A Just school or just school

dublin | education | opinion/analysis

Wednesday December 23, 2009 11:44

by Brendan Butler

086 4054984

Religious Ethos

Has the term 'religious ethos' any substance in fact .If it is claimed to be a major factor in the life of a school then let it be evaluated in terms of outcome just as we have league tables in terms of academic achievement.

The Just school or just school

In our present turbulent civil and church society it is time to stop and reflect what has given rise to this unease and seething anger.. The chasm between our assumed values and our social ,political and church reality is now wider and more gaping than we ever assumed could exist. Or maybe we all assumed in our arrogance that banana republics existed only in South America and surely couldn’t exist in our high civilised society.

Injustices being man- made on a interpersonal level have been perpetuated through social structures such as education and myths emerge to justify these structures. Religious Ethos may be viewed as one of these ethereal myths which have acted as a formative influence especially within school structures. So often a religious ethos in the Catholic secondary school was associated with a repressive regime of obedience to an authoritarian structure. Students who obeyed were rewarded at senior level with the sharing of the enforcement of a rule regulated society . Behaviour was rewarded which perpetuated the school structures and these in turn prepared the now socialised young adults to fit into an equally repressive and authoritarian society. And so the circle of injustice remained hidden under the guise of a religious ethos which in effect was a cultural creation to justify the dominance of one section of society over another.

Just as a past religious ethos was used to perpetuate an unjust structure it is possible to concretise this ethereal ethos into a social reality where every person in the society is equally valued and this can be done through the educational system. A religious ethos properly understood must develop the reality of freedom and justice within the emerging personality where the inner becomes outer and the outer becomes inner. A religious ethos without its foundation in justice is a sham and does a grave disservice to the true nature of religion. Equally a secular ethos within a school should equally develop a person who is a person for others while fully developed themselves.

The educational system is a crucial and critical factor in the creation of a just society or in the perpetuation of an unjust one. If we can create just schools where the concept of justice is caught rather than taught then there is every possibility that once this concept is realised in school structures then justice becomes a major motivating force in the lives of our young adults as they emerge as a potential force for justice in the wider society.

The concept of a just school must be the raison d’etre of every school. Just as we have Green schools awarded the Green flag for environmental success we could equally have a just school rewarded with a flag of civic excellence. My experience over the past thirty years of teaching and managing in a religious run secondary school is that if students are treated with a just respect and whose grievances are listened to and acted upon ,if necessary, then a culture of respect is generated within the school and an impersonal school society can develop into a community of students and teachers where respect for each becomes a palpable reality. My hope would be that this model would be internalised by all students and they in turn would become a transformative influence for justice when they emerge into the wider society.

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Comments (3 of 3)

best of luck with that brendan..

by Murder machine

Wed Dec 23, 2009 17:48

Because you are currently up against it.

People leave school with a pattern of behaviour which involves shutting up, deferring to authority no matter what, and pretending to do what they are told while they secretely realise that the only way to survive in such a system is to be sneaky because fair play does not exist. Hence they emerge as self serving, sneaky people who have no community value system. A whole community of such people is a very unpleasant prospect but that is what we had throughout the celtic tiger.

In child rearing the cardinal sin (sic) is inconsistency and unfairness in the rules. Yet the church reared our children with a mixture of guilt, hypocrisy and the feeling that might is right. It's time we looked at education again, not as a way of socialising our kids to fit in, but as a way of creating whole human beings who have the tools to transform our society into something better

múinteoir

by múinteoir

Sun Dec 27, 2009 04:35

I can't believe what I'm reading here! I'm someone who went through the secondary school system and came out with nothing! I was an altar boy, I was an an honours student till 3rd year. I went back to college when I just became a mature student, I am now a teacher. My problems were not created in secondary school, how could they? Your in a class for 35-45mins a day with a teacher, how is that the school systems fault? And also when I was faling miserably in the last few years of school (due to my home situation) it was those who had the confidence and courage to ask questions that went on to college, these were the same lads that had teachers as parents, marriages that stayed together ,belier in the system to go on.This post is another example of the weakness in our society, blame everyone else, it's there fault! I come from a family that spent most of their life on welfare by the way, if you want to have a debate lets do it, lets do it now!

home stability helps

by ard teastas

Sun Dec 27, 2009 10:12

I just want to support muinteoir's assertion that stability in family life is a decisive factor in learning progress by school students. A couple of weeks ago I heard Fintan O'Toole of the IT saying on radio that his bus driving dad brought him regularly to the public library during his childhood. O'Toole was the only school leaver on his road in Crumlin who went to university. My recipe for achieving at school and afterwards is a happy stable home with lots of reading matter brought into the house by both parents.

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A Just school or just school

Comments (3 of 3)