The myth of religious neutrality in education
from Christian Concern:
It is often claimed that education should be neutral about the existence of God, religion and moral values. Atheist humanists frequently campaign against ‘faith schools’, complaining if they teach children to believe or behave like Christians.
Does this claim stack up?
In this resource, Head of Public Policy Tim Dieppe looks at whether this is desirable – and if it is even possible.
Some thought experiments on neutrality
To assess the claim of the possibility of neutrality in education it is worth conducting a few thought experiments about neutrality in education.
Let’s imagine a school decides to be neutral on morality. Is that actually possible? Could a school be neutral on whether stealing is wrong? Or whether cheating is wrong? Surely not! Any school must advocate for some moral values. It will inevitably teach a certain set of moral values to its pupils. The question then arises as to from where it obtains these moral values?
Perhaps the school will claim that certain moral values are ‘self-evident’. But then, how do we decide what is ‘self-evident’ and what is not? Why then do different cultures and different people disagree on moral questions? Even if some moral values are ‘self-evident’ this still begs the question as to where they come from and why they are self-evident? Moral laws surely point to a moral law giver?
Now, let’s imagine a school decides to be neutral on the value of education. Surely that is not sustainable? Any school must value education since that is its purpose. It cannot be neutral on the value of education.
What if we imagine a school deciding to be neutral on all religions and worldviews? This school will take no position on the vast array of opposing viewpoints and beliefs. Pupils will be allowed to believe whatever worldview they like, and the school will not pass judgement. Would it make a difference if a pupil’s worldview was racist? Would it matter if a pupil’s worldview encouraged violence towards unbelievers? Would it matter if a pupil’s worldview encouraged rape and abuse of girls in class? This may sound extreme, but there will be pupils who believe these things. They may well be exposed to ‘toxic’ views online such as Andrew Tate, for example. In fact, neutrality on worldviews is not possible. An attempted ‘neutral’ worldview is actually a worldview itself. There is no escaping having a worldview.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
