justice Antonin Scalia <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/508/384">caustically described it</a> as “some ghoul in a late-night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad, after being repeatedly killed and buried, […stalking] our Establishment Clause jurisprudence.”</p>
<p>Kennedy may have put the final nail in Lemon’s coffin, with <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf">Gorsuch writing</a> that the court should instead interpret the establishment clause in light of “historical practices and understandings.” He went on to remark that “this Court has long recognized as well that ‘secondary school students are mature enough’” to understand that their schools allowing someone freedom of speech, in order to avoid discrimination, does not mean officials are endorsing that view, let alone forcing students to participate.</p>
<h2>Moving forward</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-418_i425.pdf">a lengthy dissent</a> almost as long as the opinion of the court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, expressed their serious reservations about the outcome. Setting the tone at the outset, Sotomayor chided the court for “paying almost exclusive attention to the Free Exercise Clause’s protection for individual religious exercise while giving short shrift to the Establishment Clause’s prohibition on state establishment of religion.” </p>
<p>The dissent echoed some points from the June 21, 2022, <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1088_dbfi.pdf">dissent in Carson v. Makin</a>, another high-profile case about religion and schools, where Sotomayor criticized the majority for dismantling “the wall of separation between church and state that the Framers fought to build.”</p>
<p>Kennedy v. Bremerton is unlikely to end disagreements over public employees’ prayer as free speech, or the tension between the free exercise and establishment clauses. </p>
<p>In fact, the case brings to mind the saying to be careful what one wishes for, because one’s wishes may be granted. By leaving the door open to more individual prayer in schools, the court may also open a proverbial can of worms. Will supporters who rallied behind a Christian coach be as open-minded if, or when, other groups whose values differ from their own wish to display their beliefs in public?</p>
<p><em>Article updated on Oct. 26, 2022 to indicate that Kennedy will reportedly <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/high-school-football-coach-lost-job-praying-field/story?id=92113822&utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=de3b036ce8-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_10_26_01_29&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-de3b036ce8-400258905">be reinstated</a> to his position.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184619/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles J. Russo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Kennedy v. Bremerton, a case about a public school teacher’s prayer, helps close out a Supreme Court term in which religion was often in the spotlight.
Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education in the School of Education and Health Sciences and Research Professor of Law, University of Dayton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/185487
2022-06-21T19:57:56Z
2022-06-21T19:57:56Z
To give schools real choice about secular school chaplains, latest change needs to go further
<p>New federal Education Minister Jason Clare has announced a change to the <a href="https://www.dese.gov.au/national-school-chaplaincy-program-nscp">National School Chaplaincy Program</a> to allow schools to “choose” between having a religious chaplain and having a professionally qualified well-being worker.</p>
<p>The opposition has <a href="https://twitter.com/AlanTudgeMP/status/1537670249113214976?cxt=HHwWgICjwbq889YqAAAA">criticised</a> the announcement as effectively meaning “the end of many school chaplains”. So what’s the fuss about?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-years-of-covid-fires-and-floods-kids-well-being-now-depends-on-better-support-184848">After years of COVID, fires and floods, kids' well-being now depends on better support</a>
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<p>The Howard Coalition government <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22media/pressrel/D7MV6%22">started the chaplaincy program</a> in 2006. It has continued, with some variations, ever since.</p>
<p>A “<a href="https://federalfinancialrelations.gov.au/sites/federalfinancialrelations.gov.au/files/2020-04/nat_school_chaplaincy_prog-19-22.pdf">project agreement</a>” signed by federal, state and territory education ministers governs the chaplaincy program. The states and territories receive federal funding to pay for chaplains in public schools.</p>
<h2>What do school chaplains do?</h2>
<p>Chaplains are not counsellors in the psychologist sense. They are more like youth workers in the social worker sense.</p>
<p>The project agreement says chaplains are responsible for providing “pastoral care services” and strategies that support the “well-being of the school community”. It gives examples of activities like “co-ordinating volunteering activities and support, breakfast clubs, lunchtime activities, excursions, school incursions, and parent/carer workshops”.</p>
<p>These activities look non-religious. Any qualified youth worker, regardless of their religion, could deliver them. However, the National School Chaplaincy Association <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/National%20School%20Chaplaincy%20Association.pdf">says</a>:</p>
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<p>“While chaplains must have underlying qualifications in youth work, community work or equivalent, school chaplaincy is religious in nature.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/school-chaplains-may-be-cheaper-than-psychologists-but-we-dont-have-enough-evidence-of-their-impact-148521">School chaplains may be cheaper than psychologists. But we don't have enough evidence of their impact</a>
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<h2>How are school chaplains hired?</h2>
<p>The project agreement sets two key criteria for the appointment of chaplains:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>all chaplains must have minimum qualifications such as a Certificate IV in Youth Work</p></li>
<li><p>all chaplains must be “recognised through formal ordination, commissioning, recognised religious qualifications or endorsement by a recognised or accepted religious institution”.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Rather than being school employees like teachers or front-office staff, chaplains are employed by third-party providers that have contracts with schools. One provider is a Christian organisation called Generate, which <a href="https://generate.org.au/about/">says</a> its mission is:</p>
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<p>“To bring God’s love, hope, and good news to children, young people, and families.”</p>
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<p>Job advertisements for school chaplains usually require applicants to be Christians. For example, to apply for school chaplaincy <a href="https://generate.org.au/positions/">positions advertised</a> through Generate, this organisation says “you need to have a committed Christian faith”.</p>
<p>Schools working with Generate have effectively decided they will not have Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or atheist youth workers working with students. Generate is currently advertising positions at more than 20 public schools, including schools in highly multicultural areas such as western Sydney.</p>
<p>There is no public information about the processes public schools use to choose the school’s favoured religion for the purpose of hiring a chaplain.</p>
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<h2>Isn’t religious discrimination unlawful?</h2>
<p>You might think refusing to hire someone for a job in a public school simply because that person doesn’t belong to a particular religion sounds like religious discrimination. Religious discrimination in employment is unlawful under anti-discrimination laws in every state and territory, except New South Wales and South Australia.</p>
<p>A number of state anti-discrimination commissioners have expressed concern about the National Schools Chaplaincy Program.</p>
<p>In 2020, Victoria’s Human Rights Commission <a href="https://hansard.parliament.vic.gov.au/search/?LDMS=Y&IW_DATABASE=*&IW_FIELD_ADVANCE_PHRASE=be+now+read+a+second+time&IW_FIELD_IN_SpeechTitle=Education+and+Training+Reform+Amendment+School+Employment+Bill+2020&IW_FIELD_IN_HOUSENAME=COUNCIL&IW_FIELD_IN_ACTIVITYTYPE=Second+reading&IW_FIELD_IN_SittingYear=2020&IW_FIELD_IN_SittingMonth=September&IW_FIELD_IN_SittingDay=2">told</a> a Victorian MP: “we agree that the program may be in breach of [Victoria’s] Equal Opportunity Act 2010”.</p>
<p>In 2021, in response to advocacy by the Rationalist Society of Australia, Western Australia’s Equal Opportunity Commission <a href="https://rationalist.com.au/commissioner-raises-concern-over-religious-discrimination-in-wa-school-chaplaincy-program/">said</a> it was concerned that restricting youth worker/chaplain positions to religious people was “prima facie religious conviction discrimination” under Western Australia’s Equal Opportunity Act 1984. In 2020, Queensland’s Human Rights Commissioner <a href="https://rationalist.com.au/rsa-calls-on-minister-clare-to-reform-school-chaplaincy-program/">said</a> the practice involved “potential contraventions of the [Qld Anti-Discrimination] Act”.</p>
<p>A 2019 religious discrimination case in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/27/victoria-opens-the-way-for-secular-or-atheist-school-chaplains">settled</a> before the tribunal could rule on whether limiting youth worker/chaplain jobs in public schools to Christians breached state anti-discrimination laws.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-australia-a-secular-country-it-depends-what-you-mean-38222">Is Australia a secular country? It depends what you mean</a>
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<h2>What exactly did the minister announce?</h2>
<p>Last Friday, Clare <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7780960/schools-choice-labor-to-put-secular-back-into-chaplaincy-program/">announced</a>:</p>
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<p>“The government will open up the program to give schools the option to choose either a chaplain or a professionally qualified student welfare officer.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The fact it was the new minister’s first big decision suggests the issue is important to him. There’s no good reason to force a public school to hire youth workers on the basis of religion. It’s why the ACT <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-23/religious-chaplains-banned-in-act-government-schools/10842950">pulled out</a> of the school chaplains program in 2019.</p>
<p>However, there are three key problems with the minister’s announcement. </p>
<p>First, all chaplains are already required to have professional qualifications. There’s nothing new about that.</p>
<p>Second, the minister has not explained how a public school – which schools legislation says are secular in character – could ever justify “choosing” that Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and atheist youth workers should not be eligible for a pastoral care job at the school.</p>
<p>The third and most practical problem is that this announced change won’t actually enable schools to hire youth workers without reference to the person’s religious affiliation.</p>
<p>Existing third-party providers like Generate are in the business of hiring only Christians. Unless new providers come onto the scene, public schools will have little choice but to continue to engage existing providers who will continue to hire only Christians.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/school-chaplaincy-debate-ignores-what-secular-actually-is-30997">School chaplaincy debate ignores what 'secular' actually is</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What’s the solution?</h2>
<p>The minister said he will work with his state and territory counterparts to revise the project agreement so a new system is in place for the 2023 school year.</p>
<p>If the nation’s education ministers want to make sure school youth workers/chaplains are hired based on merit and not on religion, they could make one simple change: get rid of outsourcing.</p>
<p>Requiring schools to hire directly rather than through third-party providers will ensure job ads don’t include selection criteria about a person’s religion. Some public schools might well be happy to allow their third-party provider to refuse to hire Jewish, Muslim and atheist youth workers. However, a public school is rather unlikely to <em>itself</em> ever put out an ad like that.</p>
<p>Getting rid of outsourcing would also mean the public money now used to fund the administration costs of third-party providers can be redirected to putting more youth workers in more schools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185487/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luke Beck is a member of the Australian Labor Party and is on the board of the Rationalist Society of Australia Inc. This article reflects only his personal views.</span></em></p>
Schools currently rely on third-party providers that require all those who apply to do student counselling and community work as school chaplains to have a committed Christian faith.
Luke Beck, Associate Professor of Constitutional Law, Monash University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/161413
2021-05-26T05:05:27Z
2021-05-26T05:05:27Z
A religious symbol, not a knife: at the heart of the NSW kirpan ban is a battle to define secularism
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402775/original/file-20210526-15-1ok9mcg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hari_singh/3137107044/in/photolist-5MduCu-5MdvXo-5M9gyF-FqB2H-5Mdv83-JmHFS-pjNtUv-5MdsSu-5M9dtB-86XE2a-4nhNcB-cowFeq-9VNGkA-Kguwc-Kguwg-5MdgQu-5M92wK-24pF4uS-hTnXuY-5M91Wt-jvgZLj-5M91wD-3F6Vpe-3BCsvA-WANX2C-9VNGm5-HvwfL-Xmi6aa-Hvwgf-Hvwg3-HvwfE-eaCEDV-SQtvdU-86XDFr-86XE9Z-86XDyp-HvwfG-HvwfJ-86XEiv-Ho3ayV-25dCPTX-22gH2oj-WgyNP5-CFkbMt-4n12Rq-pa1C3-ZYqYUg-s1J4WG-pvuGb3-871QfU">Hari Singh/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The New South Wales government has put a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/ignorance-and-xenophobia-nsw-school-dagger-ban-sparks-international-furore-20210521-p57txy.html">temporary ban</a> on Sikh students carrying a kirpan in public schools. The kirpan is a <a href="https://www.worldsikh.org/what_is_the_kirpan">ceremonial dagger</a> baptised Sikhs carry to symbolise their duty to stand up against injustice.</p>
<p>The ban was put in place after a 14-year-old boy used a kirpan to stab a 16-year-old at a high school in Sydney.</p>
<p>NSW Premier <a href="https://7news.com.au/news/religion-and-belief/its-dangerous-sikh-community-divided-after-government-bans-religious-knives-in-schools-following-sydney-stabbing-c-2871116">Gladys Berejiklian said</a> “students shouldn’t be allowed to take knives to school under any circumstances”. </p>
<p>But framing the controversy as whether or not students should be allowed to take knives to school oversimplifies a complex issue.</p>
<p>This issue is not just about knives in schools. It is also about what it means to be a secular school in a multicultural and multi-faith Australia. </p>
<h2>Denied the ability to practise their faith</h2>
<p>There is a long history of controversy over wearing religious symbols in Australian schools, both religious and secular.</p>
<p>In 2017 the family of a Sikh boy <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-24/sikh-family-challenge-christian-schools-turban-ban/8737716">launched legal action</a> against his school after the Christian college banned the boy from wearing a patka (a turban worn by children). The Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal later <a href="https://singhstation.net/2017/09/sidhak-singh-wins-school-patka-ban-case-against-christian-school/">ruled the school breached</a> the Equal Opportunity Act.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/school-uniform-policies-need-to-accommodate-students-cultural-practices-81548">School uniform policies need to accommodate students' cultural practices</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In 2018 the Secular Party of Australia brought a <a href="https://lawandreligionaustralia.blog/2018/09/04/does-the-secular-society-know-better-than-a-childs-parents/">case against the Victorian education department</a> alleging the department had discriminated against a child by permitting her to wear “religious style clothing that covered her body, leaving only her face and hands exposed”. The case failed.</p>
<p>And in 2019 a Western Australian Catholic high school <a href="https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/aranmore-catholic-college-drama-hindu-student-kicked-out-of-school-for-a-nose-piercing-ng-b881097548z">banned a Hindu girl from attending</a> class after she had her nose pierced for cultural and religious reasons. After <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/hindu-girl-with-nose-stud-returns-to-her-catholic-school-after-being-barred-for-six-weeks">six weeks and many meetings</a>, the school appeared to back down and allow the student back to class.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402751/original/file-20210526-19-140l56q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A boy wearing a patka." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402751/original/file-20210526-19-140l56q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402751/original/file-20210526-19-140l56q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402751/original/file-20210526-19-140l56q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402751/original/file-20210526-19-140l56q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402751/original/file-20210526-19-140l56q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402751/original/file-20210526-19-140l56q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402751/original/file-20210526-19-140l56q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A patka is like a turban, worn by Sikh children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Sikh_Boy_wearing_Patka.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While some of these cases occurred in private and specifically religious schools, they all raise the same issue — to what extent do we accommodate the religious beliefs and practices of minority groups in our community?</p>
<p>In NSW, section <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/soa1988189/s11c.html">11C of the Summary Offences Act 1988</a> makes it an offence to carry a knife in a public place or school. The act provides a number of exceptions such as for the preparation of food, or for recreation or sport. Carrying a knife for “genuine religious purposes” is also an exception. </p>
