On Faith in Education.

I’m all for fostering in children a healthy sense of ethical values. I also believe in teaching kids comparative religion, because religion is a major part of human life and most of them probably contain some elements of truth. Teaching them comparative religion gives them a grounding for making their own choices when they feel ready to do so. The problem is this.

Sectarian dogma and general religious intolerance have been the cause of countless premature deaths throughout history. They’ve also been responsible for, or at least used to justify, many other pretty little evils like wholesale abuse, unconsionable cruelty, imperialism and slavery. Taken together, therefore, sectarian dogma and religious intolerance must amount to one of the most pernicious diseases known to mankind. So why do we still permit children to be openly infected with it in faith schools?

And while I’m on a rant about education, it can’t have escaped many people’s notice that even in general educational establishments, the purpose seems to be as much about cultural brainwashing as it is about teaching established fact. I even heard the didactic Stephen Fry, that great champion of street level certainties, say on a TV show last night ‘This always used to be taught in schools, but of course it’s rubbish.’ How many times have I come across that in my life? I wonder, for example, whether schools still teach that Columbus ‘discovered’ America.

And so I would suggest to any young person with aspirations to become an ‘educator’ that they should first attempt to very sure as to just what the purpose of an ‘educator’ is. I’m further tempted to suggest that every school in the land should have a very big banner placed at the entrance which says:

Beware!

Anything we tell you in here might not be true.