The Labour Humanist

Parents helping their children to be freethinkers

On the very impressive friendlyatheist blog is an interview with Dale McGowan the author of Parenting Beyond Belief. It's a very good interview and of interest to anyone concerned with education or ethical parenting issues. I dId like this particular quote from McGowan:

HM: What is the best advice you can give to parents raising their children without religion?

DM: (1) Relax! Religion often teaches that a very thin thread separates us from catastrophe. Whether confession or church attendance or avoidance of certain thoughts or actions, a long list of gotta-dos and never-dos keeps many believers in a constant state of orange alert. In the absence of all that nonsense, freethinkers can relax.
(2) Recognize that moral development is an understandable process, and that kids can be consciously involved in their own moral development.
(3) Don’t be afraid of religion. Expose your kids to it as an influential cultural artifact. We too often worry that our children will be seduced by religion if we don’t actively fend it off. More nonsense! As Penn puts it, you don’t have to teach disbelief to kids. Simply releasing them from the fear and ignorance of indoctrination is gift enough. Let them take it from there.
(4) Humans need wonder.  Fortunately, the wonder inherent in a scientific worldview utterly trumps the religious imagination.
(5) Never treat death as an untouchable subject. Touch it all over. The more familiar, the less frightening. It’s a lifelong challenge, but they’ll be all the further along if they don’t have to waste time erasing heaven (and hell) from their conceptual maps.
(6) Encourage empathy for religious believers.  Discourage arrogance.
(7) Model honesty and self-worth by being happily and graciously “out” about your disbelief.
(8)  Know, really know, that you are not remotely alone. (think this last one is aimed at US readers, who often do feel isolated by the intolerance of many Christian dominated communities) 

The only rise in church attendance is children dragged along so their parents can get them into a church school

The only apparent statistical blip in the relentless decline in church attendance has been children attending. I was immediately suspicious, but thanks to the Christian think tank Ekklesia for putting those suspicions into words:

"The numbers are boosted by the fact that attendance is required to get children into some church schools.  The increase however was not reflected in the figures for baptism and services of thanksgiving for children which fell 2% and 13% respectively."

So the only "good news" on attendance is a result of social engineering and poor policy making which forces parents - many of whom aren't believers - into pretending to be Christians for a couple of years so they can get their children into a church school because it has better exam results than other schools in the area. If I were a Church of England press officer or Bishop, I wouldn't be proud of that fact, I would be ashamed of the perversity of it all.

League Tables released today: The 29 most improved schools are all community schools (for the slow readers not a single church school amongst them)

School performance tables are published today, and big congratulations to all the schools improving the standard of education given to their pupils. But special mention goes to the most improved schools in the country which are listed in this table. It is hard, nay impossible, for me not to comment on the fact that the 29 most improved secondary schools in England are all community schools (the vast majority community comprehensives). And yes, as you've already seen from the headline, let's underline the point, none of these fast improving schools are church schools.

Yet, why is it that we are seemingly faced with media reports and ministerial statements that constantly infer that a school needs a special "ethos" (code in some ministers's mouths for religion) to make big improvements?  So it was some relief to read Fiona Millar's column this week:

"It's worth remembering that, when faced with a PR offensive which implies these are the only schools that raise standards, are innovative and have a distinct ethos...For parents in the thriving but parallel universe of the successful community school, it's depressing. There are countless secondary schools that have done great things, starting from very low levels of achievement and succeeding without academy status, a sponsor, a shiny new £40m building, a strong Christian ethos, a house system, or faux independent-school uniforms.

But no one ever talks about them. They don't fit the current agenda. They have travelled a solid, less glitzy path, led by strong heads, teachers and governors, and often supported by local authorities rather than hedge-fund managers or faith groups.

One of the most destructive side-effects of the Cresta Run dash for attention-seeking initiatives is the talking down of anything that doesn't fit in with the current gimmick. Who can imagine a minister celebrating a community school for its positive ethos or exciting, creative environment? Far too risky to admit this could happen without the injection of business or religious spirit."

Fiona sums up I think the frustrations of many parents and Labour party members there. Not convinced? Well let's consider the government's press release today on the publication of the results, fancy that, the only school mentioned as an example of success is a church run academy, well I never!