<p>This exception is <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/religious-knives-banned-from-government-schools-while-urgent-review-under-way-20210518-p57ssr.html">currently under review</a> by the NSW government. In the meantime, a temporary ban has been put in place. As a result Sikh school children are being denied the ability to fully practise their faith. </p>
<h2>What is a secular country?</h2>
<p>Controversies like the kirpan ban often occur due to a <a href="https://www.law.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/3443372/7.-Children-in-Schools.pdf">fundamental disagreement</a> about what a secular education looks like. Western secular democracies have taken two different approaches.</p>
<p>Australia’s government school system is secular. This does not mean it is, nor should be, religion free. Instead <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-australia-a-secular-country-it-depends-what-you-mean-38222">Australian secular education</a> means a space where religion is one of many options. Countries that conform to this version of secularism are religiously plural.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-australia-a-secular-country-it-depends-what-you-mean-38222">Is Australia a secular country? It depends what you mean</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In France, secular education means it is religion free. Since 2004 all religious symbols have been <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_law_on_secularity_and_conspicuous_religious_symbols_in_schools#:%7E:text=The%20French%20law%20on%20secularity,operated)%20primary%20and%20secondary%20schools.">banned from state schools</a>. The aim is to create a religiously neutral environment that supports state secularism. </p>
<p>Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom <a href="https://www.routledge.com/State-and-Religion-The-Australian-Story/Barker/p/book/9780367586812">have adopted a similar approach</a> as Australia. In these countries, secularism means to permit, or even encourage, the expression of multiple faiths in schools to various degrees. The aim is to create a multicultural environment.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402750/original/file-20210526-23-kxdrsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man wearing a kirpan." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402750/original/file-20210526-23-kxdrsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402750/original/file-20210526-23-kxdrsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402750/original/file-20210526-23-kxdrsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402750/original/file-20210526-23-kxdrsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402750/original/file-20210526-23-kxdrsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402750/original/file-20210526-23-kxdrsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402750/original/file-20210526-23-kxdrsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The kirpan is fundamentally a religious symbol.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tony_tea/17073483936/in/photolist-JmHFS-pjNtUv-5MdsSu-86XE2a-5M9dtB-4nhNcB-9VNGkA-Kguwc-Kguwg-5MdgQu-5M92wK-24pF4uS-hTnXuY-5M91Wt-jvgZLj-5M91wD-3F6Vpe-3BCsvA-WANX2C-9VNGm5-HvwfL-Xmi6aa-Hvwgf-Hvwg3-86XDFr-86XE9Z-HvwfE-eaCEDV-SQtvdU-cowFeq-871QfU-86XDyp-HvwfG-5z27Tq-HvwfJ-871QEC-86XDTV-bBH2RU-86XEiv-Ho3ayV-86XDK8-25dCPTX-22gH2oj-WgyNP5-CFkbMt-4n12Rq-pa1C3-ZYqYUg-s1J4WG-pvuGb3">Tony Tarry/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The kirpan is fundamentally a <a href="https://www.worldsikh.org/what_is_the_kirpan">religious symbol</a>. It is one of five markers of faith worn by baptised Sikhs, including kesh (unshorn hair symbolising respect for God’s will). Wearing the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17448727.2013.774709#:%7E:text=Notes,exception%3A%20it%20is%20not%20optional%20%E2%80%A6">kirpan is not optional</a> for baptised Sikhs.</p>
<p>The kirpan is similar to the hijab worn by some Muslim women, the kippah worn by Jewish men or the cross or crucifix worn by some Christians. </p>
<p>As the <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/15/index.do">Supreme Court of Canada</a> put it, describing the kirpan as a knife is “indicative of a simplistic view of freedom of religion”.</p>
<p>Banning the kirpan because it resembles a knife heads Australia down a path of religion-free schools. This would be inconsistent with <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/multicultural-affairs/about-multicultural-affairs/our-policy-history">Australia’s commitment</a> to multiculturalism.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-school-uniforms-be-compulsory-we-asked-five-experts-121935">Should school uniforms be compulsory? We asked five experts</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>There are other options besides a ban</h2>
<p>Instead of an outright ban, the NSW government and Australian schools more generally need to find ways to safely accommodate this important religious symbol. This does not mean there should be no restrictions. </p>
<p>In 2006 the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multani_v_Commission_scolaire_Marguerite%E2%80%91Bourgeoys#:%7E:text=256%2C%202006%20SCC%206%20is,Charter%20of%20Rights%20and%20Freedoms.">Supreme Court of Canada</a> found that a school had discriminated against a Sikh boy when it banned him from wearing his kirpan. A fundamental part of the court’s decision was there were alternatives available to the school.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402752/original/file-20210526-23-9yjdrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A cross around the neck." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402752/original/file-20210526-23-9yjdrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402752/original/file-20210526-23-9yjdrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402752/original/file-20210526-23-9yjdrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402752/original/file-20210526-23-9yjdrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402752/original/file-20210526-23-9yjdrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1031&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402752/original/file-20210526-23-9yjdrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1031&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402752/original/file-20210526-23-9yjdrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1031&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The kirpan is like the cross worn by some Christians.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cross-christ-savior-chain-around-his-141968644">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The student was prepared to accept restrictions on how he wore his kirpan to ensure it could not be used as a weapon. The restrictions included wearing it enclosed in a wooden sheath sewn inside a cloth envelope, which must itself be attached to a shoulder strap worn under the student’s clothing. </p>
<p>Similar restrictions could be implemented in Australia. </p>
<p>The current debate about the kirpan in schools is an opportunity to educate both school children and the wider public about Australia’s secular multicultural society. As the <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2007/21.html">Constitutional Court of South Africa</a> noted in a case about wearing nose studs for religious and cultural reasons:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Granting exemptions will also have the added benefit of inducting the learners into a multi-cultural South Africa where vastly different cultures exist side-by-side.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Allowing kirpans, and other symbols of faith, to be worn in Australian schools is an important part of a multicultural secular education.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161413/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Renae Barker is a Trustee for the Anglican Diocese of Bunbury </span></em></p>
Banning the kirpan because it resembles a knife heads Australia down a path of religion free schools.
Renae Barker, Senior Lecturer, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/143793
2020-08-20T12:16:40Z
2020-08-20T12:16:40Z
Schools looking for space could turn to churches to host classes – doing so has a rich history
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353266/original/file-20200817-14-1dvsm9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=160%2C335%2C4352%2C2808&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children evacuated from U.K. cities in WWII were taught in churches.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/school-in-a-church-children-evacuated-from-west-ham-and-news-photo/1053630860?adppopup=true">Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Could places of worship ease the burden of schools looking to reopen while giving students space to social distance? It might not be such an outlandish suggestion.</p>
<p>With space at a premium and places of worship still empty amid concerns of coronavirus spread, some education experts are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/07/17/school-coffee-shop-different-approach-teaching-learning-during-pandemic/">actively promoting the idea</a>. In New Haven, Connecticut, church leaders have already offered to <a href="https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/pastors_pitch_church_/">give up their space to students looking for a place to take online classes</a>.</p>
<p>Concern by those determined to keep church and state separate has meant that the use of “religious spaces” for education has shrunk <a href="https://www.academia.edu/2844095/Historical_background_to_conflicts_over_religion_in_public_schools">over the last couple of centuries</a>, resulting in secular school systems becoming the standard for most countries.</p>
<p>But having spent 40 years <a href="https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/1591">studying the history of Christian churches and their social outreach</a>, I know there has never been a time in the history of Christianity – indeed the history of all major religions – when religious space was not used for educational purposes. </p>
<h2>Cathedral schools</h2>
<p>In the Europe that emerged from the collapse of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, most formal education took place inside religious spaces. Training of boys to read scriptures was a task typically performed in churches by bishops and their assistants. </p>
<p>The first institutions of learning in the Western Christian tradition were <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-137-10841-8_2">cathedral schools</a>. During the day, the back pews <a href="http://www.humanstudy.org/history/2012-03-hudson-e.html">were filled with the best and brightest schoolboys</a> being taught the intellectual skills needed by priests.</p>
<p>Later, during the 10th century, <a href="https://www.ancient-origins.net/history/louis-pious-0011094">Louis the Pious</a>, son of Charlemagne, gave structure to the classes by mandating that a “scholasticus” – or master teacher – be appointed at cathedral schools. By the 12th century, the practice began of establishing corps of priests who lived at the cathedral and spent their days teaching.</p>
<p>These priests – called chapters of canons – established endowed chairs for teachers of different types of specialized knowledge. Chairs were filled by the most famous teachers or professors of the day, <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/abelard/">including the eminent philosophers Abelard</a> and <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/albert-great/">Albertus Magnus</a> as well as Albertus’ even more famous student <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aquinas/">Thomas Aquinas</a>, the highly influential 13th-century theologian. Chapters of canons also appointed one of their members as a “dean” to supervise all the different courses of study – a term still employed by universities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353491/original/file-20200818-25043-a2v7e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353491/original/file-20200818-25043-a2v7e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353491/original/file-20200818-25043-a2v7e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353491/original/file-20200818-25043-a2v7e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353491/original/file-20200818-25043-a2v7e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353491/original/file-20200818-25043-a2v7e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353491/original/file-20200818-25043-a2v7e8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christ Church College, Oxford, serves as a cathedral and a seat of learning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/christchurch-from-merton-fields-oxford-by-richard-bankes-news-photo/589150126?adppopup=true">Photo by © Fine Art Photographic Library/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The birth of universities</h2>
<p>Eventually the most successful cathedral schools drew too many students to be taught inside the churches themselves. By the 13th century, cathedral schools <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300216776/medieval-christianity">gave way on one side to grammar schools, which taught Latin, and on the other to universities</a> – where students paid money to listen to the lectures of professors and received degrees based upon their displayed knowledge. The lecture halls in which these university students were taught became the forerunners of modern classroom buildings.</p>
<p>Education in early modern Europe increasingly left the pews behind as the focus expanded beyond teaching future clergy. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-the-reformations-500th-anniversary-remembering-martin-luthers-contribution-to-literacy-77540">Protestant Reformation</a> in the 16th century <a href="https://tifwe.org/resource/the-priesthood-of-all-believers/">rejected the notion of a priesthood</a> and demanded that everyone learn to read the Bible, preferably while they were young. </p>
<p>To enable this, schools dedicated to teaching boys and girls who would not enter the clergy were established, increasingly in buildings distinct from places of worship.</p>
<p>Because Protestants made the <a href="https://rlp.hds.harvard.edu/religions/christianity/protestant-movement">church a department of the state</a>, such schools were maintained by the country’s ruler but staffed by the church. Soon Catholics followed a similar practice of building church schools for teaching boys and girls not destined for a religious vocation. The Jesuit religious order, <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jesuit-order-established">founded in the 16th century</a>, dedicated itself to education and pioneered the building of residential campuses for their schools that were distinct and autonomous from local churches. </p>
<h2>Toward public schools</h2>
<p>During the <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/enlightenment/">Enlightenment era</a> of the 18th century, governments went further and established new kinds of secular or nonreligious schools. These taught <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/education/The-new-scientism-and-rationalism">technical and scientific subjects</a>, such as engineering and navigation or trained military officers in the technologies of war.</p>
<p>But it was the French Revolution that sped up the movement toward secular schooling as the cultural norm. Revolutionaries in France and other European states argued that the nation deserved the loyalties previously claimed by the churches. As such, <a href="https://www.historytoday.com/archive/french-revolution-and-catholic-church">churches should be shut down</a> to stop patriots from being distracted from a greater loyalty to the nation.</p>
<p>Revolutionaries failed in their efforts to deprive church schools of their status, however. Later nationalists, in reflecting upon why revolutionaries had failed, concluded that the education offered in church schools, rich in centuries of practice, was <a href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/hedu_0221-6280_1986_num_29_1_1381">simply too strong for secular schooling to challenge</a>.</p>
<p>So they pushed for redirection of state subsidies away from church schools to secular education. By the end of the 19th century, such initiatives had resulted in the secular public school systems in operation today.</p>
<h2>Church and state</h2>
<p>Church schools did not disappear, however. In Western societies, some parochial schools and private faith-based schools continued to flourish. And there is even precedent for schools using churches in times of crisis, such as to <a href="https://spartacus-educational.com/2WWeducationC.htm">accommodate children evacuated from major cities</a> in the U.K. during World War II.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, outside of Western societies, church schools became a major tool that Christian missionaries used to evangelize indigenous peoples. European colonial governments came to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/28/us/mission-schools-ambiguous-legacy-in-south-africa.html">subsidize mission schools</a> as cheap alternatives to building state school systems. In many African and Asian states today, church schools subsidized by foreign missions still educate <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2019/02/21/the-geography-of-education-in-africa">significant numbers of students</a>.</p>
<p>The constitutions of most modern states maintain a <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/885/establishment-clause-separation-of-church-and-state">strict separation between church and state</a>. And there are rules in place in countries with secular school systems that <a href="http://1.droppdf.com/files/pdATq/encyclopedia-of-american-constitution.pdf">protect the primacy of secular schooling</a> over all other types of schooling.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Courts have also moved to <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-takes-actions-address-religious-discrimination">protect the rights of students with minority religious backgrounds</a> from persecution no matter what schools they attend.</p>
<p>Education in the West has been progressively outgrowing the church environment for centuries, yet education in religious settings continues to <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/encyclopedia-of-religion/oclc/56057973">lead students back toward faith</a>.</p>
<p>Whatever the impetus for using religious space for secular education, awareness of this capacity of religious space will likely remain a concern for promoters of the separation of church and state – even in these unprecedented times of pandemic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143793/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Barnes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The history of education in the West is closely associated with Christian religious spaces – from the first cathedral schools to the use of churches to teach children in WWII.
