re: RE

In this brave new world they call 'school', apart from the driving, the uniform, the homework etc, I have also discovered the bored housewife's home from home, the PTA. I normally hate things like the PTA; there's nothing like an earnest discussion on social events that makes me want to chew gum and heckle from the back row. But in the absence of very much to do in Kampala - rather you do stuff, but it tends to be the same stuff over and over again - I started going to these meetings as welcome distraction and to make some more friends. I am a (slightly) bored housewife myself, after all.

Imagine my surpise then, when both meetings strayed from the original agenda ("The role of class rep" and "The British Curriculum" yawn) and turned very interesting. We talked a bit about the thorny issues around how you teach history and geography in an international school, and then it was a matter of time before we were handling the hottest of hot potatoes: religious education.

I wasn't paying attention 100 per cent,but this is what I remember. UK schools are meant to offer religious education of some sort, without bias towards any one religion, unless you are a designated faith school. Parents have the right to withdraw their children from all RE lessons. OK then. At Ambrosoli (Emma's school) it is not taught at all. While that should make life easy for everyone, actually it doesn't really. An example. Last year, Diwalli and Hannukah got coverage (in fact Ambrosoli is meticulous about covering every international event..Song Khran, anyone?) but the 'Christmas' play was about....different hats. Happy holidays, everyone! (There was a nativity play, but only after considerable parental lobbying and then only out of school hours.)

I am a Christian. Of course I want Emma to be taught about Christianity. However, it was a conscious decision not to send her to a faith school (and I could do a separate post on the reasons why.) So in choosing Ambrosoli, it was never my expectation that Christianity would be taught pre-eminently in RE lessons. But to have no religious education at all? Nor can anyone answer precisely why this is case.

If the head teacher or the board were made up of prosletysing atheists a la Richard Dawkins, who argue that religious instruction is a form of child abuse, it would depress me but at least it would be a clear position. What riles me is the impression that they want to steer clear of the whole issue for risk of offending people. When did we all get so sensitive?

I love the challenge of defending what I believe, and I like being challenged in return. It would be almost impossible to come up with a religious education curriculum that everyone is happy with, but life's like that sometimes. Let it at least follow some honest debate; debate that wouldn't even be allowed in many countries around the world.

To give them credit where it's due, the lack of RE at Ambrosoli has been recognised as problematic by the board, and a questionnaire was sent round last year to all the parents about the kind of religious education they'd like to see, if any. It's a start, though like many an initiative, at risk of being quietly shelved in case the results don't lead to neat and easily implementable solutions.

In my new role as Head of the Awkward Squad, I look forward to bringing it up again and again...