Sending faith schools to the naughty step – again

Kingdom United? asks the Social  Integration Commission report published recently, before further disuniting it by rapidly despatching faith schools to the naughty step (again, but we’re getting used to it). Without so much as a single shred of evidence, the blame for social segregation is laid at the door of free schools which are, apparently, dominated by single faith groups. According to a Telegraph review, faith schools are boosting extremism and stunting children’s life chances.

Politically motivated from its first words, the report does little to hide the liberal secular prejudice of its authors, who seem to have used the opportunity to peddle their own brand of enlightenment thinking, laced with just enough doom-laden data interpretation to make themselves sound authoritative. If true, rather than the result of poor research methodology, the claim is concerning that lack of social integration leads to cardiovascular disease and suicide. It’s concerning because that’s just one step away from claiming by implication that faith schools are responsible for it.

The report also propagates the view (because the ideology is now so embedded in thinking that it’s become received truth) that everything in general, and our education service in particular, must be annexed to the economy:  ‘policy interventions suggested in this report,’ it trumpets, ‘could have a positive impact on economic problems … which are not thought of as integration issues, such as education standards and the cost of public services.’ Lack of integration is, of course, costed – to the tune of £6 billion a year.  The report, like so much else that emanates from pseudo-politics, puts me in mind of Lord Darlington’s definition of a cynic as ‘A man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing’.

The report reads like a rag-bag collection of its authors diverse vanities, but nevertheless, some of the flawed thinking needs addressing, beginning with ‘Integration increases trust’.  That’s back to front thinking. Trust leads to integration. As with all other issues involving hearts and minds, you cannot legislate for trust. It’s a belief that grows; a moral virtue, not a purchased commodity.

‘Trust in society is significantly correlated with national measures of economic and social progress.’ We should build trust because it contributes to the common good and builds a strong society, not because it boosts economic success.  Not to get richer. Not to be socially mobile. Just because.

Co-sharing of campus sites by different faith groups will lead to more integration. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. Whether or not that happens depends on the people who co-share. Integration begins with open minds, not open buildings.

Schools have a duty to help build relationships. Well, many of them already do, and it’s something that faith schools are particularly good at, as evidenced by Walthamstow Academy, a Christian ethos school community where relationships flourish within diverse beliefs groups. And in passing, effective relationship is about modelling throughout society, not just about teaching in schools. Is there much difference between Prime Minister’s Questions and an FA pitch invasion,  apart from context?

Random balloting should be used to help a wider mix of pupils to access the most academically successful schools. Yet while research shows that admissions processes do largely maintain procedural fairness, 30 years of parental choice demonstrate that parents want their children to go to schools in their local community. This is the case even when children from disadvantaged homes have access to academically successful schools. Parents value community over success, even if that impacts on the life chances of their child.

Which brings us to social mobility – that great catalyst of economic success. Actually, anyone who views social mobility in this way clearly knows nothing about the costs involved. They aren’t financial. They are far most costly. Social mobility costs you your culture and your community; it requires ‘the ability to move away from those you know and love’ and to no longer belong in the very place which has made you who you are. It’s a high price to pay for someone else’s definition of success.

So, just to redress the balance a little, here are some facts. 52% of pre-school children access social activities such as toddler groups via a church. The latest biennial National Church and Social Action Survey indicate that nearly 1.4 million volunteers participated in church-based social action in the UK in 2014, touching millions of people through various initiatives: community building (parents and toddlers); compassion ministries (caring for the elderly) and crisis intervention (debt advice). It involved 114.8 million voluntary hours, an increase of 59% compared with four years ago as churches respond to need. Church spending on social action is running at £383 million, Stephen Timms MP observing that churches are ‘for the most part, financing their own efforts and opening up their buildings and facilities free of charge. This movement of church-based social activism is one of the most positive developments in modern Britain, and its impact is steadily growing.’ Lord Wei of Shoreditch further commented: ‘This is the Church 24/7 building community, comforting in distress, helping in crisis and demonstrating Christian values. We should applaud their example and recognise and support their efforts.’

Many of these are the same churches that tirelessly support the schools which are part of their community. They serve, as they have always done, some of the most disadvantaged communities in our country. And they are valued not because of their academic results, but because of the values and commitment to human flourishing that they live out through relationships and in community.

Evidence shows that Christians are major contributors to the fostering of integration: churches are very good at sustaining communities. Cecil Graham’s witty response to Lord Darlington was: ‘And a sentimentalist  …  is a man who sees an absurd value in everything and doesn’t know the market price of any single thing’.  Perhaps if the report’s authors could set aside their assumed secular superiority and spend some time in faith schools and communities, they might find that Christians do, indeed, find absurd value in people, rather than viewing them as market commodities. And it is precisely that valuing of people that makes faith schools so enduringly popular.