VETERAN IRISH- American politician Tip O’Neill lost the first election he contested, for a seat on Cambridge city council. His father took him aside and told him he had not looked after his own backyard. “All politics is local,” he told him, a lesson young Tip absorbed and used to great effect in later life.
It appears all primary education is local, too. Fr Michael Drumm of the Catholic Schools’ Partnership said during the week that when it comes to choosing a school, proximity and the quality of education are much more important to many parents than who is running the school.
In other words, patronage is not a key issue for parents. Nothing too surprising there. In fact, if you asked most parents their priorities for their child’s school, most would start with whether it was easy to get to, and whether it would help their child to be happy and to learn.
Should it be a reason for complacency that many parents seem quite happy with the status quo? Far from it. There is a significant minority pushing for change in the patronage of schools, and as parents, they have a right, within reasonable constraints, to have the State facilitate the kind of education they wish for their children.
Likewise, if many parents would be quite happy if the Catholic ethos disappeared, so long as Mrs Murphy stayed on as principal with her trusty team of teachers, then that would not be good news for Catholic schools, either.
The Catholic Schools’ Partnership published this week the results of qualitative research it has undertaken with key stakeholders in Catholic primary schools, including parents, pupils, principals, teachers and local priests. It is clear that there is still a core of parents for whom the “Catholic thing” is important, but until parents are surveyed at local level, no one is sure just how big that core is.
One aspect of the consultation I found fascinating was how critical the pupils were of what they considered the wishy-washy nature of the religious education.
Pupils were also the most gloomy of all the groups interviewed about the future of Catholic schools. Some of them thought that there might not be any at all in 20 years.
However, when asked how they would feel about this, their response was strong. It included words like angry, depressed and betrayed. Some said it was their heritage, that it was good to move forward but it was also good to have Catholic schools. In short, they see more clearly than their elders that Catholic schools cannot be taken for granted. They could disappear, and for some of the pupils that would be a betrayal.
Let me repeat that I am very sympathetic to parents who do not want a faith-based ethos for their children. I think this is because I would be completely cheesed off if the only school in the vicinity were the Richard Dawkins Academy, where students learned to lay flowers at the statue of Darwin in the entrance hall, and earnestly sing “Imagine there’s no heaven” as their school anthem.
Mind you, Richard Dawkins is an extreme example of an atheist, and no doubt there would be welcoming atheist schools who would do everything they could to facilitate believers, just as many Catholic schools try to facilitate non-believers.
However, moving to real choice is going to be difficult at a time of cutbacks, and it is going to challenge local communities greatly. Particularly in rural areas, the local Catholic school (and likewise the Church of Ireland school) is often integral to the community’s identity.
Change and choice can be really good for faith-based schools. Some participants spoke about being in a town with several alternatives, and how good it was that parents actively chose to send their child to a Catholic school.
There is a great demand for Catholic schooling among immigrants. One participant says: “Our [school] population is made up of Polish, African, Indian, eastern European and Irish. And the Africans, the Polish, the Indians are absolutely adamant that they want to send their children to a Catholic school.”
The same is true of Travellers. It may be that Travellers and immigrants value Catholic schooling more than people who coast along, taking it for granted.
For example, lots of parents just treat First Holy Communion and Confirmation as a great day out, with no intention of attending church regularly afterwards.
Therefore, the need to have an “opt-in” process for parents was emphasised, rather than an automatic assumption that all children would receive sacraments at particular times.
As one of a range of choices, Catholic schools have a great deal to offer. However, just like Tip O’Neill, parents will begin to realise that they have to look after their own backyards, if they wish this model to continue.
It might be appropriate to end with the words of another participant. “I would also like to think that we would be open to all children, that we are not just schools that cherry pick, and I think that is the one characteristic [that matters], that Christian value that values every child, be they the special needs child or whoever else.”