What does inclusion really mean in a Catholic school?
One of my biggest bug bears is when a primary school calls itself inclusive. For one, in Ireland, it is impossible to be fully inclusive because schools are completely reliant on government funding and the allocation of resources. For example over 90% of schools in a self-assessed survey revealed that they didn’t have enough resources to support children with additional needs. Hardly inclusive but hardly their fault.
However, it doesn’t stop most primary schools from calling themselves inclusive. Sometimes it is funny. Ireland has the highest rate of single sex primary schools in the western world at around 16%. You won’t believe how many of them claim to be inclusive despite excluding half the population.
Most often, it isn’t funny. It isn’t funny that children with additional needs have to essentially compete to be supported. After all the National Council for Special Education tells schools that they must prioritise their allocations so that “the highest level of need have access to the greatest level of support.”
Another area where most schools simply can’t be inclusive is down to their religious ethos. Similarly to the above, this is particularly a school’s fault. If their patron body promotes a particular faith, the law allows for that faith to “permeate throughout the school day” and it also allows the Board to protect its ethos to the point of being allowed to refuse an enrollment if it is perceived the child may undermine that ethos; and it also allows for a staff member to be disciplined or removed from their position if they undermine the ethos. Simply not being the right religion can be reason enough, creating a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” system similar to how the US army once worked when it came to its LGBT+ officers.
I often raise this point and I’ve become accustomed to being challenged on it by colleagues. They will generally explain that I am being unfair and that they welcome all children from all backgrounds into their schools. They might even say they make sure to celebrate Eid and the Chinese New Year. It’s always Eid and the Chinese New Year. They will then explain that they involve them in all aspects of the school and often give examples of giving them a job at the Communion or allowing them to sing in the church choir… if they choose to do so. It reminds me of the famous Groucho Marx quote:
In some respects I can understand why they don’t see a problem with this. In a recent study less than 25% of Irish principals claimed to have a strong Catholic faith. More anecdotally, in my experience, most principals don’t see the Communion or the church choir as a religious event. In fairness, most of Irish society doesn’t see them as religious events. Hell — even the courts sometimes see these things as religious events:
However, think about it. Let’s change the script very slightly and set ourselves in a school full of white kids and there is one or two children of colour in a class. The school may claim that they are inclusive because they have welcomed these children into the school. Let’s take a closer look though.
The child has to sit at the back of the classroom while the white children learn about how great it is to be white and sing songs about being white. Often they attend a white pride service and while that’s happening, the other children are welcome to sit at the back of the service or they can sing white pride songs in the choir or they can even have a job where they can help the white children celebrate their special day. The child should also be thankful because one day they teach about Rosa Parks and re-enact the scene where she wouldn’t leave her seat on the bus.
You get the picture.
The reality is that when a Catholic school says they are inclusive to minority faiths and none, they really mean that they are inclusive as long as you agree to accept that Catholicism is the norm. In fact, that’s exactly what they say:
The above tweets are not criticisms of the authors. In fact, I was delighted to see the honesty. The second in particular led to a really interesting conversation with @aidenlonergan6 on Twitter.
Another excellent source of honesty was in a really interesting podcast called Conversations from the Classroom where Dr. David Kennedy talks about Catholic education in primary schools. The first episode was all about inclusivity and it is one of the most fascinating insights I’ve ever had into how confused teachers are in relation to inclusion. Have a listen:
When it comes down to it, the word “inclusive” when it comes to Irish primary education has literally become utterly meaningless. (Yes, as meaningless as the words literally and utterly in the previous sentence!) When an all-boys’ school claims to be inclusive despite having no girls; when a Catholic school claims to be inclusive despite having a line in their enrollment policy warning people that undermining their ethos could jeopardise their place in the school; when any school claims to be inclusive yet can’t accommodate all of the needs of all of the children — the word loses any sort of meaning.
The first step to solving this is to stop saying schools are inclusive. The second step is simple — to do something about the things that aren’t inclusive. It’s literally, utterly, that simple.