Andrew Barnes, Professor of History and Religious Studies, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/88098
2018-01-14T08:33:25Z
2018-01-14T08:33:25Z
Church outrage over spanking ban aids violence against South Africa’s children
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200920/original/file-20180105-26163-n5uqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Global faith organisations are working to end violence against children.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some churches and Christian lobbies are outraged by a <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2016-02-11-sahrc-recommends-ban-on-corporal-punishment">groundbreaking</a> South African court ruling on 19th October 2017 that outlaws the spanking of children. The court found that the common law defence of spanking as a “reasonable and moderate chastisement” of a child in the home is <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2017-12-05-stop-smacking-children-crl-commission/">unconstitutional</a>.</p>
<p>Violence against children is a major problem in the country. A disturbing <a href="https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/library/research-bulletin-optimus-study-child-abuse-violence-and-neglect-south-africa">2016 study</a> with more than 9500 adolescents suggested that one in three children under 18 has been hit, beaten or kicked by an adult caregiver. <a href="https://test-za.savethechildren.net/sites/savethechildren.org.za/files/Corporal%20Punishment%20of%20Children%20-%20A%20South%20African%20National%20Survey.pdf">Earlier studies</a> show that more than half of South African parents have admitted they hit their children; 38% termed this a “severe beating”. </p>
<p>There’s been a flurry of negative responses to the court ruling by some vocal faith groups. They promote a conservative and <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2012-02-05-staring-into-the-abyss-of-special-privileges/">contested</a> understanding of religious freedom in post-apartheid South Africa that reinforces biblical literalism, <a href="https://forsa.org.za/press-release-spanking-judgment-sets-dangerous-precedent/">hierarchical family structures</a> and the right of parents to <a href="https://forsa.org.za/media-release-state-telling-sa-parents-how-to-raise-their-children/">discipline children</a> in a so-called “godly way”. </p>
<p>This approach is epitomised by the organisation Freedom of Religion South Africa <a href="http://forsa.org.za/">FOR SA</a>. It claims to represent 12 million South Africans and has launched an <a href="http://forsa.org.za/press-release-for-sa-appeals-spanking-judgement/">appeal</a> against the court judgement.</p>
<p>Other local Christian organisations such as <a href="http://www.warehouse.org.za/">The Warehouse</a> have offered a more constructive response. This recognises a need to rethink tradition and scriptures in the light of new knowledge. This approach aims to better equip churches to play a leading role in reshaping social norms to embrace progressive changes; in this instance when it comes to the treatment of children.</p>
<p>This is more in line with the many global faith organisations that are working to end <a href="https://evac.jliflc.com/">violence against children</a>. Their views were reflected in commitments made in <a href="https://arigatouinternational.org/en/latest-news/news/205-gnrc-5th-forum-the-panama-declaration-on-ending-violence-against-children">Panama</a> in 2017.</p>
<p>These approaches represent two poles in a wider theological debate around the possible relationships between <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/openglobalrights/larry-cox/human-rights-must-get-religion">religion and human rights</a>. One uses sacred texts in a literal way to legitimise certain forms of hierarchical violence as God-ordained. The other seeks to transform these texts by adopting a <a href="http://theotherfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/When-Faith-Does-Violence.pdf">contextual approach</a> to the same traditions. </p>
<h2>When faith does violence</h2>
<p>South Africa has a long history of using Christian sacred texts to underpin ideologies of superiority and domination. This includes justifying slavery, colonialism, apartheid, homophobia and patriarchy. In 1985 a group of predominately black theologians used a grassroots process to<a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/challenge-church-theological-comment-political-crisis-south-africa-kairos-document-1985">produce a contentious document</a> that challenged the churches to reject this <a href="http://ujamaa.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/manuals/The_Kairos_Documents.sflb.ashx">state theology</a> as well as silent complicity by churches. </p>
<p>The same pattern can be seen today on the issue of spanking and children’s rights. Biblical literalism is being used to support corporal punishment, framed as both loving parenthood and obedience to God’s commands. Specific texts such as <a href="http://biblehub.com/proverbs/13-24.htm">Proverbs 13:24</a> promote complex reinforcements between religion and culture, underpinned by a view of the child as bad, disobedient and in need of physical correction. According to this passage:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He who withholds his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Children are often presented as being at the bottom of a hierarchy of human importance, where a father historically held the power of life and death over “his” household as God’s representative. In this authoritarian system, men wield power over women, adults over children, rich over poor, straight over gay and white over black.</p>
<p>The lesser party is expected to “know their place”. Children are not supposed to speak out against the things that are done to them but to always honour their parents. </p>
<p>Instead of being seen as more deserving of rights and protection by virtue of their vulnerability, children can be treated as less deserving of the full package of human rights, such as the right to bodily integrity. </p>
<p>Family scripts from a <a href="http://disa.ukzn.ac.za/sites/default/files/pdf_files/asapr60.9.pdf">“Christian National Education”</a> era during apartheid made physical punishment an integral part of child rearing. These ideas continue to shape the new dispensation. <a href="http://www.childlinesa.org.za/wp-content/uploads/alternatives-to-corporal-punishment-for-parents.pdf">Alternatives</a> that engage faith communities are urgently needed.</p>
<p>Many Christian leaders still draw on themes of punishment, retribution and redemptive violence in their everyday preaching. Some depict all people as disobedient children who deserve punishment by an angry parent god, and who require the threat of punishment to learn and grow. </p>
<p>These images inevitably shape intergenerational social patterns. Parents claim that they were smacked as children and turned out okay. But South Africa remains one of the most familial violent <a href="http://www.endcorporalpunishment.org/progress/country-reports/south-africa.html">countries</a> in the world and “reasonable chastisement” easily becomes a loophole for abuse. </p>
<h2>Towards a child-friendly church</h2>
<p>Progressive South African theologians are increasingly developing alternative radical ways of re-reading sacred texts within communities, using <a href="http://ujamaa.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/manuals/Ujamaa_CBS_bible_study_Manual_part_1_2.sflb.ashx">contextual bible study techniques</a> that developed in the anti-apartheid struggle. </p>
<p>These can help churches engage with sacred texts as seen through the eyes of marginalised women, abused children and sexual minorities. Resources such as The Warehouse’s 2017 <a href="http://www.warehouse.org.za/index.php/site/overview/C59">Children, Church and Law handbook</a> offer some support to churches around child protection. But they may not yet go far enough in identifying and challenging damaging theologies that underpin and legitimate violence. </p>
<p>With increased awareness of the formative role of a child’s earliest years, what might a child-friendly church here look like? How can churches in South Africa take practical steps to be part of the solution, and not the problem? </p>
<p>It remains to be seen what public stance mainstream church bodies such as the South African Council of Churches and the <a href="https://www.catholiccounselors.com/catholic-bishops-corporal-punishment/">South African Catholic Bishops Conference</a> will take on the new ruling. They can’t afford to remain silent in the light of this vocal backlash by some but need to use the opportunity to actively educate their congregations against all violence against children. In this task, South Africa can turn to excellent resources already developed by the <a href="http://churchesfornon-violence.org/wp/?attachment_id=908">Church Network on Non-Violence</a>. </p>
<p>These are publicly endorsed by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu who <a href="http://journals.co.za/docserver/fulltext/art19/3/3/98.pdf?expires=1515405222&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=ADCC0C7735033CF573D798E740A3A9BE">has said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… millions of the world’s children still suffer from humiliating acts of violence and these violations of their rights as human beings can have serious lifelong effects. Violence begets violence and we shall reap a whirlwind. Children can be disciplined without violence that instils fear and misery.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88098/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Selina Palm does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A groundbreaking High Court ruling outlawing the spanking of children in South Africa has outraged some Christian bodies that claim parents are entitled to hit their children in a “godly way”.
Selina Palm, Researcher, Unit for Religion and Development Research, Stellenbosch University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/80424
2017-07-10T15:23:08Z
2017-07-10T15:23:08Z
Watershed judgment clarifies limits of religion in South Africa’s public schools
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/177302/original/file-20170707-3035-rdfj7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">School children wave a South African flag after visiting the Nelson Mandela house museum in Soweto.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Henry Romero </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://theconversation.com/solomonic-wisdom-needed-to-settle-tiff-over-god-in-south-africas-public-schools-77202">High Court</a> in South Africa recently handed down a landmark ruling with far-reaching implications for religion in the country’s public schools. The court decided that a school may not promote a single religion, or brand itself as such. This means that a school cannot, for example, call itself a Christian school. </p>
<p>The case was brought by an education lobby group – the Organisasie vir Godsdienste-onderrig en Demokrasie <a href="https://www.ogod.org.za/">OGOD</a> – which <a href="https://theconversation.com/solomonic-wisdom-needed-to-settle-tiff-over-god-in-south-africas-public-schools-77202">challenged</a> the fact that six public schools had identified themselves as Christian. </p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://www.gov.za/documents/constitution/chapter-2-bill-rights#15">country’s constitution</a>, religious observances can take place at state institutions - including public schools - provided it’s done equitably and that attendance is voluntary. </p>
<p>The court acknowledged this, <a href="http://www.saflii.org.za/za/cases/ZAGPJHC/2017/160.html">ruling</a> that religious observances, including praying, are distinct from the religious ethos of a school and are, therefore, to be allowed at public schools subject to the requirements of the Constitution. </p>
<p>The confirmation of the constitutional right to religious observances in public schools is a celebration of South Africa’s unique relationship between religion and state. The court’s judgment recognises that <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0318/P03182013.pdf">religion plays a large role</a> in South African society. As such, the right to follow a religion is embedded both in the country’s Constitution as well as in practice. This means that South Africa isn’t a secular state. As the judge pointed out: it wasn’t the courts responsibility to pick sides between those who are religious and those who are not.</p>
<p>According to the country’s <a href="http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/religion_0.pdf">policy on religion and education</a> a secular state adopts a position of impartiality towards religion and other worldviews. It also represents an attempt to “completely divorce the religious and secular spheres of a society, such as in France or the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment">United States</a>”. This is not the case in South Africa.</p>
<p>The court also upheld <a href="http://causeforjustice.org/religion-in-public-schools-the-high-court-has-ruled-now-what/">the right of school governing bodies</a> to draft the religious policies for their schools in line with the <a href="https://www.gdeadmissions.gov.za/Content/Files/SchoolsAct.pdf">Schools Act</a> and the Constitution. </p>
<p>This is a watershed ruling in South Africa. The judgment has provided South African courts with the unique opportunity to interpret religious freedom in the public school system beyond just religious observances. </p>
<p>And although the case only involved six public schools with a Christian ethos, it will <a href="https://forsa.org.za/ogod-vs-laerskool-randhart-and-others-case-update/">affect all 24,000 public schools</a> in the country. All public schools will have to review their policies on religion to be in line with the decision. Public schools, whether branding itself as religious or not, will have to scrutinise how it deals with religious diversity. </p>
<p>In general, the case offered wins and losses for both sides. Although school governing bodies maintain their institutional authority to draft religious policies, the ruling means that they will now be under greater scrutiny. On the other hand, the organisation that brought the case got the legal backing it needed to require public schools to stay away from a single faith ethos. </p>
<h2>Lost opportunity</h2>
<p>The court affirmed the idea of celebrating diversity in South Africa and that public schools with a single faith ethos can hamper this. It balanced the right not to be excluded with the <a href="http://www.gov.za/documents/constitution/chapter-2-bill-rights#15">constitutional value of diversity</a>. Hence its concern with public schools maintaining a single faith ethos. </p>
<p>But the case was rather disappointing in its superficial to zero analysis of human dignity, equality, religious freedom and diversity – all enshrined in the country’s constitution. The court only gave a short analysis of diversity, dedicating most of its decision to technical matters. </p>
<p>For example, having declared that South Africa was not a secular state, the court failed to analyse and discuss what religious diversity should look like in a “non-secular” state specifically. No deeper analysis was done about the meaning of diversity in the South African context. It was merely reiterated that, as declared in past court decisions and the Constitution, South Africa should celebrate diversity. </p>
<p>The nature of the right to religious freedom and the notion of “equity” received limited attention. The court therefore missed a wonderful opportunity to provide a critical analysis of the importance of religious diversity and religious freedom in the country.</p>
<p>For a case that is to directly affect more than 24,000 public schools and hundreds of thousands of pupils and teachers, one would have expected a more careful analysis. A critical discussion on the meaning of diversity when it comes to religion would have been useful and timely. </p>
<p>In some sense, the broader South African society lost. A critical analysis of the constitutional issues like diversity would have given the court’s final decision due weight and made it more credible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80424/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Georgia Alida du Plessis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The judgment recognises that religion plays a large role in South African society. The right to follow a religion is embedded in the constitution. This means that South Africa isn’t a secular state.
Georgia Alida du Plessis, Research Fellow in Public Law, University of the Free State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/77202
2017-05-10T13:37:52Z
2017-05-10T13:37:52Z
Solomonic wisdom needed to settle tiff over God in South Africa’s public schools
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168403/original/file-20170508-20757-15k2oct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children from the Rainbow-Hill Christian school at former South African President Nelson Mandela house in June 2013. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The place of religion in South Africa’s public schools is set to come under scrutiny when two groups battle it out in court later this month.</p>
<p>From 15 to 17 May the Gauteng High Court will hear the long awaited <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2014-09-03-religion-in-schools-watershed-case-to-ensure-teaching-and-not-preaching/#.WQr98HklGUk">case</a>, Organisasie vir Godsdienste-Onderrig en Demokrasie (<a href="http://www.ogod.org.za/press-releases/ogod-litigation-press-release-aug2014.pdf">OGOD</a>) v Laerskool Randhart & Others. </p>
<p>OGOD’s Afrikaans name translates into “Organisation for Religions Education and Democracy” in English. According to its website, OGOD endeavours to promote fact-based education about religions of the world. It also seeks to eradicate religious indoctrination in South African public schools and promote a democratic, secular society <a href="http://www.ogod.org.za/">based on human rights</a>.</p>
<p>The organisation is taking on six public schools to prohibit them from identifying themselves as Christian and to outlaw their Christian practices. It is <a href="http://causeforjustice.org/newsitev2/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/28FEB2017_HOA_final.pdf">arguing against</a> religious observances in public schools if such observances are not in line with the Constitution. It says that the six public schools do not conduct religious observances in line with the Constitution.</p>
<p>The legal basis for the suit is that these schools have breached the <a href="http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/religion_0.pdf">National Policy on Religion and Education </a> by conducting religious observances and other religious activities. This, OGOD claims, is unconstitutional as it violates the right to equality and religious freedom. It argues that these schools cannot, for example, teach that non-believers will go to hell. The organisation also insists that pupils cannot be required to pray and sing Christian songs.</p>
<p>According to OGOD’s heads of argument, these schools are targeted specifically because they: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>adopt a single faith approach to religious observances, </p></li>
<li><p>endorse Christianity, </p></li>
<li><p>advertise themselves as Christian, and</p></li>
<li><p>have scripture reading and prayers, among other actions.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>It’s interesting to note that most South Africans identify as religious. The bulk of them, <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0318/P03182013.pdf">85,6%</a>, are overwhelmingly Christian. Muslims are 2%, Hindus 1% and Jews 0.2%. The rest belong to other faiths.</p>
<p>For their part, the six schools argue that although they are majority Christian, they also accommodate other religions, in keeping with the prescriptions of their school governing bodies. </p>
<p>They counter that the relief sought by OGOD is drastic, and would effectively eliminate religion at all public schools in the country.</p>
<h2>South Africa and secularism</h2>
<p>This case is extremely complex, with a variety of arguments about the proper place of religion at all public institutions. OGOD’s stated objective to make South Africa a democratic and human rights based society is laudable. But, its claim to be doing so under the auspices of secularism is not uncontroversial.</p>
<p>That is because South Africa is not a strictly secular country. <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/1997/11.html">South Africa</a> doesn’t have the similar strict separation between religion and the state as found in the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment">United States</a>, for example. It also doesn’t adhere to strict forms of secularism found in countries such as <a href="https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006070169&dateTexte=20080306">France</a> where merely wearing a <a href="https://www.lawteacher.net/cases/human-rights/sas-v-france.php">Muslim headscarf </a> sparked controversy. </p>
<p>Yet, the absence of strict secularism doesn’t mean that South Africa is a theocracy. Secularism comes in many forms and has several ideological presuppositions of its own. South Africa adheres to a “soft” form of secularism, to the extent that it has some separation between religion and state. But, this separation also allows for cooperation between the law and religion.</p>
<p>This much has also been made clear in the <a href="http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/religion_0.pdf">National Policy on Religion and Education</a>. It’s this very document that OGOD wants to ensure is being implemented correctly. The policy proposes a cooperative relationship between religion and the state. This means that both the principle of separation and the possibility of creative interaction between state and religion are affirmed. </p>
<p>Such a “non-establishment” approach was also recently supported in the case of <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2000/11.html">Christian Education South Africa v Minister of Education</a>. The Constitutional Court declared corporal punishment in schools unconstitutional. Although it found religious motivations could not serve as a justification for corporal punishment in schools, former Constitutional Court Justice Albie Sachs stated: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>(religion and religious people) are part of the fabric of public life and constitute <em>active</em> elements of the diverse and pluralistic nation contemplated by the Constitution.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>By recognising the need to accommodate both the religious and secular beliefs within the framework of managing a diverse society, <a href="http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/images/a108-96.pdf">section 15</a> of the constitution doesn’t require a strict separation between state institutions and religious observances. Examples include <a href="http://www.enca.com/south-africa/catch-it-live-swearing-in-ceremony-for-reshuffled-cabinet-ministers">oaths of public office</a>, the country’s <a href="http://www.southafrica-newyork.net/consulate/anthem.html">national anthem</a> and interfaith prayers at <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/2017/04/09/south-africas-untold-success-story-a-christians-nations-peac_a_22032852/">official funerals</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/images/a108-96.pdf">Section 15(2)</a> of the Constitution allows for religious observances when all the constitutional requirements are met. Such observances must:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>follow rules made by the appropriate public authorities, </p></li>
<li><p>must be conducted on an equitable basis, and</p></li>
<li><p>their attendance must be voluntary. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Religious observances have also been protected by <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2007/21.html">courts</a> where pupils in public schools wanted to wear religious attire.</p>
<h2>Promoting a cooperative relationship</h2>
<p>South African law and case law clearly protect the right to <a href="http://www.gov.za/documents/constitution-republic-south-africa-1996">religious freedom (section 15)</a> and <a href="http://www.gov.za/documents/constitution-republic-south-africa-1996">equality (section 9)</a>. These are upheld when all religions are treated the same in public schools. In light of the allowance of religious observances under section 15, and the fact that South Africa is not a strictly secular state, religion is allowed in public schools. </p>
<p>On the other hand, public schools cannot claim to be promoting religious freedom on an equal basis if they cater for some religions only, or for the majority religion only. If a school wishes to allow religious observances, it needs to provide the same opportunities for all religions. It also needs to ensure that attendance is voluntary and in line with the constitution. </p>
<p>This court case has the potential to affect the right to religious freedom in public schools and other state institutions. It needs to be decided with the utmost sensitivity to the nature of religion and its importance in the lives of its adherents.</p>
<p>Due regard must also be given to the fact that South Africa is a religiously diverse country. Otherwise, the outcome may have far-reaching discriminatory effects for religious freedom in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77202/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Georgia Alida du Plessis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A civil society organisation, OGOD, wants South Africa’s public schools to stop calling themselves Christian and to outlaw their religious practices.
