Gove's vision of a traditional education

Michael Gove's recent speech on the need to promote high standards in education is a notable example of how to state the obvious. (Michael Gove is the Secretary of State for Education in England.) Let him speak for himself:

I want to proclaim the importance of education as a good in itself. I want to argue that introducing the young minds of the future to the great minds of the past is our duty. I want to argue that we should be more demanding of our education system, demanding of academics, headteachers, professionals in school and students of all ages. We should recover something of that Victorian earnestness which believed that an audience would be gripped more profoundly by a passionate hour long lecture from a gifted thinker which ranged over poetry and politics than by cheap sensation and easy pleasures.


The idea that a school or university should promote a body of knowledge as worthy to learn for its own sake is a radical idea. This is an age when a university can promote itself as a place of 'useful learning' (and miss the irony) and other Higher Education institutions jump through hoops in order to promote the employability and the transferable skills which 'employers' allegedly seek. 

One wonders, however, if the agenda outlined in Gove's speech is no more than a fantasy. Some who agree broadly with Gove's analysis would suggest that things have gone too far and cannot now be remedied. I would beg to differ.  We cannot let the heavy rain-laden clouds allow us to forget that one day the sun's rays will again offer us warmth, nurture and comfort.

Thinking of Advent

Preparations for the coming celebration of Christmas often serve as a window into the soul of contemporary society. Just this week I drove past one school with a banner advertising a 'Winter Fayre'. Some houses have festive lights on display and, of course, Santa has already made his grand entrance into many a store. Indeed, some schools have a 'Christmas dinner' for pupils in early December. One would think that Advent had been abolished and that Christmas was a month-long party season. Can we no longer see the value in waiting?

The season of Advent offers all of us a chance to discover/re-discover the joy of waiting.

Young people need Advent so as to learn patience.  They need to learn how to wait and not seek instant gratification at the click of a mouse or the snap of a finger. To have a good Advent is to glimpse the good things ahead, anticipate them with joy but wait until it is time to celebrate.  

Teachers need Advent to clear their minds of the form-filling, the submission of forward plans and topic webs, the endless 'reflections on practice' which drain the energy from the mind.  Advent should be a time when the joy of teaching is rediscovered as religious and cultural preparations for the feast of Christmas - song, drama, Scripture -  take the mind away from the latest 'outcome' to be achieved and 'learning experience' to be planned. 

Schools need  Advent in order to take stock, assess how the life of the school is promoting the common good and, yes, prepare in patience and joy for the coming celebration of Christmas. One key question for all schools, but especially for the Christian school, is this: are we really living 'Advent' or has Christmas come early.   

Perhaps we can make a personal resolution to live Advent as best we can. Christmas will come in due course.

Review of 'Communicating Faith' (John Sullivan, Ed.)

The recent focus by Pope Benedict XVI on the necessity of a ‘new evangelisation’ brings into sharp relief the on-going and, it seems, increasingly urgent, need to re-think how the Catholic faith is communicated to the world. Pope Benedict has also identified a current ‘educational emergency’ which is not simply a perceived crisis in the teaching of Religious Education but is a broader crisis which, at its root, rejects the concept of authority in education: the concomitant relativism has, he claims, eroded the moral foundations of the west.

This extensive volume edited by Professor John Sullivan, the professor of Christian Education at Liverpool Hope University, explores some of educational challenges which are apparent in the lineamenta for the 2012 Synod of Bishops: a) how can the Church proclaim a message of salvation in an age of relativism and marked hostility to religion; b) how can the Church most effectively use its resources in the family and its many and varied educational enterprises to renew the educational mission which is at the heart of Christianity.

This volume offers a scholarly approach to understanding some key issues for faith formation today. The tone is academic and presupposes some familiarity with key contemporary writers in the broad field of Catholic Education. There are twenty-three chapters arranged in six sections.
Parts One brings out what is understood by the ‘grammar of faith’. These underpinning principles place the various dimensions of learning viz cognitive, affective, attitudinal alongside the need for education to be both formative and critical.

Part Two explores the starting points or ‘baselines’ for faith communication in the home and parish with some interesting points made about the liturgical dimension. Given the recent developments in liturgy in the English-speaking world and the broader ‘Benedictine’ reforms in liturgy, there is an urgent need to re-examine how an appreciation of liturgy is fundamental to the formation of a Catholic mind.

 Part Three looks closely at the important role schools play in the communication of a faith tradition. This section explores the challenges posed to Catholic education by the prevalence of ways of thinking that, superficially at least, seem to be hostile to the Christian message. These challenges can be addressed by solid reflection on ways in which Catholic education can be developed in the school.

Part Four examines the tension emerging from the teaching of religion in tertiary education. This is perhaps the most challenging of the loci mentioned in this volume. This section reminds us of the need to find ways to bring together virtue and authority in an environment which often looks to the fruits of the Enlightenment as a perceived bulwark against the influence of religion.

Part Five brings an international flavour to the debate with an exploration of key educational challenges in Africa, the United States, Ireland and Europe. The themes emerging from section are, interestingly, not just localised challenges but are local expressions of broader challenges to faith communication: inculturation, inclusivity and identity.

Finally, Part Six has an ‘operational dimension’ in that it has a particular focus on some innovative ways of communicating the faith. This section will repay careful reading as the teacher and catechist needs to draw from historical and contemporary sources in order to communicate well.

