Religion for Secular Schools: Part 2

Alain de Botton in Religion for Atheists talks about how secular society often assumes it is best to leave people to live how they chose without being pestered, whereas religions give very clear instruction on how we should behave and encourages virtues through the veneration of saints, gods and societal role models. In the Catholic Church, for example, numerous saints are revered and followed throughout the year to celebrate and be inspired by their devotion and sacrifice. This is something that de Botton feels secular society can easily replicate in order to promote virtues such as kindness that we may feel are crucial in any thriving community.

Secular society is very good at promoting certain messages

Schools have a duty to offer young people moral instruction. For faith schools this is largely a case of following the lives of saints, prophets, gods etc who teach the virtues of love, honesty, kindness, generosity, temperance as well as the spiritual elements so central to religious tenets. Secular schools also need to promote these virtues but can perhaps afford to be a little more selective and objective in their veneration of other people. Religions as well as the media often fall into the trap of portraying people as sinners or saints and behaviour as good or evil or right or wrong. This accentuates a rather simplistic attitude towards people which somewhat ignores the issue of causation and interpretation. Schools can celebrate and promote amazing achievements and feats but can also challenge simplistic profiles and assumptions.

The Catholic Church uses the lives of saints to promote moral behaviour

Last year at The John Warner School we asked students to identify who their role models were. The list included pop stars, Hollywood actors, footballers and reality TV ‘stars’ – the usual array of what might be dismissed as over-paid, over-hyped role models who only promote greed and the desperate search for fame. Our view was not to tell the students that they should not be inspired by One Direction or Lady Gaga but to find the most positive aspects of their lives to promote. Did you know, for example, that Kim Kardashian promotes awareness of the Armenian Genocide of 1915?

On a recent trip to New York my attention was caught by small billboards on the side of public telephone stands which promoted ‘values’. The billboards celebrate the achievements of Americans, both the famous and the not-famous linking to values such as fitness, encouragement, passion, drive, with the instruction to ‘pass it on’. Schools could easily replicate this by mixing achievements of famous people and students/staff/members of the community to promote values.

US billboards promote moral values

Religion is well-placed to inspire the spiritual message of awe and wonder. The existence of gods, miracles, the afterlife and other un-worldly concepts generates inexhaustible levels of mysticism and majesty. But human history is littered with great achievements and inspiring individuals and the story of the earth and universe gives us all the opportunity to inspire a sense of perspective. Do schools give enough opportunity for those ‘star-gazing’ moments which can offer us the best kind of reality-check? Churches adorn their walls and windows with images of saints and stories from the scriptures, people are encouraged to forget their personal woes for a few moments and to consider the plight of others and the grander forces at play. This instils a reverence for the wonder of the world and an appreciation of our place in the bigger picture. We have science and maths classrooms named after great scientists and mathematicians and inspiring passages from history and literature are hung from corridor walls. However, I still feel there are more opportunities to allow students to pause and consider, creating spaces for contemplation and inspiring a sense of majesty.

Zen garden at William Farr School in Welton - space for contemplation

Schools should not shy away from the opportunity we have to instil a sense of morality in our students as well as servicing their spiritual needs. If young people grow up in a fully secular society that is bereft of all moral guidance and spiritual experience then we are all likely to be worse off for it.

Religion for Secular Schools: Part 1

Let me start this off by making it clear what this post is NOT about. Religious education is compulsory (and has been since 1944) through locally agreed syllabi until the age of 16 and all schools are still accountable for collective acts of worship; that religious education may have been marginalised in recent years in most state schools, coinciding with the increased secularisation of society, is not a topic I intent to engage with here. Nor is this post either an attack or a defence of religious education in state schools or faith schools in general; I do not seek to impart any of my own views on these issues. In fact, this is not really about religion at all, not in the sense of religions being faith systems based on spirituality and the concepts of deities and the supernatural.