Georgia Alida du Plessis, Research Fellow in Public Law, University of the Free State
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/67207
2016-10-24T09:48:28Z
2016-10-24T09:48:28Z
Is God really dead? How Britain lost faith in the church
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142029/original/image-20161017-12443-t2wjja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hard times.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theconversation.com/your-light-bulbs-could-be-playing-havoc-with-your-health-heres-why-66999">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Is God dead? Fifty years ago, on April 8, 1966, a Time magazine cover asked just <a href="http://time.com/isgoddead/">that question</a>. The same could be asked in Britain today. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/17/church-of-england-could-drop-legal-requirement-weekly-sunday-services">The Church of England</a> recently announced it was considering dropping the requirement for weekly church services in parish churches in the wake of dwindling attendance that show <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/17/church-of-england-attendance-decline-30-years-general-assembly">no sign of bouncing back</a> for at least a generation. Low church attendance is frequently in the news, but looking deeper into the phenomenon reveals what the underlying issues really are.</p>
<p>The Church of England has been suffering from a conflict of values with its members, <a href="http://www.religionandsociety.org.uk/research_findings/featured_findings/it_isn_t_cool_to_be_christian">especially the under 25s</a>. Recent debates around same-sex marriage, abortion and female bishops, have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/08/church-of-england-fears-talks-on-gay-rights-could-end-global-anglican-communion">threatened to split the church</a> and <a href="http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/thereligiousandandabortion/">alienate a significant proportion of its congregation</a>. Throughout ongoing controversies, <a href="http://www.religionandsociety.org.uk/events/programme_events/show/press_release_westminster_faith_debate_3_gender_and_religion">including</a> the lack of support for policies on <a href="http://www.theweek.co.uk/religion/women-bishops/50196/church-england-commits-suicide-over-women-bishops">women</a>, the Church of England <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/11731361/Bryony-Gordon-Sunday-opening-wont-destroy-the-Church...-But-the-Church-might-destroy-itself.html">has come across as outdated</a>. </p>
<p>The situation has been exacerbated by the comments of senior church figures such as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/12/church-of-england-attendance-falls-below-million-first-time">lamented earlier this year that</a> “the culture [is] becoming anti-Christian, whether it is on matters of sexual morality, or the care for people at the beginning or end of life. It is easy to paint a very gloomy picture”.</p>
<p>At the same time, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/22/former-archbishop-of-canterbury-admits-he-deserves-criticism-ove/">the Church of England</a> – <a href="http://religiondispatches.org/is-the-rise-of-nones-actually-the-decline-of-catholics/">as well as the Catholic Church</a> – is still reeling from <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/cc5f7ccc-9706-11e6-a80e-bcd69f323a8b">allegations and legal settlements</a> related to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/10/pope-francis-us-visit-catholic-sex-abuse">accusations of sexual abuse</a>. Indeed, many have abandoned Catholicism as a result of what many perceive to be the church’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-37486488">inadequate</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/10/catholic-bishops-not-obliged-report-clerical-child-abuse-vatican-says">response</a> to that <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-pope-benedict-knew-about-abuse-in-the-catholic-church">systemic</a> problem. </p>
<h2>God is no longer ‘in our image’</h2>
<p>As Church of England congregations age and <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/news/2013/06/24/british-youth-reject-religion/">young people reject organised religion</a>, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/13/church-of-england-evangelical-drive">atrophy of traditional parish churches</a> seems to be unremitting.</p>
<p>In contrast, <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21685473-parts-established-church-are-learning-their-immigrant-brethren-resurrection">attendance at Evangelical and Pentecostal churches has increased</a> over the last several decades. Between 2015 and 2013, attendance in London Pentecostal churches <a href="http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2013/07/pentecostal-churches-thriving-in-london-as-traditional-denominations-decline">increased by 50%</a>. This is at odds with Church of England attendance, which has gone down by 9% over the same period. While <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11948641/Church-of-England-to-hand-mansion-over-to-refugees.html">many Anglican churches</a> have made an effort to welcome new immigrants and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/01/church-attacks-david-cameron-language-asylum-crisis">support</a> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-32477795">refugees</a>, the message has <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-church-idUKKCN0WD0SC">not been unequivocally supportive</a>; <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/03/church-attendance-propped-immigrants-study">evangelical churches are more highly regarded</a> by Christians who have recently arrived in the UK.</p>
<p>Prominent Conservative Party leaders, including <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3694295/Theresa-takes-break-whirlwind-start-PM-attend-Sunday-church-husband-Philip-side.html">Theresa May</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/19/david-cameron-rebukes-church-of-england-bishops-over-refugee-letter">David Cameron</a>, and most recently, the aptly-named Tory councillor <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/722216/Brexit-treason-petition-Tory-councillor-Christian-Holliday-suspended">Christian Holliday</a>, whose policies have been criticised as not welcoming of new arrivals to the UK, are perhaps some of the more visible representatives of traditional churchgoers. In contrast, the rise of charismatic church attendance by recent arrivals to the UK illustrates that these communities offer something the Church of England does not.</p>
<p>While the demographics of church attendance have shifted over the past few decades, as indeed they have since Christianity first emerged as a religion in its own right, interest in religion itself has increased sharply. For instance, <a href="http://www.retoday.org.uk/news/a-level-results-press-release">religion is the fastest-growing A-level subject</a> in all of the humanities, social sciences, and arts, increasing a whopping 110% since 2003. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142870/original/image-20161024-28376-19ckm1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142870/original/image-20161024-28376-19ckm1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142870/original/image-20161024-28376-19ckm1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142870/original/image-20161024-28376-19ckm1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142870/original/image-20161024-28376-19ckm1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142870/original/image-20161024-28376-19ckm1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142870/original/image-20161024-28376-19ckm1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The church: losing focus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/dl2_lim.mhtml?src=7_mAakvOoXsG4B01UI3X9A-1-21&id=283465301&size=medium_jpg">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is despite <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/12070607/Schools-must-teach-children-that-Britain-is-a-Christian-country.html">growing anxiety about how to teach religion</a> in schools, some of which has resulted in backwards curriculum redesign or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/mortarboard/2014/jan/15/dont-dismiss-religious-education-school">ineffective teaching</a> that <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/11381019/Nicky-Morgans-Trojan-Horse-curriculum-could-lead-to-collapse-of-Religious-studies.html">may be discouraging students</a> from learning more about the subject.</p>
<h2>‘Believing without belonging’</h2>
<p>It’s not quite true to say, then, that <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rui-dai/why-young-people-are-beco_b_1594786.html">young people are becoming more secular</a> – interest in faith, belief and spirituality seems to be on the increase. Grace Davie’s concept of “<a href="http://scp.sagepub.com/content/37/4/455.extract">believing without belonging</a>” might be a more useful way to <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-pope-succession-dolan-idUKBRE9200I620130301">understand young people’s apparent rejection of the church</a>. </p>
<p>In the nineties, Davie, a sociologist of religion, coined the phrase to describe the shifting nature of religiosity from communal and active to individual and inactive. She argued that religious believing in the UK has become detached from religious belonging, which reflects a wider social shift to individualism. Young people’s “rejection” of the church, then, could be both a political response to <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/11883273/Bigoted-misogynistic-and-controlling-scathing-critique-of-Catholic-Church-by-its-own-members.html">the misogyny</a> and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/12153784/I-was-driven-out-of-my-beloved-church-by-homophobia.html">homophobia</a> displayed during church debates over the last few years, and <a href="http://scp.sagepub.com/content/37/4/455.extract">a reflection of</a> the “implicit religion of the British people” by which belief in a Christian God doesn’t equate to church attendance. </p>
<p>The idea of the <a href="https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/scotland/291811/christianity-should-be-taught-as-history-claims-st-andrews-academic/">UK as a Christian nation</a> has been <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/12036287/Britain-is-no-longer-a-Christian-country-and-should-stop-acting-as-if-it-is-says-judge.html">challenged</a> in <a href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/britain-really-is-ceasing-to-be-a-christian-country/">recent years</a>. What is clear, however, is that religion is even more a factor in public life and personal interest than it ever has been. </p>
<p>More people than ever are choosing to learn about religion and what it means for a world that <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160422-atheism-agnostic-secular-nones-rising-religion/">increasingly believes itself to be secular</a>. This challenges society to reflect on how it defines religious literacy – and that is a good thing. God, then, isn’t dead. People are just looking for him in a different way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67207/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Meredith J C Warren is Programme Director of the Leadership, Religion, and Society MA at the University of Sheffield. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie Edwards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
50 years after Time magazine’s famous ‘Is God Dead?’ cover, Church attendance numbers are tumbling. But that doesn’t mean Christianity is on the way out.
Katie Edwards, Director SIIBS, University of Sheffield
M J C Warren, Lecturer in Biblical and Religious Studies, University of Sheffield
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/62445
2016-08-15T15:09:40Z
2016-08-15T15:09:40Z
Evolution vs creation: teachers try to balance faith and their lessons
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133927/original/image-20160812-16333-ciwaw9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Religious teachers can feel uncomfortable explaining the science of evolution to their pupils.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some faiths reject the idea of evolution. Their followers adhere instead to creationist views – a god or many gods created the earth and all its creatures. These divergent views have led to conflict in schools around the world and even resulted in a number <a href="https://ncse.com/library-resource/ten-major-court-cases-evolution-creationism">of court cases</a>.</p>
<p>South Africa is home to a number of different religious groups. Some, like the <a href="http://www.southafrica.net/za/en/articles/entry/article-southafrica.net-the-shembe-church">Shembe</a> and <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/joseph-engenas-lekganyane">Zion Christian Church</a>, are totally unique to the country. This diversity drove me and my colleagues to wonder how those teachers who identify as religious tackle the sometimes thorny issue of evolution in their classrooms.</p>
<p><a href="http://reference.sabinet.co.za/webx/access/electronic_journals/sajsci/sajsci_v112_n5_6_a16.pdf">Our research</a>, which was based on a model that’s been used across 30 countries, found that many South African teachers don’t accept the theory of evolution. They feel deeply conflicted when they have to teach it to their pupils as part of the life sciences curriculum. </p>
<p>However, we also found that a large number of teachers identify as “theistic evolutionists”. They adhere to a belief system that’s simultaneously creationist and evolutionist. This suggests that even among teachers of the same religious affiliation, different views are possible across the creationist-evolutionist continuum. Our results echo findings for other non-European countries like South Korea and Brazil.</p>
<p>This information could be used to structure teacher education programmes to support those who are strongly opposed to accepting evolution as an important topic in the teaching of biology.</p>
<h2>What the data says globally</h2>
<p>The Biohead-Citizen <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.579.502&rep=rep1&type=pdf">research project</a> has obtained data about teachers’ conceptions of evolution across 30 countries. These include Burkina Faso, Brazil, Lebanon and South Korea. Researchers use questionnaires to probe teachers’ religious beliefs and their thinking about evolution. We used its templates to structure our research.</p>
<p>Within most of the countries studied, there was no significant difference among the various religions when it came to the percentage of teachers who held fundamentalist creationist views. Protestant teachers in Brazil hold more creationist beliefs than those of their colleagues in other religions. In Lebanon, the ideas of Sunni Muslim teachers are a little more creationist than their colleagues’. The views of Muslims in Burkina Faso are less creationist than those of Protestants. In South Korea, Protestant teachers – who are in the minority – are more creationist than their colleagues, who are mainly agnostic, atheist or Buddhist.</p>
<p>Armed with this background, we got to work questioning South African teachers about their beliefs and attitudes to evolution. Our respondents were 336 teachers, some finishing up their training and some already working, from the KwaZulu-Natal province. </p>
<p>Evolution constitutes 22% of South Africa’s Grade 12 life sciences curriculum in terms of marks allocated and teaching time. This places a great responsibility on teachers to teach this section competently so their learners can pass the exit-level examinations at the end of Grade 12.</p>
<h2>South African attitudes</h2>
<p>The questionnaire contained 144 questions on a number of topics. Fifteen of these were dedicated to evolution and were designed to elicit answers that indicated whether a teacher’s conceptions lay towards the creationist or the evolutionist end of the continuum. </p>
<p>Teachers also had the option of choosing answers that could be classified as simultaneously evolutionist and creationist. Some questions were adapted to suit the South African context. For instance, respondents were asked to identify their religious affiliation and the religions listed were those commonly found in South Africa. We considered the following groupings:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Agnostic and atheist; </p></li>
<li><p>Roman Catholic;</p></li>
<li><p>Protestant;</p></li>
<li><p>Other Christian churches (mostly Pentecostal);</p></li>
<li><p>Full Gospel Church of God;</p></li>
<li><p>Sunni Muslim (South Africa’s most common Muslim grouping);</p></li>
<li><p>Hindu;</p></li>
<li><p>Zion Christian Church;</p></li>
<li><p>Shembe; and</p></li>
<li><p>other African religions.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>This was the first time that Hindu teachers’ views on evolution were canvassed – this group didn’t feature in other Biohead-Citizen research projects.</p>
<p>We found that Protestant teachers were more creationist than their Roman Catholic colleagues. These results echo those from some other non-European countries like Brazil and South Korea. </p>
<p>Hindu teachers held more evolutionist beliefs than their Protestant and Roman Catholic colleagues did. They were less evolutionist, though, than agnostic or atheist teachers. This result can be compared with what was observed in South Korea, where the concepts of Buddhist teachers were as evolutionist as their agnostic and atheist colleagues. This can be explained by the fact that Buddhists, like Hindus, do not have a creation story as one of their religion’s central tenets.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.patheos.com/Library/African-Independent-Churches">African independent churches</a>, like the Shembe and the Zion Christian Church, collectively make up South Africa’s largest church group. Although such churches are officially Christian, the views of their adherents are more evolutionist compared with other Christian teachers. A possible explanation is the influence of African traditional beliefs and the decreased emphasis on a literal acceptance of the Bible.</p>
<p>Finally, we found that, in some religious groups, between 20% and 40% of the teachers surveyed appear to adhere to a belief system that is simultaneously creationist and evolutionist – making them “theistic evolutionists”. This is encouraging, as teachers who hold views that are both creationist and evolutionist should find teaching the subject of evolution less problematic than those who hold fundamentalist creationist views. </p>
<p>Now that our findings have been collected, how might they be used?</p>
<p>The Department of Basic Education should ensure that teachers’ professional development targets include developing a better understanding of evolution. This improved understanding will go a long way towards reducing the conflict that certain teachers experience when it comes to evolution and their religious beliefs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62445/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pierre Clément is a member of the board of IOSTE (representative of Mediterranean countries: since 2012, re-elected in 2016 for 2016-2018). Member of the board of MRAP Lunellois-Petite Camargue (since 2014) MRAP is the Mouvement contre le Racisme et pour l'Amitié entre les Peuples (Movement against Racism and for friendship among peoples).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela James, Edith Roslyn Dempster, and Michele Stears do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Many South African teachers don’t accept the theory of evolution. They feel deeply conflicted when they have to teach it to their pupils as part of the life sciences curriculum.
