By KEITH WATSON - METRO.CO.UK
Added: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:05:28 UTC

TV review: 'Faith Schools Menace?' was an intriguing look by Richard Dawkins at the potential dangers of religious education.

Do children have the right to an open mind? Richard Dawkins, never a man afraid to speak his, certainly believes so. He made a persuasive case in Faith Schools Menace? (More4), a rational account of the potential dangers of religious education that would have had parents who have abseiled down their local cathedral in a bid to get little Johnny into St Xavier’s fuming in the pews.

The efforts of parents to get their kids into what they believe to be the best school has become the stuff of sitcoms. Moving house, switching religion, bunging the vicar a wad to fix his dodgy spire… they’re all fair game in a society that has turned getting an education into an Olympic event. And while faith schools continue to score the best exam results, there’s no sign of it ending.

Dawkins didn’t really explore why faith schools score top marks but surely, to borrow a religious-sounding phrase, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. Parents who suss the system are the type who know how to pass exams and, hey presto (I know there must be a Latin term for that but I didn’t go to the right school), their kids will be the same. So we’re locked in a repeat cycle of privilege.

Demonstrating an open mind on the subject was clearly an effort for Dawkins but he manfully pulled it off, refusing to lose his rag with a man who kept banging on about how choosing an education for your child is a human right. No one would dispute that education is a human right but it’s the influences at play in that education that are the telling point.
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TAGGED: EDUCATION, REVIEWS, RICHARD DAWKINS, TV