SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT

Faith in Religious Schools

In a comment to “Cutting Off One’s Nose to Spite One’s Face”, Dave questions whether religious schools achieve generally better academic outcomes. That they do has been well accepted ever since James Samuel Coleman published High School Achievement: Public, Catholic, and private schools compared back in 1982. Unfortunately, I had trouble finding much about the religious advantage on-line because the finding predates the Internet. This is the best I could do, The kind of off-hand reference to the superior performance of students at religious schools bears out the fact that this is something that everybody agrees about. Incidentally, Dave references the superior performance of students at Bishop Strachan School (BSS) as evidence that non-religious schools get just as good results. Obviously, one swallow does not a summer make, but just for the record BSS is - at least nominally - a religious school (Anglican).

God in the Classroom: The controversial issue of religion in Canada’s schools is available from our lending library, and I would be delighted to lend it to Dave on request. The author, Lois Sweet, then a reporter at the Toronto Star, won an Atkinson Fellowship to examine religious schools. The story of her journey makes interesting reading. In her own words:

“When I submitted my proposal, I never dreamed that two years later I’d not only still be immersed in this subject, but my own views would have undergone such a transformation. It wasn’t that I was hostile to religiously based schools when I began, but I did feel strongly about public education. To me, public education carries both a promise and a hope- promise of an academically sound education that’s open and accessible to all. A hope of fostering in future citizens the skills and attitudes necessary for sustaining relationships of trust and solidarity and equality. I was wary of a movement that seemed to have the potential to undermine both.” (pp. ix-x)

“I’m convinced that a public debate could open the door to a reconsideration of an education system that excludes religious education from its schools. It should also lead to a reconsideration of the justice, or equity, of our current attitude to public funding for independent schools. As we enter the twenty-first century, a fundamental part of this debate must examine whether we can afford to perpetuate a preference for one branch of the Christian faith, Roman Catholicism, on the basis of a constitution devised in another era. I think not.” (p. 252)