Michele Stears, Senior Research Associate, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Angela James, Senior Lecturer in Science Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Edith Roslyn Dempster, Senior Research Associate in Science Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Pierre Clément, Researcher , Aix-Marseille Université (AMU)
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/43433
2015-07-06T04:18:34Z
2015-07-06T04:18:34Z
Senegal’s teachers struggle with the clash between science and faith
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86999/original/image-20150701-27151-oysy6w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Senegalese boys learn at a koranic school. Even in secular schools, religion dominates class time.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Senegal is a deeply religious country. About 90% of the West African nation’s residents <a href="http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/senegal.html">are</a> Muslim, about 5% are Christian and the rest identify as animist – they believe that natural objects, idols or fetishes have magical power. Many Senegalese embrace at least some elements of animism even if they are Muslim or Christian.</p>
<p>In spite of its citizens’ beliefs, the West African nation is a secular state. This was <a href="http://www.gouv.sn/-Constitution-du-Senegal-.html">enshrined</a> in its 2001 Constitution – as was religious freedom. This disconnect between people’s daily experiences and the country’s guiding legislation has set up an interesting battle in Senegal’s classrooms. </p>
<p>Schoolteachers who are personally religious must work in a secular space that marginalises religious discourse and knowledge. But <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/cbre/2015/00000037/00000001/art00004">how</a> do they balance their beliefs with their responsibility? And how does it affect their students’ learning?</p>
<h2>Resistance to science in the class</h2>
<p>About 73% of Senegal’s children <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.NENR">are enrolled</a> in primary school, and the retention rate into secondary school <a href="http://www.tradingeconomics.com/senegal/progression-to-secondary-school-percent-wb-data.html">is high</a>. Literacy rates were <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.1524.LT.ZS">last measured</a> in 2011 at about 66%.</p>
<p>The Senegalese educational system is managed by multiple operators: the state, religious authorities and private groups. Some are registered with the education ministry. They are French language schools, inherited from <a href="http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ac64">the colonial era</a> with curricula defined by the government. Most of these schools are secular, though some are run by the Catholic church. </p>
<p>The second category of school is not registered with the authorities. This includes <em>daraas</em>, or Koranic schools, and schools which offer a Muslim education in the French language. In <em>daraas</em>, the curriculum is mainly based on reciting the Koran and learning about Islamic studies and law. Scientific subjects are not part of the teaching programme. </p>
<p>Research <a href="http://www.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/IMG/pdf/JobMarket-2ndpaper-ANDRE-PSE.pdf">indicates</a> that many Senegalese children will attend at least a year or two of Koranic school before moving into the formal system.</p>
<p>There is no blackboard and no exercise book, only a Koran and a wooden tablet called an <em>aluwa</em> on which the master and pupil write with a feather dipped in ink. The <em>daaras</em> use a different cognitive style from the one we know in Western education. It uses oral learning and memorisation to influence the pupils’ behaviour and the reproduction of the moral and societal values which are passed onto them.</p>
<p>The pupils are also expected to spend several hours of each day begging for food and money. Corporal punishment is common, and is considered by the <em>marabouts</em> (religious teachers) as having an essential religious dimension.</p>
<p>In the formal schools, science (including the theory of evolution) forms part of the curriculum – but I discovered that teachers who are religious try to manage how it is taught in three ways. The first kind of teacher presents both the science curriculum and religious beliefs about science as theories. He will appear to be neutral in his views, while subtly presenting religion as “better” than science.</p>
<p>The second sort of teacher will stick to the official curriculum – at least until the formal lesson is completed. When it is over, the teacher will tell her class that she was just doing her job and does not believe what she has said. This is obviously a far more explicit approach to placing religion above science.</p>
<p>Then there’s the third kind of teacher, who sticks mostly to the curriculum and, in the last moments of the class, inserts biblical or Koranic knowledge. This approach differs from that of the first group of teachers because it doesn’t openly question the superiority of science. Instead, these teachers throw religious ideas or beliefs into the mix almost as an afterthought.</p>
<h2>Teachers face no opposition</h2>
<p>The teachers I interviewed believe these practices can be justified. They say everybody has the right to choose between science or religion, but one should not be allowed to dominate the other. They are opposed to scientific processes that they feel allow humans to substitute themselves for God. Some told me that if intellectuals and academics read the Bible or Koran more, science would progress faster – because these holy texts inspire discoveries.</p>
<p>The teachers in secular schools who prioritise religion don’t face any real opposition. Their pupils often come from religious families and they openly denounce the theory of evolution when it is discussed in class. They accept that they must learn about it for their exams and to complete school successfully. </p>
<p>The Ministry of Education does not intervene, partly because its own officials are religious and do not think there’s anything wrong with what the teachers are doing. The state also seems to know that there are far too many teachers for it to fight.</p>
<p>Perhaps what the teachers are doing is a form of decolonisation. Some of the Senegalese, particularly those from working class areas, believe the secular schools represent French colonisers. They work within these spaces but bring their own beliefs to their classrooms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43433/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Croché does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In Senegal, schoolteachers who are personally religious must work in a secular space that marginalises religious discourse and knowledge. They have several ways of subverting the system.
Sarah Croché, Associate professor, Université de Picardie Jules Verne (UPJV)
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/43693
2015-06-23T00:47:46Z
2015-06-23T00:47:46Z
Hiding ethics classes from parents is bad faith
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86020/original/image-20150622-17743-vuo2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Ethics049webIV.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Several weeks ago, NSW Premier Mike Baird found himself under scrutiny for <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/mike-baird-denies-deal-with-fred-nile-over-proposed-ethics-class-changes-20150602-ghdt8z.html">allegedly cutting a deal with Fred Nile</a> to reduce parents’ ability to be aware of the option of ethics classes as an alternative to Special Religious Education (SRE) – or “scripture” – in NSW Primary Schools. </p>
<p>Although the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-03/proposed-changes-to-ethics-classes-in-nsw-schools/6516824">allegations of a deal were denied</a>, Nile and other faith groups would still prefer that the NSW Government approve policy that would make parents aware of the availability of ethics classes only <em>after</em> they had decided against SRE. The implication being that only non-religious families would be likely to have their children enrol in ethics classes, because the existence of such classes would only be made known after a parent has opted out.</p>
<h2>The value of ethics classes</h2>
<p>But the nuanced political-cum-bureaucratic workings here belies more important questions: why are ethics classes opt-in to begin with, and why are they set in competition with religious education? Ethics, or moral philosophy, is an intellectual discipline designed to understand how our ideas about good and evil, right and wrong, affect the way in which people ought to live their lives. </p>
<p>Ethical questions are some of the most important ones that we can ask, and indeed, are asking as a society. <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-should-we-think-about-war-understanding-just-war-theory-40321">Is it ever right to kill</a>? <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/comment/samesex-marriage-why-the-case-against-it-is-weak-20150602-ghes7v.html">Should all people be permitted to marry</a>? <a href="http://matthewtbeard.com/2014/07/08/vocations/">Is work morally good, or a necessary evil</a>?</p>
<p>Perhaps more importantly, ethics teaches us how to think broadly, coherently and carefully about these matters rather than reducing debate to politicised sound bites and emotivistic slogans. These abilities, it should be clear, are definitive of what makes a good citizen and, indeed, part of what makes a good person.</p>
<p>The state has an interest, then, in every citizen being able to think ethically, not only the non-religious. Indeed, for all the virtues of religious belief, there is a hazard in the certainty of answers provided by faith as a substitute for well-reasoned and carefully informed moral beliefs. They needn’t be, but it is a risk that skills of analytic thinking can overcome. It doesn’t seem clear, then, why the decision between SRE and ethics classes should be an either/or.</p>
<p>Contrary to this, during his Sydney visit <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/dalai-lama-supports-ethics-classes-in-nsw-schools-20150609-ghj7uh.html">the Dalai Lama suggested</a> that where religion had failed to build ethical societies, perhaps secular ethics would have more success. Perhaps, he seemed to argue, ethics classes would serve as an excellent moral alternative to those whose lack of religion meant they lacked a moral code to adhere to. </p>
<p>But this is contradictory: by his own admission, religious moral codes have been ineffective. It seems that the religious and non-religious alike could probably benefit from some rigorous ethics classes. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86021/original/image-20150622-17729-1w4n7tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86021/original/image-20150622-17729-1w4n7tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=708&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86021/original/image-20150622-17729-1w4n7tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=708&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86021/original/image-20150622-17729-1w4n7tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=708&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86021/original/image-20150622-17729-1w4n7tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86021/original/image-20150622-17729-1w4n7tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86021/original/image-20150622-17729-1w4n7tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Dalai Lama recently supported ethics classes in NSW.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Setting aside the specifics of the <a href="http://www.primaryethics.com.au/ourcurriculum.html">Primary Ethics curriculum</a>, which is currently implemented in NSW, the idea of ethics classes, in some form, being available for primary school students (and onward) is a demonstrably prosocial enterprise that has a strong pedagogical and intellectual basis.</p>
<p>Recognition of this has prompted business leaders to <a href="http://www.afr.com/business/banking-and-finance/financial-services/australian-business-fights-for-ethics-classes-20150619-ghk4a3">speak out in favour of Ethics classes and against the proposal</a> being considered by the Baird government. </p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jeanette.kennett/posts/10153961945889942">open letter</a> to the Premier, over 60 academic philosophers and ethics teachers write that “[Primary Ethics] provides a remarkable grounding in ethical and critical thought, a skill fundamental to living in today’s complex world.”</p>
<p>This has been recognised in Australia for some time. Alongside Primary Ethics exists a long-standing <a href="http://fapsa.org.au/">Philosophy in Schools Association</a>, and a newly-launched <a href="http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/jps">Journal for Philosophy in Schools</a>. Although these lack some of the marketing panache of Primary Ethics, they are no less intellectually rigorous. So, both Australian ethicists and the Dalai Lama are on board with the idea. Why, then, is there such resistance amongst (most notably) religious groups in Australia – for their existence?</p>
<h2>Ethics vs. religion in Australia</h2>
<p>The dispute over ethics classes began several years ago, when Cardinal George Pell was still Archbishop of Sydney and one of the most vocal opponents. Current Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher was also involved in <a href="http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/committee.nsf/0/ea2bf8db52680e6dca2579bc00020ed2/$FILE/Submission%200239.pdf">submissions from the Catholic Education Office</a> expressing concerns about the pilot program. But the dispute is merely a microcosm of an increasing social trend in Australia to present religious and secular life as starkly opposed, rival traditions.</p>
<p>Ethics, in this context, is seen as a secular equivalent to religious accounts of life’s meaning, virtue, and happiness: an equally robust and thick account to rival the traditions explored in SRE. In response, many religious educators – the most vocal of which have been within the Catholic Church – have rejected ethics classes as a viable option for students because of the relativistic notions that underpin the ethical teaching.</p>
<p>As a person who has spent the overwhelming majority of his life as a student of the Catholic approach to education, this seems both disappointing and contradictory to the spirit of the Church. Virtue-based, formative approaches to education should be definitive of the Catholic (and religious) approach to schooling, and there should be fewer more vocal supportive of the teaching of ethics in schools than religious traditions.</p>
<p>By buttressing their rival positions, secular ethicists and religious thinkers alike have deprived students – who should be the focus – of the best possible education. Religious students are deprived of the opportunity to learn about and discuss ethics and the good life in a dedicated, systematic, and open-minded manner; and those students enrolled in ethics classes are being taught a version of ethics that is far less compelling and fulfilling than it might otherwise be if it were supplemented by the accrued wisdom of thousands of years of moral philosophical thinking from within religious traditions.</p>
<p>The stark opposition of “ethics” and “religion” comes close to presenting ethics as a kind of secular religion, which is starkly contrary to the prevailing attitudes in the history of the intellectual development of the discipline. In discussions of ethics and moral philosophy, religious thinkers have been, and continue to be important influences on moral discourse. </p>
<p>Figures such as Averroes, Maimonides, St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas, Immanuel Kant, Martha Nussbaum, Charles Taylor, and Alasdair MacIntyre – not to mention the ethical thinking of the eastern traditions (in which religion and ethics are not wo diametrically opposed) – are discussed on their merits alongside non-religious thinkers like Aristotle, David Hume, Friedrich Nietzsche, John Stuart Mill, Simone de Beauvoir, Alain Badiou, or Raimond Gaita.</p>
<p>Partly at issue here is the sacredness of the separation of Church and State. Neoliberal thinking has demanded that students not be forced to consume religiously informed thinking by the state, but that religion remain private. In doing so, however, morality – a rich tradition that includes questions of virtue, flourishing, the nature of the human person and robust accounts of the common good – risks being reduced to simple, banal, and largely empty notions. Most contemporary ethical thinking builds on very old foundations, including religious thinking. To cut it off from its intellectual source risks rendering moral reflection baseless altogether.</p>
<p>Perhaps the case is even more difficult in Australia because, in the wake of child abuse scandals, increasing extremism around the world, and the increasing tendency of religious commentary to focus on particular moral issues, religion has lost some of the moral authority it once had as a social voice. </p>
<p>It seems likely, though, that encouraging the development of deeply engaging, rich ethics classes in schools – and supporting the development of morally-informed young people – would be a step toward reclaiming that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43693/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Beard occasionally volunteers with philosophy in schools associations. However, he has never volunteered for Primary Ethics.</span></em></p>
The debate about ethics classes in schools risks placing ethics in opposition to religion, whereas the classes will ultimately benefit all.
Matthew Beard, Adjunct Lecturer, UNSW Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/38969
2015-03-22T19:14:03Z
2015-03-22T19:14:03Z
Religion and belief systems have a place in the school curriculum
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75302/original/image-20150319-2473-16s78mo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students need to have a knowledge and understanding of others, so learning about religion in schools is important. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The place of religions and belief systems, especially Christianity, in the school curriculum is a sensitive issue provoking much discussion and debate in Australia. </p>
<p>The issue came to head in Britain last year with what has been titled the “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/22/schools-face-curbs-extremism-birmingham-trojan-horse-affair">Trojan Horse affair</a>”. A small number of Islamic schools were investigated about the types of values being taught. The investigations led to Prime Minister David Cameron arguing that all schools must teach what it means to be British.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-16224394">Cameron has argued</a> that Britain is essentially a Christian nation, and students <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/education-27778272">should be taught</a> values such as “freedom, tolerance, respect for the rule of law, belief in personal and social responsibility and respect for British institutions”.</p>
<p>As a result of the review of the Australian national curriculum I took part in last year, the place of religions and beliefs systems, especially Australia’s Judeo-Christian heritage and traditions, also became a topic of discussion and debate.</p>
<p>Education researcher Tony Taylor <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-curriculum-the-latest-target-of-coalitions-culture-wars-21910">criticised the review</a> as an example of what he termed the “culture wars” and implied that the review’s recommendations would unfairly privilege a Judeo-Christian version of religion. </p>
<p>In its submission to the curriculum review, the <a href="http://www.aeufederal.org.au/Publications/2014/DofERevAustCurriculum0214.pdf">Australian Education Union warned</a> about the danger of including the Bible in the curriculum on the basis that the establishment of state education in the late 19th century was premised on “freedom <em>from</em> religion in teaching programs”.</p>
<h2>Is religion allowed to be taught in schools?</h2>
<p>Government schools, unlike faith-based non-government schools, are secular in nature. However, as noted in the <a href="http://www.studentsfirst.gov.au/review-australian-curriculum">Review of the Australian Curriculum Final Report</a>, state-based legislation allows both special religious instruction classes and teaching about religion and belief systems more generally in government schools.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/Domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubStatbook.nsf/f932b66241ecf1b7ca256e92000e23be/575C47EA02890DA4CA25717000217213/$FILE/06-024a.pdf">Victorian legislation</a>, for example, permits state schools to teach “about the major forms of religious thought and expression characteristic of Australian society and other societies in the world”.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/Parliament/Bills.nsf/930E038D05C66F4F482567CB0023DDD3/$File/Bill0047-3.pdf">Western Australian legislation</a>, in addition to stating that state schools must not promote “any particular religious practice, denomination or sect”, does allow schools to teach “general religious education”.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/national_declaration_on_the_educational_goals_for_young_australians.pdf">Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians</a> (a key policy document referred to by education ministers) is quite specific in arguing that a well-balanced and well-rounded education should deal with the “moral, spiritual and aesthetic development and wellbeing of young Australians”.</p>
<p>Many of the submissions to the national curriculum review also put a strong case for including teaching about religions and beliefs systems, especially Christianity. The body responsible for the national curriculum, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (<a href="http://www.acara.edu.au/default.asp">ACARA</a>), agrees that a national curriculum <a href="http://www.acara.edu.au/news_media/acara_facts.html">should encourage students</a> “to learn about different religions, spirituality and ethical beliefs”.</p>
<p>As expected, a number of submissions by religious bodies supported the teaching of religion in schools. The submission by the <a href="http://www.cecnsw.catholic.edu.au/db_uploads/355841_Attachment_2_Australian_Curriculum_Review_CEC_and_NCEC_Input.pdf">Catholic Education Commission of NSW</a> puts the case that any balanced and comprehensive curriculum should deal with “the role, both past and present, of faith traditions generally and Christianity specifically in the development of Australia”.</p>
<h2>How should religion be taught in schools?</h2>
<p>One approach to dealing with religions and belief systems is to design specific subjects taught over a number of years. As noted in the <a href="http://www.studentsfirst.gov.au/review-australian-curriculum">Review of the Australian Curriculum Final Report</a>, such is the recommendation by Rabbi Shimon Cowen, who argues for a stand-alone subject provisionally titled Theology.</p>
<p>Such a subject, instead of focusing on what distinguishes various religions, would focus on “common theological categories and ethical principles”. Cowen makes the point that the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism, have common origins and embody similar ethical and moral values.</p>
<p>A second approach is to imbue subjects like art, literature, music and history with religious elements. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel">Sistine Chapel</a> and Michelangelo’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_%28Michelangelo%29">David</a>, Da Vinci’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Supper_%28Leonardo_da_Vinci%29">Last Supper</a>, Dante’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferno_%28Dante%29">Inferno</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot">T.S. Eliot’s poetry</a>, Bach’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_in_B_minor">Mass in B minor</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_%28Faur%C3%A9%29">Faure’s Requium</a> and much of the history of Western civilisation can only be understood in the context of Christianity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75305/original/image-20150319-2490-r5d6aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75305/original/image-20150319-2490-r5d6aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75305/original/image-20150319-2490-r5d6aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75305/original/image-20150319-2490-r5d6aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75305/original/image-20150319-2490-r5d6aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75305/original/image-20150319-2490-r5d6aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75305/original/image-20150319-2490-r5d6aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75305/original/image-20150319-2490-r5d6aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Creation of Man: Michelangelo’s depiction of God giving Adam the spark of life in The Sistine Chapel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/feuilllu/90951570">Pierre Metivier, Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The above two approaches should not be confused with schools allowing religious instruction classes where students of a particular faith have the opportunity to learn more about their religion.</p>
<h2>Why should children learn about religion?</h2>
<p>The justifications for giving students an appreciation, knowledge and understanding of major religions and belief systems are many. In addition to providing a well-rounded, comprehensive education, it is important, as argued in the submission by the <a href="http://www.studentsfirst.gov.au/review-australian-curriculum">Australian Association for Religious Education</a>, in an increasingly multi-faith, multi-cultural Australia that students “have knowledge and understanding of others”.</p>
<p>Ignorance often breeds hostility and suspicion whereas knowledge and understanding lead to tolerance and respect. Especially given the impact of September 11 and the sectarian violence in the Middle East, it makes sense that the school curriculum supports inter-faith understanding and dialogue.</p>
<p>While education has a practical and utilitarian purpose, it is also true that the curriculum deals with significant existential questions about the nature and purpose of life. Including religions and belief systems in the curriculum adds a much-needed transcendent element in an increasingly material, self-centred world.</p>
<p>In Britain, the conservative government has mandated teaching about religions, especially Christianity, in the national curriculum. ACARA is reviewing the report on the Australian national curriculum finalised last year that recommends a greater focus on moral and spiritual beliefs, especially Australia’s Judeo-Christian heritage and traditions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38969/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin Donnelly was commissioned to co-chair a review the Australian national curriculum last year by the Commonwealth government and he is a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Catholic University.</span></em></p>
Lesson about religions and belief systems have a place in schools.
