The Double Front Faith Schools Put Up.

One of the great ills of our age is how our kids (well yours, I don't have any myself) education has been used as an ideological battleground. Schools are political, and don't be an unwitting casualty for Gods sake. This article on the findings of a school adjudicator discovered that Christian faith schools unwittingly favour middle class kids, though that is of little surprise to me. Faith schools are largely problematic because they segregate different faiths off from one another at an early age (apparently just shy of 70% of Northern Ireland's under 25's have never met the "other side") and now to top it off they (the adjudicator did say other faiths do it) compound it by segregating on class lines as well. It is hard to see how we can have a harmonious society when so little mixing occurs.

Like faith segregation; class segregation brings problems too and is far more widespread than the former. For an in depth analysis of the problems it brings, direct to the Nick Davies education articles, it's there in the blogroll. The basic gist of the articles can be summarised as the fact that a large middle class intake into a school can be a large driver for academic success. I'm not saying that means all working class parents are rubbish at raising their kids, or that middle class people are automatically academic "betters" - God no, it is a more practical fact. More affluent parents can focus more holistic attention to a school. Why? Because their income is higher, it is easier for one parent (aka Mum) not to have the need to work, or at least to work full time, thus they have more free time to pursue on things like schools. A working class family may have two parents who by necessity have to work full time, perhaps holding two jobs, or more. Many of these jobs have crap hours that coincide badly with school hours. It isn't that they are short on parenting, they are short on time and this is what the article touches on. Middle class parents can win favour with churches by being more flexible to attend them, or to help out with voluntary church work. They know this and are sort of in tune with this back door selection. There is nothing fundamentally "better" about what faith schools teach that explains their academic success, but they can attract a high intake of kids with parents who have the time to push for high standards and tada! Although I can't overlook the more questionable parts of a faith schools curriculum it seems a lot of middle class parents can. I can't say I blame them but it does unwittingly exacerbate what is wrong with schooling today. Right wing columnists are missing the point when they say that the comprehensive system doesn't work, it doesn't really exist in the first place. Selection didn't end with the cull of the 11 plus, it just went on under more coy methods. As I said a devoted bunch of middle class parents who have the free time to expend huge amounts of energy on their kids education can drive schools to up the game, but they are not touching many schools at all, and these are falling behind and is at the root of everything that is fucking everything up in our education system. Pushy parents who have the time to join the PTA and give a head teacher a flea in the ear may be a colossal pain in the arse but they are an effective one. It is unfortunate that they can be a scarce one.

PS. I must implicitly point out that I am not saying working class parents don't place as much value on their kids education, that is obviously untrue. It is that often they simply do not have the financial freedom to expand as much free time to get involved as they may like to. But by increasing the amount of the parents who do have the time to other schools, then they hopefully speak for them into the bargain as well.