This post is unashamedly influenced by Alain de Botton’s recent book, Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion (2012), which seeks to use the most positive aspects of religious practice that have developed over hundreds of years to improve the lives of individuals and communities in our increasingly secular world. De Botton raises interesting and challenging issues for secular society which are, in many instances, directly applicable to schools which do not have an overtly religious connection. While de Botton rejects the supernatural claims of religion he suggests that we are all seeking meaning in our lives and that religions have some good ideas about how we should live and behave which secular society would do well to adopt. The book gives prompts for action which, I think, can largely be translated into the school environment.

Last year we have a visit from a delegation of teachers and educators from Nigeria. I met with them to discuss pastoral care at our school and left them aghast when explaining the context of the school told them the proportion of students who were declared as having ‘no religion’. They immediately seized on the wider implications of this suggesting that without religion we were likely to lose the moral fabric of our community and that we were clearly on the brink of decadence. While I was a long way from agreeing with them it did start me thinking what gaps are left in a community when the social aspects of religion are removed. While many might be comfortable with people choosing not to follow a god or ancient scriptures, what is sometimes forgotten is that with religion came more than just meaning to life, and in this country, whether we believe in the tenets of Christianity or not, the church has had, and continues to have, a huge influence on our art, culture, relationships, work and behaviour. Our secular society is perhaps rather quick to reject religion per se, rather than acknowledging the impact it has had on how we live, love and communicate. To an extent I agreed with my Nigerian guests, not because I thought that young people need God or Jesus in their lives, but because they do need guidance, structure and instruction. De Botton argues that we all need these elements in our lives and that libertarian ideology has wrongly assumed that any attempts to influence our views and behaviours should be avoided – if this is right for society in general, and I believe there is great merit in this view, then it is surely even more relevant for those of us who deal with young people who are most in need of guidance and structure.

Community

The first theme that de Botton tackles is that of ‘community’. He asks us to consider the physical environment of churches and other places of worship. They have been specifically designed to welcome large numbers of people and are often lavish and inspiring in their architecture and decoration. Some may find them cold and dark, but even the starkest of chapels can seem like a palace compared to most secular community centres. Religious buildings are also one of the few places in modern society where it is acceptable to greet a stranger, where people are encouraged to mix regardless of background and where those congregated are encouraged to treat each other as equals. De Botton describes how the Catholic Mass guides people on how to treat others through carefully choreographed activities. He points to the Jewish Passover meal where food brings people together from different generations in an organised and structured process which encourages communication and sharing. The annual Jewish Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) where believers are encouraged to reflect on their actions over the previous year and to seek forgiveness from those whom they may have wronged is seen by de Botton as a practice that could be adopted by secular society. Finally, de Botton points to religious celebrations that encourage normal customs and behaviours to be thrown out of the window, such as the Medieval Feast of Fools, where people were encouraged to behave in ways which brought out the more destructive and chaotic side of nature.

How can secular schools adopt theses religious practices which encourage a sense of community? Schools are perfectly placed to design community experiences because we have a captive audience for a significant proportion of the time. We may not be able to influence the architectural shell of our buildings but we can affect the warmth, appeal and usage of both our internal and external spaces. School halls can learn from religious buildings in the sense of them being welcoming and inspiring, school canteens can learn from religious feasts by encouraging members of the school community to sit, eat and talk together – do staff sit with students, do members of the community, such as the elderly come in to share a meal with students? Schools can create a sense of communal fun on collapsed timetable days, but these need to be carefully choreographed, more than just asking students to come in wearing non-uniform. Should we embrace the spirit of the Medieval Festival of Fools and turn the school world on its head every now and then? Do we allow enough time for reflection and atonement, not just in relation to academic learning, but personal growth and mastery?

Young people are not all fortunate enough to attend schools with majestic, historic buildings with domed assembly halls and wooden-clad dining rooms. Faith schools can fall back on the practices of their religion that create the structures for communal experiences and guidance. But we can all improve the physical environment that our staff and students inhabit and we all have an obligation to provide this structure and guidance for our community so they may learn the importance of living and sharing with others. We may give a nod to Community Cohesion and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Aspects of Learning but maybe we need to start from a fresh angle and adopt some of the approaches that have worked so effectively in religious institutions for hundreds of years.