Kevin Donnelly, Senior Research Fellow - School of Education, Australian Catholic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/32239
2014-10-15T05:24:13Z
2014-10-15T05:24:13Z
How Muslim faith schools are teaching tolerance and respect through ‘Islamicised’ curriculum
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/shadow-of-extremism-scandal-lingers-as-birmingham-goes-back-to-school-31028">Trojan Horse extremism affair</a> that hit a group of Birmingham schools this summer and the ongoing <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/education-committee/news/extremism-in-schools-3/">inquiries</a> into it, have raised suspicions <a href="https://theconversation.com/shadow-of-extremism-scandal-lingers-as-birmingham-goes-back-to-school-31028">among Muslim parents</a>, teachers, and pupils in the UK. News from schools inspectorate Ofsted that the action plans put in place at the five Birmingham schools deemed to be failing are still <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29613448">“not fit for purpose”</a> could raise tensions further. </p>
<p>Peter Clarke, the former head of counter terrorism who was drafted in to investigate the allegations in Birmingham, concluded in <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/340526/HC_576_accessible_-.pdf">his final report</a> that several concerning practices were going on in certain schools, such as the harassment of teachers and bullying of headteachers to impose what is considered as Islamic extremism. He has <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11157116/Trojan-Horse-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg.html">recently spoken out to claim</a> that what he found was “just the tip of the iceberg”. </p>
<p>I condemn these practices. Yet I have criticisms of Clarke’s report, stemming from <a href="http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-8972-1_34">my body of research</a> on Muslim faith schools in the UK which focused on how these schools socialise Muslim pupils and, in doing so, how such schools “Islamicise” the British national curriculum. </p>
<p>Contrary to Clarke’s report – which helped spark the introduction of new rules on the teaching of <a href="https://theconversation.com/promoting-british-values-opens-up-a-can-of-worms-for-teachers-27846">British values</a> – the Islamicised curriculum I observed in action is aimed at promoting an alignment between national education goals and Muslim belief.</p>
<h2>Teaching at Muslim faith schools</h2>
<p>My research has been primarily based on independent Muslim faith schools, which teach the national curriculum in addition to Islamic subjects, whereas the schools reported to be affected in the Trojan Horse affair were primarily state-funded and secular. </p>
<p>The school where I conducted my main ethnographic study – which is not named due to the ethical and confidential nature of my research and was not in Birmingham – used the national curriculum, and an Islamic and “Islamicised” curricula. </p>
<p>In this particular school, the national curriculum covered 80% of the school’s total teaching. The rest of the teaching was based on the Islamic curriculum and comprised the teaching of Arabic, <em>tajweed</em> (Qur’anic recitation and memorisation), Islamic studies and some <em>Ibadah</em> (worship) sessions. This comprised two and a half hours of teaching per day, accommodated by an extended school day.</p>
<h2>Islamicised curriculum</h2>
<p>An Islamicised curriculum was embedded in the overall teaching at the school. It was apparent in the ways in which teachers tried to blend Islamic education with some aspects of the national curriculum, and in the “Islamic ethos” of the school. </p>
<p>The teachers “Islamicised” lessons to bring in an Islamic interpretation of the topics taught in the national curriculum. For example, while teaching reproduction in a science lesson, one teacher discussed references to embryology in the Qur’an. She cited several verses from the Qur'an – surah 39, verse 6, surah 23 verse 13, 14 – that explained the process of development of an embryo.</p>
<p>I also came across cases where differences exist between Islamic and national curriculum perspectives, for example evolution and creationism. Teachers taught such topics by discussing the contrasting perspectives and expected students to reflect on both. </p>
<p>Prayers were compulsory. The school building was covered with Islamic displays and Muslim women did not shake hands with men. Talks in the assemblies strengthened messages of general Muslim brotherhood, in the context of extending support to those in war or crisis-stricken countries.</p>
<p>Of course, the above practices are not expected to take place to this level in non-faith schools and I condemn that they were imposed by force in some state schools which have a non-faith character in Birmingham. </p>
<h2>Not just ‘hardline Sunnis’</h2>
<p>The Islamicisation of the curriculum in any school is a complex phenomenon. I did not come across a single understanding of what “Islamising” or “Islamicising” a curriculum meant, with opinion varying across schools and even between parents, pupils and teachers within the same schools. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, in his report Clarke considers many aspects of this Islamicisation as stemming from one “hardline strand of Sunni Islam”. His inquiry lacked some basic understanding of Islam and could have benefitted from including a representative with more knowledge of the faith. Many of the practices that he regards as conservative strands of Sunni Islam are widely accepted and practiced in most Islamic schools of thought – Sunni or non-Sunni – and are seen as necessary to maintain the Islamic values of tolerance and respect. </p>
<p>Muslim women are not expected to shake hands with men in Shia strands either. The segregation of boys and girls in swimming lessons is not only a preference of Sunnis but is actually a provision in most (non-Muslim) faith schools and many secular schools as well. Sex and relationship education has been an issue for most, if not all Muslim parents, both conservative and non-conservative. </p>
<h2>Dissatisfied parents</h2>
<p>My research has shown that the emergence of Muslim faith schools is a result of dissatisfaction among Muslim parents. They felt local schools would not meet their children’s educational needs or provide structures and facilities to enable them to meet their religious obligations. </p>
<p>Much research has found that Muslim children consistently <a href="http://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/the-infidel-within/">underachieved in state schools</a>, face <a href="http://www.palgraveconnect.com/pc/doifinder/10.1057/9780230005501">racism</a>, and encounter difficulties in meeting their religious obligations. </p>
<p>This concern has been reflected when Muslims in cities with a high population concentration (including Birmingham), have requested that secular state schools where Muslim children are in a majority be converted into state-funded Muslim faith schools. </p>
<p>The other route has been to set up independent Muslim schools and apply for state-funding. So far <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maintained-faith-schools">only 11 Muslim faith schools</a> have been able to secure state-funding. The school where I conducted my main research applied for state funding but the request was turned down. In addition, in 2013 it was revealed that only <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/jun/28/christian-faith-schools-islamic-hindu">one in five applications</a> to set up Muslim free schools had been approved. </p>
<p>In my view, if parents want their children to be state-educated but attend a faith school, more should be given that choice. The curriculum that I observed in a Muslim faith school does not seem to conflict with the norms of mainstream education. Instead, it presents an example of how coherence and alignment can be achieved between key national priorities in education and the identity and beliefs of Muslim groups. It clearly presents an example of an educational practice that can be used to build the values of tolerance and respect – which are very much at the centre of Sunni Islam.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32239/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sadaf Rizvi received funding for her doctoral studies from the Aga Khan Foundation, Geneva. </span></em></p>
The Trojan Horse extremism affair that hit a group of Birmingham schools this summer and the ongoing inquiries into it, have raised suspicions among Muslim parents, teachers, and pupils in the UK. News…
Sadaf Rizvi, Associate lecturer, The Open University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/30997
2014-08-29T05:10:49Z
2014-08-29T05:10:49Z
School chaplaincy debate ignores what ‘secular’ actually is
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57710/original/bh76p2dr-1409285090.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Recent debate about the government's school chaplaincy program has been informed by deficient understandings of what 'secular' is.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Alan Porritt</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite recent calls for its <a href="https://theconversation.com/remake-school-chaplaincy-as-a-proper-welfare-program-or-scrap-it-28707">elimination</a> and the High Court (again) <a href="https://theconversation.com/commonwealth-left-scrambling-by-school-chaplaincy-decision-27935">finding</a> that it was funded unconstitutionally, the Abbott government <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-27/chaplaincy-program-revised-after-high-court-ruling/5701390">announced this week</a> that it would continue its school chaplaincy program by funnelling money to the states. </p>
<p>However, debate about the school chaplaincy program has missed the mark. It has been informed by deficient understandings of what “secular” means, both in general and in the Australian context. </p>
<h2>Dictionary understanding of ‘secular’</h2>
<p>The school chaplaincy program for “secular” schools was established in 2006 by the then-Coalition government. It originally provided funding only for religiously affiliated chaplains. The subsequent Labor government expanded the scheme in 2011 to include funding for non-religious social workers. </p>
<p>Previously, schools were only able to employ non-religious counsellors under the program if they demonstrated that efforts to find an ordained chaplain had failed. However, in May this year, the current Coalition government <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/14/budget-it-will-be-chaplains-not-secular-social-workers-at-schools">restricted funding to religious chaplains</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/chaplaincy-change-a-crisis-of-faith-20110907-1wr4y.html">Newspaper articles</a> reporting on Labor’s expansion of the scheme in 2011 used the term “secular” in the dictionary sense of “non-religious”. An <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbott-to-keep-secular-workers-out-of-school-chaplaincy-program-20140827-1091u0.html">article</a> published this week on the government’s “religious-only” stance on school chaplaincy was entitled:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Tony Abbott to keep secular workers out of school chaplaincy program.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It referred to non-religious counsellors in the chaplaincy program as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… secular welfare workers. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Non-religious welfare officers and youth workers in the chaplaincy program have been widely described in the media as <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/new-choice-for-school-chaplaincy-program-20110907-1jxur.html">“secular workers”</a>. The term “secular” in this sense has been used repeatedly by journalists and non-religious and religious commentators on the school chaplaincy debate. </p>
<h2>Common understanding of ‘secular’</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://theconversation.com/religion-should-be-taught-secularly-in-our-schools-30022">recent article</a> in The Conversation about religion in Australian schools posed the question:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What does “secular” mean?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The authors pointed out, quite rightly, that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The commonly understood meaning of “secular” … [is] the separation of church and state. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet this understanding of “secular” overlooks the fact that over the past decade leading thinkers such as philosopher <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=hWRXYY3HRFoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">Charles Taylor</a> and anthropologist <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=CeJ85XwCPxQC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">Talal Asad</a> have challenged commonly held assumptions about the “secular”. </p>
<p>Taylor argues, phenomenologically, that “secular” means an age or epoch in which religious faith “is one human possibility among others”. In other words, religious faiths and non-religious worldviews are “possibilities” that co-exist within the secular.</p>
<h2>Phenomenological understanding of ‘secular’</h2>
<p>This is not the case in France, where <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/myriam-francois/french-court-ruling-reign_b_3085656.html"><em>laïcité</em></a> prohibits the wearing of conspicuous religious apparel, such as large crucifixes, Jewish skull caps and Islamic headscarves in state schools. </p>
<p>However, Taylor’s definition is precisely what has always constituted Australian secularism. The dictionary and commonly understood meanings of “secular” that inform recent debate about school chaplaincy seem sadly oblivious of this fact.</p>
<p>From the standpoint of lived experience in Australian society, Australian secularism includes as its most fundamental and precious value the freedom of citizens to be non-religious or religious, and the freedom to co-exist and engage democratically with others who have very different worldviews from one’s own.</p>
<p>Recovering the understanding of “secular” as an inclusive term is vital for creating an environment that is not exclusionary of those who have religious faith or those who don’t – but, rather, as an environment that encourages the participation of diverse perspectives.</p>
<h2>Australian secularism and inclusive democracy</h2>
<p>A school chaplaincy program that excludes funding for welfare officers on the grounds that they are non-religious does not count as “secular”. Such a “non-secular” scheme fosters undemocratic, closed-minded attitudes and painful antagonisms between people with very different worldviews within Australian society.</p>
<p>By the same token, the implementation in state schools of a school chaplaincy program that is “secular” – in the sense of being open towards funding either a religious chaplain or a non-religious counsellor – is crucial for promoting democratic attitudes of openness towards difference on the part of both non-religious and religious students, and in Australia as a whole. </p>
<p>Social conditions necessary for exercising democratic freedoms don’t just materialise out of thin air; they need to be created. If non-religious and religious Australians are to collaborate together in fostering social conditions that can reinvigorate a democratic way of life, then the Australian lived experience of secularism needs to be cherished.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30997/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Audrey Statham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Despite recent calls for its elimination and the High Court (again) finding that it was funded unconstitutionally, the Abbott government announced this week that it would continue its school chaplaincy…
Audrey Statham, Research Associate, Health in Society Research Network, School of Social Sciences, Monash University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/30022
2014-08-05T20:36:07Z
2014-08-05T20:36:07Z
Religion should be taught secularly in our schools
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55736/original/gj3chmns-1407200881.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's important for kids to know about religion in historical, cultural and secular contexts, but not to be proselytised to. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/downloading_tips.mhtml?code=&id=201814538&size=huge&image_format=jpg&method=download&super_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTQwNzIyOTYwNSwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMjAxODE0NTM4IiwicCI6InYxfDEwMTI3NTg4fDIwMTgxNDUzOCIsImsiOiJwaG90by8yMDE4MTQ1MzgvaHVnZS5qcGciLCJtIjoiMSIsImQiOiJzaHV0dGVyc3RvY2stbWVkaWEifSwiemhISHdXMjVxT1NScnltUi9xMTFSQWVBaUIwIl0%2Fshutterstock_201814538.jpg&racksite_id=ny&chosen_subscription=1&license=standard&src=rls3P7JJTKQTrpIQqtzE4A-1-70">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Religion in schools is being debated once more in anticipation of findings from the controversial <a href="http://www.studentsfirst.gov.au/review-australian-curriculum">Review of the National Curriculum</a>. This is a challenging topic locally and internationally. Can, and should, religion be taught in a secular context?</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/clarification-of-religion-in-schools-signifies-greater-societal-shift-29966">Conversation author Gary Bouma recently described</a> the difficulties some groups are experiencing - adapting to the reality that Australia is increasingly both a religiously diverse and non-religious secular society.</p>
<h2>What does ‘secular’ mean?</h2>
<p>The commonly understood meaning of “secular”, as the separation of church and state, has different interpretations and implications. These interpretations influence people’s views on the place of religion in society and in our schools. </p>
<p>Hard secularism calls for complete separation and for the removal of religion from all public life, including state schools. A softer secular approach prohibits privileging one religion over others and argues instead for respect for religious diversity, including religious and non-religious worldviews. According to hard secularists, religious instruction, and even education about diverse religions, should not be allowed in government schools. </p>
<p>Australia’s debate appears to have moved on from that hardline position. The many actors involved in the current discussion include some prominent <a href="http://www.secular.org.au/policies/#educationRI">secularists</a>, <a href="http://www.rationalist.com.au/category/submissions-and-media/">rationalists</a> and <a href="http://vichumanist.org.au/religion-schools/">humanists</a> who oppose segregated religious instruction, but who are in favour of education about diverse religious and non-religious cultures and worldviews, taught by qualified teachers. Perhaps Australia is now ready to enable an inclusive and critical study of religions and ethics in the national curriculum.</p>
<h2>Teaching religion secularly</h2>
<p>This is not a new idea. <a href="http://www.srii.org/content/upload/documents/9bea9b6d-26f0-4998-be18-c08bd0461ab4.pdf">Sweden</a>, <a href="http://www.metanexus.net/essay/science-and-religion-school-and-church-project-denmark-2009">Denmark</a> and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/religious-education-guidance-in-english-schools-non-statutory-guidance-2010">England</a> have been providing this type of broad-based study of religions for decades. <a href="http://folk.uio.no/leirvik/OsloCoalition/Leirvik0902.htm">Norway</a> and <a href="http://www.mels.gouv.qc.ca/en/ethics-and-religious-culture-program/">Canada</a> have more recently acknowledged the benefits of this approach and, despite legal challenges, now endorse a compulsory academic study of diverse religions and beliefs, for all ages.</p>