Overall, this volume is rich in interesting and challenging material. However, I would like to draw particular attention to the valuable material contained in Chapters Five and Six. Chapter Five looks at the many theological and pastoral issues surrounding the question of sacramental preparation in the Catholic school. Father Peter McGrail, a priest of the Archdiocese of Liverpool and an associate professor at Liverpool Hope University, draws on his primary research on this subject and pulls no punches in his description of the tensions surrounding the public celebrations of the sacraments of Confession, First Communion and Confirmation. A more extensive treatment of this theme is contained in his excellent book First Communion Ritual, Church and Popular Religious Identity. Father McGrail’s chapter in Professor Sullivan’s volume will certainly offer some food for thought for those involved with and interested in the sacramental preparation of young people.

In Chapter Nine, Stephen McKinney of the School of Education in the University of Glasgow explores how religious faith can be communicated within the context of Religious Education. At the heart of this chapter is an interview with Bill Horton, retired Adviser for Religious Education (Secondary schools) in the Archdiocese of Glasgow. A key message of this chapter is that a commitment to faith formation in Religious Education is not an escape route from intellectual rigour. This is a timely reminder of the need to adopt a scholastic approach to Religious Education. The advent of This is Our Faith in Catholic schools in Scotland ensures that programmes of Catholic Religious Education should foster both piety and orthodoxy. This aspiration is not without challenges, as all Catholic educators would acknowledge.

Professor Sullivan’s book is a valuable addition to the literature on Catholic education. Catholic schools would do well to have Professor Sullivan’s well-crafted volume available as a resource for general staff development. Those in leadership roles in Catholic education will find much material for their own professional and faith development. It deserves a wide readership.

(This review first appeared in Flourish, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Glasgow.)

Standards for all

Katharine Birbalsingh's blog post of October 24 makes for disturbing reading principally because it has the ring of truth about it. Without delving into the specifics of the case she mentions, the broad issue of low expectations in schools remains relevant. Experienced teachers will know what I mean by this.

The root of this malaise seems to lie in the profoundly mistaken belief that education is not principally about growing in wisdom and learning from the shared patrimony of our civilisation. Rather, we hear that education is a teaching of skills - basic and advanced - in preparation for the job market. (How often do we hear reports in the press of 'employers' lamenting the low levels of literacy which they find in school leavers. Universities have succumbed to this utilitarianism too. Here it is called the drive for employability.) Of course all educators should feel the call to promote high standards both in behaviour and in teaching and learning. This might seem self-evident but it merits repeating. Education is nothing if not the promotion of the best and most enriching aspects of our cultural inheritance. All young people of all backgrounds deserve to be included in this patrimony, not just those who parents can afford a private education.

Serious Reading

This blog claims that educators benefit from intellectual stimulation and reasoned debate. Sadly many in educational management would eschew the sentiments of the first sentence and favour on-going teacher formation based on the development of practical skills and what is sometimes called ‘professional knowledge’.

Such a division between so-called ‘professional knowledge’ and broader learning is bridged in the study of the history and philosophy of education. A recently published book, ‘Understanding Teaching and Learning: Classic Texts on Education by Augustine, Aquinas, Newman and Mill’ edited by Brian Mooney and Mark Nowacki, is an example of the type of book which should be available in schools and used in university courses in education. This book offers samples of the writing on education of each of the four thinkers mentioned in the title and accompanied by dedicated commentaries. The Introduction offers a helpful and stimulating exploration of some key issues in teaching and learning.

This type of book reminds us that the study of ‘education’ cannot be reduced to social-science inspired measurements of data and exploration of professional practice. While the analysis and interpretation of these issues remain part of the fabric of the study of education, the core issues in education are philosophical. Two of these issues are: what is the purpose of education and in what way are the processes of education rooted in particular worldviews. Until we get to grips with these crucial matters, modern education will continue to spin many plates and call it curricular reform.

Education and Reason

The speech by Pope Benedict XVI to the German parliament (September 22, 2011) offers some considerable food for thought for educators. This speech can be read as an essay designed to challenge the relativist consensus which has assumed such importance in the public square today. Pope Benedict proposes the retrieval of the cultural heritage of Europe as a necessary resource for the healing of the societal fractures of the west. Here is a brief extract from his speech:

"The culture of Europe arose from the encounter between Jerusalem, Athens and Rome-from the encounter between Israel’s monotheism, the philosophical reason of the Greeks and Roman law. This three-way encounter has shaped the inner identity of Europe. In the awareness of man’s responsibility before God and in the acknowledgment of the inviolable dignity of every single human person, it has established criteria of law: it is these criteria that we are called to defend at this moment in our history."

This important speech is not ‘a call to arms’ but a call to study of and reflection on the roots of education. The contemporary educator can – and indeed must – draw on this cultural heritage in order to re- anchor educational thought in the very body of knowledge which gave rise to the institutions which we treasure today. To ignore the historical record  – a key tactic of those who wish to remove religion from the public square and especially from education -  is to ignore what is essential and integral to the human person.

Free schools in England

The opening of what are called ‘free schools’ in England this autumn is not without controversy. While these new schools are not private schools, they receive public money while remaining outwith the control of local education authorities.

Supporters of free schools claim that these schools are a response to demands from parents who are unhappy with the existing state provision. Furthermore, they claim that they will promote a more ‘traditional’ curriculum unhindered by the influence of the state. Opponents of the free schools movement claim that these schools will only cater for the children of affluent parents and create further division in education and society more generally.

This argument will continue as both sides are operating from a firm ideological basis. The key point seems to be the definition of good education. While much contemporary thinking on education seems to be focussed on achieving competencies across a range of suitably designed targets and utilitarian outcomes, there is another way that Blessed John Henry Newman encouraged: an education underpinned by solid intellectual and moral formation. Newman claimed that this  would be more useful than an education designed specifically to be useful! Perhaps the advent of the free schools movement will offer a space for some educators to offer a radical alternative to the status quo.

It will be interesting to track the development of, and the political reaction to, the 'free schools' in the coming months and years.