The curious paradox of why parents resist the idea of schools being divested
“The upcoming survey of parents by the Department of Education will likely reveal a lot of demand for divestment in theory, but in practice, at local level, for now at any rate, parents will still usually opt to keep the school they’re familiar with Catholic, despite the truly horrendous nature of the scandals.”
This is from David Quinn writing in the Irish Independent on the 15th September 2024. I think he is correct here but not because the parents particularly care that the school has a Catholic ethos. Catholic schools, at local level, do their best to accommodate all the children that go to them, but it isn’t without difficulty.
Schools are left trying to please two opposing masters — their management, who expect them to uphold a Catholic ethos; and parents, who, in the main, expect a more cultural experience — Catholic-light, as it were.
This may serve the needs of the majority of people. The management can turn a blind eye because what schools do is “Catholic enough” and most parents are happy because they aren’t “too Catholic” for them. The trouble is the growing number of teachers and families in schools caught in the middle of this unsaid arrangement.
A teacher must pretend to be a committed Catholic to get a job then once in the door, they can become Catholic enough. Families that aren’t Catholic are told they are included but their children must sit at the backs of classrooms for 30 minutes per day, and if they complain, they are reminded of the ethos of the schools.
Teachers cannot speak out and many, through a veil of anonymity, will claim that in reality very little religion is done in schools. They say it anonymously because they know if their management heard them say this, they would be undermining their contract.
Quinn is correct that there is a massive paradox, but that paradox is as a result of a don’t-ask-don’t-tell, covert system. It’s a system that works for most people that are prepared to turn a blind eye. They seem to want Catholic schools that don’t practice Catholicism. As some say: Catholic with a small C. If it didn’t affect anyone, it wouldn’t matter, but for the children at the back of classrooms, for the teachers that can’t access the system, even with the smallest of Cs, it does.