<p>The recent <a href="http://www.redco.uni-hamburg.de/web/3480/3481/index.html">REDCo Project: Religion in Education. A Contribution to Dialogue or a Factor of Conflict in Transforming Societies of European Countries</a> found that students from many different societies want to learn about religious diversity, and that this learning can play a role in peaceful coexistence. </p>
<p>The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights also published the <a href="http://www.osce.org/odihr/29154">Toledo Guiding Principles on Teaching about Religions and Beliefs in Public Schools</a>. This document provides guidance for developing curricula, including procedures for assuring that implementation is fair. Further <a href="https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1386911&Site=CM">recommendations by the Council of Europe</a> regarding religious and non-religious education, aim to promote tolerance and a culture of “living together”.</p>
<p>Critical education about religions can be taught in secular schools as long as no one view is presented as being correct, or better than another. In this critical approach, the students explore diverse worldviews, practices and beliefs, and the role that religious and non-religious ideas play in people’s lives and in society. The aim is to develop understanding, not to instil belief.</p>
<p>A critical education about religion examines religions’ role in conflict and also in dialogue and peace-building. This approach has been shown to develop <a href="http://www.redco.uni-hamburg.de/cosmea/core/corebase/mediabase/awr/redco/research_findings/REDCo_Brussels_Doc_2.pdf">positive attitudes to social inclusion and intercultural awareness</a> – skills sorely needed to enhance young Australians’ ability to live and work in a globalised world. </p>
<p>“The need to nurture an appreciation of and respect for social, cultural and religious diversity” has been given a prominent place within the <a href="http://www.curriculum.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf">Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians</a>, the document shaping the Australian Curriculum. </p>
<p>The Melbourne Declaration highlights the need for schools to promote “the intellectual, physical, social, emotional, moral, spiritual and aesthetic development and wellbeing of young Australians” and for students “to understand the spiritual, moral and aesthetic dimensions of life”. </p>
<p>The current Australian Curriculum, under review, provides some opportunities to examine diverse religions, ethics and spirituality. However, there are few resources available, higher-priority competing demands for assessment, and limited teacher training opportunities in these areas.</p>
<p>Australia can learn from the above-mentioned, long-standing international examples and from emerging research. The review presents an opportunity for Australia to catch up with international best practices and policies, and to develop unique curricula, resources and teacher education opportunities for a dedicated subject in the Australian context. </p>
<p>The significant contribution of Christianity to Australian life need not be ignored, but it must be taught alongside the significance of Indigenous culture and spirituality, the diverse religions and spiritual traditions that have entered Australia more recently, newer religious movements and non-religious perspectives. </p>
<p>International crises and events impact local contexts. Religion and critiques of religion are prevalent globally. Consequently, religious and inter-religious literacy skills are vital for our children. These can only be obtained through high-quality, critical, secular education. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30022/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Halafoff is an educational adviser to the Faith Communities Council of Victoria, the Australian Partnership of Religious Organisations, and the Federation of Australian Buddhist Councils.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cathy Byrne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Religion in schools is being debated once more in anticipation of findings from the controversial Review of the National Curriculum. This is a challenging topic locally and internationally. Can, and should…
Anna Halafoff, Lecturer in Sociology , Deakin University
Cathy Byrne, Sociology Tutor, Southern Cross University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/29966
2014-08-03T20:04:56Z
2014-08-03T20:04:56Z
Clarification of religion in schools signifies greater societal shift
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/55466/original/8sr2v8nk-1406853310.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Victoria has clarified its position on religion in schools including prayer groups and Bible handouts. Why was this necessary?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/downloading_tips.mhtml?code=&id=199571051&size=medium&image_format=jpg&method=download&super_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTQwNjg4MjA3NywiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTk5NTcx">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Once again, some religious groups are crying foul and accusing the government of violating their freedom of religion. Victoria’s Education Minister has <a href="http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/principals/spag/curriculum/pages/religious.aspx">clarified the policy</a> on Special Religious Instruction for the state’s schools and all hell has broken forth.</p>
<h2>What was clarified?</h2>
<p>As is often the case, reactions to policy reflect fears rather than facts. The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s recently published policy defines Special Religious Instruction as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>instruction provided by churches and other religious groups and based on distinctive religious tenets and beliefs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It does not refer to teaching <em>about</em> religions in the school curriculum - where trained teachers may, and are increasingly encouraged to, include information about world religions in what they teach.</p>
<p>The policy carefully regulates who may offer Special Religious Instruction, under what conditions, using what materials accredited by which organisations. This policy clarification addresses many of the issues that have been recently raised about Special Religious Instruction.</p>
<p>It ensures that Special Religious Instruction is an “opt-in” offering. It makes it clear that the school does not certify or warrant what is taught. It ensures that those not opting in have a suitable alternative. </p>
<p>The policy ends with three paragraphs regulating “Religious activities outside Special Religious Instruction”. This appears to be the source of the objections. What is proscribed are religious activities in the school that are “led, conducted by or at the instruction of staff or parents/visitors/volunteers”.</p>
<p>The policy does not proscribe religious activities initiated by students, religious acts conducted by students that are part of their faith requirements, nor does it proscribe religious symbols or dress. The students’ freedom of religion is intact.</p>
<p>Teachers do not have the freedom to use their authority as teachers to promote their religion, or irreligion. That would be an abuse of position.</p>
<p>The policy does not ban student prayer, Bible reading, Koran recitation, or Buddhist meditation, or Sikhs from dressing according to the requirements of their beliefs.</p>
<p>The provisions proscribe outside organisations coming onto campus to recruit, promote, proselytise or conduct religious activities. Presumably the same would apply to political or other groups. Schools are very careful about who is allowed into the school at any time. In that sense this provision is not anti-religious any more than preventing a political party from recruiting.</p>
<h2>Why did the policy need clarifying?</h2>
<p>Victorian state schools should be “secular” and Victoria interprets secular to be religiously neutral, not anti-religious. If teaching about religions in the curriculum were to be demonstrated to be unbalanced and negative, religious groups might have a basis for complaint. </p>
<p>Until recently the provision of Special Religious Instruction in schools was not carefully managed and the occurrence of excesses has prompted this policy clarification. Excesses included students who were not Christian being forced to take Christian Special Religious Instruction as no alternative was offered for those opting out; the distribution of material that was in conflict with school inclusion policy; and instances of proselytisation.</p>
<h2>Religious diversity increasing</h2>
<p>The clarified policy is responding not only to the heartfelt protests of some parents who did not want their children exposed to Special Religious Instruction as currently conducted, but also to Victoria’s changing religious demography. </p>
<p>Both nationally and locally, Australia became both more and less religious in <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/census">the last census</a>. The numbers and percentage saying that they had “no religion” increased (to 22.3%). There was also a 17.3% decrease in the percentage not responding to the “religion” question, meaning that more people either identified with a religion or stated “no religion”.</p>
<p>This religious/not religious divide is sharper at the school age and among young parents. Some are very keen about their religion and others are quite firm in their non-religion. In the 5-24 age group, 26.8% are Catholic, 26.2% have no religion, 1.2% are Hindu, 3.0% Muslim, 2.4% Buddhist, 3.8% Uniting and 13.3% Anglican. Religious diversity is the wave of the future.</p>
<p>The old days when most Australians were British Protestants (<a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mf/2109.0">63% in 1947</a>) have passed. Catholics are now the largest religious group, but they are likely to be outnumbered by the non-religious in the next census. The presupposition that the classroom is nominally Christian no longer holds, nor does the assumption that religion is unimportant to students.</p>
<p>While it will be difficult for some religious groups to realise that they are now minority groups, it would be very un-Australian for the newly dominant group to deny rights to them. I would remind religious groups in Victoria that they <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/bishop-enters-battle-against-secular-ethics-classes-20100413-s7pp.html">lobbied to prevent</a> the introduction of a secular human ethics course as a Special Religious Instruction option. <a href="http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2031979,00.html">Such a course</a> was introduced in New South Wales.</p>
<p>In this context clarifying the Special Religious Instruction policy is just as important as introducing teaching about religions by qualified teachers into the curriculum. The Department of Education has shown great care, the ability to listen to a wide range of concerns and to respect the intent of the legal provision of the opportunity for Special Religious Instruction while ensuring that it is not used to bring other programs into the schoolyard.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29966/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gary D Bouma AM is an Anglican Priest with the Melbourne Diocese. </span></em></p>
Once again, some religious groups are crying foul and accusing the government of violating their freedom of religion. Victoria’s Education Minister has clarified the policy on Special Religious Instruction…
Gary D Bouma, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Monash University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/28696
2014-07-08T12:01:36Z
2014-07-08T12:01:36Z
Christian Britain has always been imaginary – it’s time to teach children that
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/53282/original/p8b2cx9r-1404810475.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Part of the skyline... but part of the school day too?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikepaws/10657815515/sizes/l">Mikepaws</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When prime minister <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10770425/David-Cameron-says-Christians-should-be-more-evangelical.html">David Cameron said recently that</a> Britain was a “Christian country” and we shouldn’t be afraid to say so, his words sparked <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/04/21/britain-christian-country_n_5184166.html">a furore</a>. While the idea of “Christian Britain” is largely imaginary for many, it remains entangled with the history of religious education. Such debates are now resurfacing amid a call from within the Church of England itself – by <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10951894/Compulsory-Christian-school-assembly-should-be-scrapped-Church-of-England-education-chief.html">the Bishop of Oxford</a> – to abandon the law requiring Christian worship in state schools. </p>
<p>It was a Times leader of the 17 February, 1940, “Religion and National Life”, which set in train a flurry of opinion in its letters columns over the following months. It reflected a majority view that religious education (including school worship) was vital to the future spiritual health of the nation. </p>
<p>In the context of World War II, it somehow made sense to assert: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It will be of little use to fight, as we are fighting today, for the preservation of Christian principles, if Christianity itself is to have no future, or at immense cost to safeguard religion against attack from without if we allow it by neglect to be from within. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>It was oft-repeated rhetoric like this which fuelled the imagination of a “Christian Britain”, and enabled <a href="http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409471202">a direct link</a> between the national cause in war, Christianity, and British identity. Soon afterwards the BBC began its long-running Religious Service for Schools, as well as <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00467601003685741#.U7cmxZRdU1I">a religious epilogue to its Children’s Hour</a>. Ultimately, such rhetorical optimism led to the religious clauses of <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/pdfs/1944-education-act.pdf">the 1944 Education Act</a>, which included making collective worship in maintained schools the obligatory beginning to every school day.</p>
<h2>Post-war reality check</h2>
<p>The vision of “rechristianising” the masses through the school system soon hit against some hard realities. The resources necessary – qualified and sympathetic Christian teachers – were unavailable to plant the seed to gather the imagined harvest. Any latent <a href="http://www.peterlang.com/index.cfm?event=cmp.ccc.seitenstruktur.detailseiten&seitentyp=produkt&pk=12936">Christian sentiment fostered by the war</a>, clerical rhetoric and National Days of Prayer, was soon dissipated by the relative comforts of peace, and <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0046760X.2012.761733#.U7ciz5RdU1I">the advance of secularising trends</a>. </p>
<p>By the 1960s, even leading clerics who had championed the cause of compulsory worship in wartime had to conclude that perhaps they had been too optimistic. One, the sometime bishop of Bristol, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00239706808557201?queryID=%24%7BresultBean.queryID%7D#.U7bQjbHb7Io">Frederick Cockin</a>, pointed out that though the 1944 Act had stipulated that religious worship should take place daily, it nowhere required that it be Christian. He went on, somewhat ruefully to say: “we shall do no service to the Christian position by trying to insist on a position of privilege”. </p>
<p>Even so, whatever form “worship” might take – and Cockin remained committed to its legal standing – he argued its value to the school community needed to provide the substance of the rationale for its place in the school day. Diverse perspectives of staff and students on religion also needed to be acknowledged and taken into account: Christian allegiance should not be assumed. </p>
<p>By the 1970s, it had become even clearer that educational reasons alone could provide justification for continuing with the practice of compulsory school worship. It seemed no longer justifiable to make a key aim of worship to foster Christian belief. </p>
<p>In 1975, John Hull pronounced school worship “dead” in its Christianising form, which Hull argued was “indoctrination”. Instead, in his book <a href="http://www.johnmhull.biz/School%20Worship.html">School Worship: an obituary</a>, he proposed certain reforms, effective changes of tone and emphasis. These included that “assemblies” would encourage a reflective approach to living, demonstrate democratic values, and provide an objective experience of worship, without necessarily expecting children to give cognitive assent. <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0046760X.2011.620013#.U7ckAJRdU1I">In an increasingly multi-faith Britain</a>, such proposals made pragmatic sense, winning widespread assent amongst educators, both Christian and not.</p>
<h2>Broadly Christian character</h2>
<p>However, the liberalising trends represented by Hull’s intervention suffered at the hands of <a href="http://scholar.qsensei.com/content/7nbff">cultural conservatives</a> embued in the politics of the Thatcher era who were concerned to preserve posited British Christian identity. The <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/40/contents">1988 Education Reform Act</a> can be read in this vein. </p>
<p>Although it relaxed the demand that the whole school meet together for the daily act of worship, it underlined that worship should be of a “broadly Christian character” (except where a school successfully appeals for exemption from doing so). This was an even more out-of-place expectation than it had been in 1944. </p>
<p>Schools and teachers have since been forced by the realities of cultural circumstance into generously and creatively interpreting the more stringent legal requirement for a mainly “Christian” worship. They often use the slot to unify the school community, nurture a school ethos, and reflect upon moral and spiritual issues, using a range of religious and non-religious resources to do so. Far from being meaningless, the majority of schools work hard to ensure that worship is significant for children.</p>
<h2>What else to worship?</h2>
<p>School worship has been made a feature of the totem that is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/promoting-british-values-opens-up-a-can-of-worms-for-teachers-27846">British identity and values</a> debate. Fears of its erosion are implicated in a sense of loss of an imagined past. If Britain were ever Christian, it was not so in any straightforward and uncomplicated way, whether by measures of churchgoing, popular sentiment or demonstrations of civil religiosity. </p>
<p>The descriptor “Christian” at an individual level belies a plethora of motives, experiences, beliefs and loyalties. At a rhetorical level, the notion of “Christian Britain” has often been deployed to advantage certain cultural causes or to nation-build. </p>
<p>Harking back to Cockin, if Christianity does have particular historical-cultural import, should this equate to any claim for continuing special treatment in law or in education? </p>
