{"id":18238,"date":"2017-12-10T23:35:37","date_gmt":"2017-12-10T23:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/?p=18238"},"modified":"2017-12-16T20:09:11","modified_gmt":"2017-12-16T20:09:11","slug":"faith-cleansing-in-our-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/?p=18238","title":{"rendered":"Faith Cleansing In Our Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The 2007 Children\u2019s Plan could not have made it clearer: parents bring up children, not governments.<\/strong> That didn\u2019t stop the government of the day commissioning Graham Badman to investigate<\/u> <\/a><\/span>home education, with a particular emphasis on safeguarding; the introduction of compulsory registration; home monitoring inspections, and the definition of \u2018suitable\u2019 education.<\/p>\n

Unprecedented protests that the proposals would \u2018for the first time in our history, tear away from parents and give to the State the responsibility for a child\u2019s education\u2019 kicked the issue into the long grass.<\/p>\n

Despite that, Louise Casey regurgitated the same arguments against home education in her report<\/span><\/a> into opportunity and integration just a year ago. And here we are, yet again, with exactly the same proposals in a private members\u2019 bill introduced by Lord Soley, which recently received its second reading.<\/p>\n

At first sight, Lord Soley\u2019s thoughts<\/span><\/a> seem entirely reasonable, particularly after Colin Diamond, Birmingham\u2019s corporate director for children and young people, warned that a recent court ruling could drive Muslim children into radicalising<\/span><\/a> settings. Surely compulsory registration would be a good step?<\/p>\n

Except that here\u2019s the thing. Lord Soley is an honorary associate of the National Secular Society so their lobbying is probably behind the latest attempt to place home education under state control. The October ADCS Elective Home Education survey<\/a><\/span> still talks about safeguarding, but the NSS is taking a new tack this time \u2013 it\u2019s all about children\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

The survey finds that most long term home educators do so for philosophical or religious reasons, so the NSS is leaping into action to demonstrate that children\u2019s rights are being abused by parents\u2019 religious worldviews, although they have no problem with philosophical ones.<\/p>\n

\u2018If children are raised and educated only within the context of a religious community\u2019, they declaim, \u2018they are left unprepared for life in modern Britain\u2019. Well, if you want to raise your child to know and love God and live according to biblical standards then yes, that\u2019s probably correct.<\/p>\n

But then, those parents don\u2019t want to raise their children to engage in casual sexual encounters; to engage with sexting and revenge porn; to lie drunk in the gutter after a night out with friends or to live in ways that are all about \u2018What\u2019s in it for me?\u2019 rather than God\u2019s design for us as uniquely created in His image.<\/p>\n

Modern Britain is not what every parent wants for their child. What right does the NSS have to tell them that they\u2019re wrong? However, with an apparent benevolence which belies the underpinning arrogance, the NSS claims that they have an interest in opening opportunities for children, not closing them. So a lobbying organisation with a membership similar to that of the British Sausage Appreciation Society knows better than parents?<\/p>\n

It might seem that paying so much attention to less than 0.5% of the school-age population is excessive. But combined with other opinions raised in the media, it suddenly takes on a much more ominous tone. Because this week, Humanists UK has complained<\/span><\/a> to the DfE about Catholic schools \u2018unlawfully promoting political action\u2019 by encouraging parents to campaign against the admissions cap that prevents the Catholic Education Service from opening free schools.<\/p>\n

The irony seems to elude Humanists UK that its own campaigning against faith in the public square is a partisan political action. Or is this a case of double standards? Humanists UK can campaign about what they believe in, but parents can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

They also seem to have missed the point of a liberal, democratic society, which is one where all worldviews can be freely expressed. Every child\u2019s upbringing is rooted in parental and community worldviews and part of growing up is to decide what to embrace and what to reject.<\/p>\n

What both secularists and humanists refuse to accept is that theirs are also worldviews. So why, in a liberal democracy, should the worldview of just 1% of the population prevail over all others? The answer, of course, is because they assume themselves to be right not only for themselves, but for everyone else.<\/p>\n

Andrew Copson is quoted as saying that, \u2018For too long, religious organisations have hijacked our state education system to further their own vested religious interests\u2019. When I pointed out to him that without church schools, there would have been no free or universal education until well into the nineteenth century, he responded with, \u2018And if it weren\u2019t for churches in the 19th century then state education would have come more quickly \u2013 they blocked it for a long time fearing a loss of control\u2019.<\/p>\n

Spot the irony yet again \u2013 Humanists UK wants to enforce its \u2018neutral\u2019 worldview in every school and on every home educator in the country. If that isn\u2019t control and vested interest, what is?<\/p>\n

However much these groups lobby the DfE and bend the ear of Ofsted, they cannot escape from two powerful facts. The most persuasive is that considerably more than a third of parents choose faith settings and these schools are always massively oversubscribed. Try telling all those parents that they\u2019re wrong.<\/p>\n

The other fact is that our education system couldn\u2019t function without church money \u2013 the state simply couldn\u2019t afford to maintain all the lands and buildings that are owned by the church. The answer to that one is for the NSS and the BHA to stop sniping and to open free schools of their own.<\/p>\n

Nothing has changed since the last attempt to impose state control on home educators: this is just another round of faith cleansing. If humanists and secularists want a seat at the education table, they should spend their time talking about what they are for, rather than what they are against. It\u2019s getting hard to discern what they believe in through the white noise of anti-faith rhetoric.<\/p>\n

When it comes to education, the Bible doesn\u2019t talk about rights, it talks about responsibility. Parents alone are responsible for educating their children, so it is for parents to choose how they do so and with whom they partner in the process \u2013 \u2018These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.\u00a0Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up\u2019 (Deuteronomy 6:6\u20147).<\/p>\n

It is not the business of the state to remove that responsibility.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2017, Christians In Education<\/span>–<\/a>All rights reserved<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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The 2007 Children\u2019s Plan could not have made it clearer: parents bring up children, not governments. That didn\u2019t stop the government of the day commissioning Graham Badman to investigate home education, with a particular emphasis on safeguarding; the introduction of compulsory registration; home monitoring inspections, and the definition of \u2018suitable\u2019 education. Unprecedented protests that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":18280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"wp-image-borders","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/homeschooling-iStock_000047289434_Medium.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4bgnN-4Ka","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18238"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18258,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18238\/revisions\/18258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchmanmedia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}