<p>If the “Christian” requirement were to be removed, following a recent call by the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/scrap-meaningless-christian-assemblies-in-nonreligious-state-schools-say-governors-9571848.html">National Governors’ Association</a>, and now the Bishop of Oxford, what (if anything) would fill the void? What would children be required to “worship” instead? Perhaps the very thing protecting the current collective worship slot from being appropriated for alternative tub-thumping political purposes is that it remains of the character of a spiritual religious practice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/28696/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen G. Parker receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust.</span></em></p>
When prime minister David Cameron said recently that Britain was a “Christian country” and we shouldn’t be afraid to say so, his words sparked a furore. While the idea of “Christian Britain” is largely…
Stephen G. Parker, Professor of the History of Religion and Education, University of Worcester
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/27758
2014-06-12T04:56:45Z
2014-06-12T04:56:45Z
Little evidence that faith schools provide a better education
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50839/original/mrd8qx7x-1402490150.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It won't help boost your exam results. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/morning-sun/3266494801/sizes/o/">hannahclark</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The relationship between religion and education is a crucial issue for the UK. Historically, the British school system owes a lot of its shape and purpose to early work by churches and religious groups in setting up opportunities for poor and orphaned children. </p>
<p>That is why, after 1944, faith-based schools were incorporated into the state-funded system. And why they still make up <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/maintained-faith-schools">about a third</a> of all schools today. This in turn makes it unacceptable to deny any other serious religion the chance to set up and govern state-funded schools.</p>
<p>In addition to these, some schools are dominated by a religion because of the nature of their catchment area and pupil intake. It was schools like this – academies and state-maintained schools that are not faith-based – which faced severe criticism in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/trojan-horse-snap-school-inspections-will-not-solve-wider-governance-issues-27824">Trojan Horse investigation</a> into extremism in Birmingham schools. </p>
<p>This means that religion and education in this largely secular country are still, and perhaps increasingly, linked in a way that is not permitted for government schools in the US and several other countries.</p>
<h2>Religion and school effectiveness</h2>
<p>One of the arguments used to <a href="https://theconversation.com/faith-schools-are-part-of-the-answer-not-the-problem-27736">defend faith-based schools</a>, and other schools dominated by pupils of one faith, is that they achieve better results with equivalent pupils. They are <a href="http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/06/can-we-stop-pretending-faith-schools-are-the-problem/">deemed by adherents</a> to be more effective. </p>
<p>Some, but not all, religiously-dominated schools do indeed have good raw score results. For example, 87% of pupils in Coleshill Church of England Primary School gained level 4 or higher in reading, writing and maths at Key Stage 2 in 2012. This compared to 75% in Birmingham more generally, and 74% in England as a whole. But this is very far from saying that the same pupils would not have achieved as much, or even more, at another local school. </p>
<p>By their very nature, faith schools do not have “equivalent” pupils to other schools. Catholic schools tend to take proportionately fewer poor children than reside in their communities. Muslim schools tend to take more than their “fair share” of pupils of Pakistani and Bangladseshi origin. And so on. This inadvertently creates social and ethnic segregation between schools. It also mean that prior differences between pupil intakes must be taken into account when judging the performance of faith schools.</p>
<p>An official attempt to do this fairly, using contextualised value-added analysis of pupil progress in England, was ended in 2010 by the new coalition government – perhaps because it appeared to offer poverty as an excuse for low school results. Or perhaps because the system <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01411920903144251#.U5czwHJdWac">had been shown not to work</a>. Value-added scores are an average of the progress made by all pupils while in a school, and so they take into account the prior attainment and background of those pupils. In 2010, as in all previous years for which data is available, almost all schools attained results directly in line with what would be predicted on the basis of the prior attainment and background characteristics of their pupil intake.</p>
<p>There is <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ies.v6n1p1">no evidence</a> that any one school or type of school was consistently better than any other. The same is true of the simpler, <a href="http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/">not contextualised, value-added results</a> now published instead by the department for education every year.</p>
<p>Few of the large or medium-sized schools of any type have value-added scores clearly distinct from the average. The schools with scores far from average tend to be very small schools with more volatile scores over time, or schools with a considerable amount of pupil data missing. These schools are not disproportionately faith-based schools, although a faith-based Catholic school was judged <a href="http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/archive/schools_10.shtml">worst performing in 2010</a>. A secular school for the deaf was among the best performing.</p>
<h2>The antithesis of education</h2>
<p>Given that a faith-base or faith-dominance does not, in fact, make a school more successful, it may cause the needless damage of social segregation for no real gain. </p>
<p>Education must involve awareness of religion, just as an understanding of the world requires knowledge of economics, geography, or philosophy. But this is very different from teaching any one religion as fact. It also has nothing to do with what some adults might choose to believe in private, having been taught the tools of reasoning and critique through their earlier education. </p>
<p>There are four major religious groups (and a few others) involved with schools in the UK today – Catholic, Anglican, Muslim and Jewish. Their rules and tenets, their stories and justifications disagree with each other. And these differences must be important to adherents of each religion because they have been, and some continue to be, prepared to kill each other over them. </p>
<p>This leads to the inevitable conclusion that at least three of these religions have to be wrong, although a strong evidence-informed argument can be mounted that all four are clearly incorrect. This means that the UK tax-payer is funding schools that are teaching young people things as facts that logically cannot be true. It also leads to <a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415536905/">unwanted and dangerous social and ethnic segregation</a> between school intakes, in what is meant to be a national school system. </p>
<p>The dangers here range from normalising the long-standing sectarian violence of Northern Ireland with its school system traditionally and strictly segregated by religious denomination, to <a href="http://dro.dur.ac.uk/11129/">lowered aspirations for some disadvantaged pupils</a>. In these respects, religion can be seen as the antithesis of a good education. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27758/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Gorard does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The relationship between religion and education is a crucial issue for the UK. Historically, the British school system owes a lot of its shape and purpose to early work by churches and religious groups…
Stephen Gorard, Professor of Education and Public Policy, Durham University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/23368
2014-02-23T19:27:14Z
2014-02-23T19:27:14Z
It’s time to expel religious extremism from schools
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41894/original/s9rv64rf-1392773282.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are government schools the place to proselytise?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adrian Rotolo/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some Victorian principals have <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/primary-school-principals-shut-down-religious-education-classes-20140216-32ty8.html">taken the decision</a> to axe religious instruction (RI) from their schools. Many believe this move is long-overdue and should be replicated nationwide. </p>
<p>Over the past few years, media reports of extremist teaching or proselytising include: a NSW RI instructor claiming to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/03/3129158.htm?site=Illawarra">“cure” homosexuals</a>; children in Queensland RI being taught that <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-students-taught-humans-coexisted-with-dinosaurs/story-e6freoof-1225899437968">humans and dinosaurs lived together</a>; and Victorian RI aimed at <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/national/school-religion-classes-probed-20110512-1ekr9.html">“making disciples”</a> because “without Jesus, our students are lost”.</p>
<p>My research has highlighted the divisive implications of RI curriculums that are racist, sexist, anti-science, age-inappropriate or somehow objectionable – <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/27/state-students-fear-burning-in-hell-after-religious-instruction-author-says">even to church-going Christians</a>.
Little wonder that some educators are finally coming to terms with their obligation to act – in the interests of Australia’s children; in the interests of education.</p>
<p>Last month, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/25/extremist-religion-wars-tony-blair">ex-British prime minister Tony Blair noted that</a> religious extremism is “not innate. It is taught … sometimes in the formal education system”. If that is true, then skills to counter religious extremism can also be taught.</p>
<p>Religious extremists reject the idea of human equity. They prefer their religious worldview to democratic institutions, values and processes, and think one religion, theirs, is the best and only framework for society. </p>
<p>Many RI programs in Australia are evangelical and biblically literal. These programs position a narrow, extremist view of Christianity as the superior way to live and believe.</p>
<p>Marion Maddox’s new book, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/religion-and-ethics-report-religious-schools/5254072">Taking God to School</a>, highlights the potential for RI programs to become part of a wider Pentecostal quest “to create a totalitarian fundamentalist Christian society in Australia” where schools are “training ground(s) for the army of Jesus”. </p>
<p>Most Australians assume we have a secular education system; one where religious extremism does not affect our children. This is naïve. Extremism can emerge from religious radicalisation or scriptural literalism in many contexts. It is not limited to the madrassas of Afghanistan or Indonesia, but is found in schools in suburban Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.</p>
<p>My book, <a href="http://www.brill.com/products/book/religion-secular-education">Religion in Secular Education</a>, documents how Australia has a policy blind spot regarding RI in state schools. No state education agency effectively oversees what is taught, or by whom. Teachers are not required to be present in RI classes in most schools in Australia.</p>
<p>Instead, RI volunteers are vetted by their own religious organisations. They usually have no formal teacher training. This policy mechanism creates an accountability loophole that enables extremists to target young children. </p>
<p>Adding a volunteer-led <a href="http://www.primaryethics.com.au/outsidensw.html">‘ethics’ option</a>, where the providers promise to “never advocate for the removal of RI”, <a href="http://religionsinschool.com/2013/02/13/why-is-ethics-as-a-complement-to-scripture-a-problem-one-more-time/">legitimises</a> the presence and power of the extremists.</p>
<p>Many parents are dissatisfied with current RI policies and also with the lack of response to their concerns from Education Departments. Government agencies do not deal with complaints about inappropriate teaching, lack of alternatives or discrimination against those who opt out. In <a href="https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/policies/curriculum/schools/spec_religious/implementation_1_PD20020074.shtml?query=religious+education">NSW policy</a>, complaints are directed back to the RI provider. </p>
<p>Media reports from <a href="http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/mother-rails-against-religion-in-schools-20120706-21me0.html">Queensland</a>, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2011/04/12/3188943.htm">New South Wales</a> and <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/parents-to-appeal-ruling-that-religion-classes-dont-discriminate-against-the-non-religious/story-fn59nlz9-1226516934419#mm-premium">Victoria</a> show how state education agencies are not equipped to deal with the policy challenge. Alarm bells should be ringing all over the country.</p>
<p>But assumptions that children learn harmless stories, about “Jesus”, “forgiveness”, and <a href="http://www.accessministries.org.au/access-news/amen-to-religious-education-the-case-for-sri">the Good Samaritan</a>, appear to assuage any concerns. Politicians, teacher union representatives and parents appear to have been lulled into a 1950s response: “it can’t do any harm”. Meanwhile, extremist religious teaching and preaching, in segregated settings, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ67Wf7pdIc">divides</a>
multifaith and no-faith communities. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41896/original/53fx4ksm-1392773859.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41896/original/53fx4ksm-1392773859.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41896/original/53fx4ksm-1392773859.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41896/original/53fx4ksm-1392773859.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41896/original/53fx4ksm-1392773859.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41896/original/53fx4ksm-1392773859.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41896/original/53fx4ksm-1392773859.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41896/original/53fx4ksm-1392773859.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is religious edcation to blame for extremist views?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-129948341/stock-photo-black-leather-bible-cover-written-with-golden-letters-on-red-fabric.html?src=pd-same_artist-129948368-GdQnY3uXRDFwSSw8jbtxeg-2">Bible from www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We should not underestimate the damage that can come from religious division and indoctrination. In Australia, recent <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/13/australias-judeo-christian-heritage-doesnt-exist">national curriculum debates</a>, court cases (<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/religionandethicsreport/high-court-rules-school-chaplains-program-unconstitutional/4082204">federal</a> and <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/appeal-denied-on-religion-classes-20130225-2f246.html">state</a>) and government programs that finance Christian evangelism (<a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-government-considers-plan-for-schools-to-use-funding-for-chaplains-instead-of-education/story-fnihsrf2-1226753817259">chaplaincy</a> and <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/state-to-increase-funds-for-christian-classes-20110407-1d698.html">state-funded Christian RI</a> for example) do not augur well.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-11/curriculum-critic-wants-more-religion-to-be-taught-in-schools/5195410">Comments by Kevin Donnelly</a>, an appointed reviewer of the national curriculum, suggest that Christianity’s privileges in education should continue. Donnelly’s <a href="http://www.edstandards.com.au/index.php?education_standards_institute=102&archive=267">Education Standards Institute</a> does not want “Christianity … treated as one religion among many, alongside Buddhism, Confucianism and Islam”.</p>
<p>Defending privilege paves the way for the extremists. Perhaps Australia just isn’t ready to recognise its own, home-grown religious extremism. Or are the educators waking?</p>
<p>Embedded in Australian <a href="http://www.asio.gov.au/img/files/Part-1.pdf">government</a> and <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/brandiss-warning-to-violent-extremists/story-fn59niix-1226762848186#">media reports</a> about security and countering religious radicalism is the restrictive idea that extremism emerges in “Muslim communities” with disaffected youth. The implication is that religious extremism is only associated with people of “Middle Eastern appearance”. </p>
<p>Soporific denial is easy. Deep self-examination is more demanding. Whether we recognise it or not, whether we develop policies to address it or not, Christian religious extremism can be a security risk, a risk to the nature of our pluralist democracy and our hard-won liberal freedoms.</p>
<p>Aggressive, highly funded and secretive, the incursion of extreme religious evangelism in Australian schools – public, private and “Christian independent” – should give us pause for thought. For example, the Victorian Department of Education <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/22/victorian-schools-warned-following-complaints-about-religious-education">recently found</a> the children’s evangelical organisation, OAC Ministries, operating “outside departmental policy”. It was not authorised to be in the schools. </p>
<p>OAC is an international organisation dedicated to <a href="http://www.oac.org.au/">“proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus”</a>, especially to “those outside the church”.
In 2013 I was approached by parents who were disturbed OAC ministries had removed children from school grounds for religious programs, claiming parental consent under a “blanket excursion permission form”. Some parents, and even principals, were unaware of the nature of these excursions and would not have provided informed consent. It was a serious breach of child security. </p>
<p>Australian society, and the wider world, is no longer focused on a singular, Christian world view. It’s time to expel unprofessional, segregated and unaccountable RI in state schools. The RI time-slot could be better spent.</p>
<p>To adequately equip our children, we ought to provide them with a comprehensive understanding of different religions and non-religious world views and ethical systems. We ought to teach them how to navigate the real world – which is diverse, religious and non-religious – and how to identify and be careful of extremist views of any kind. Religious extremism can be a dangerous thing, no matter which way it is pointing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23368/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cathy Byrne is an advisor to ACARA on religion and on the curriculum capabilities of intercultural understanding and ethical behaviours.</span></em></p>
Some Victorian principals have taken the decision to axe religious instruction (RI) from their schools. Many believe this move is long-overdue and should be replicated nationwide. Over the past few years…
Cathy Byrne, Sociology Tutor, Southern Cross University
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