Scott BresslerWashington University Assistant Professor of Political Science Ian MacMullen’s new book, “Faith in Schools? Autonomy, Citizenship, and Religious Education in the Liberal State” argues that faith and schools should not be quite as separate as Americans tend to think.
According to MacMullen, his book will “[p]lease no one fully.”
“The bottom line is that democracies cannot have it both ways. If faith-based schools meet reasonable public requirements for the education of children, then governments should be willing to support them with tax dollars. If they don’t, they shouldn’t be allowed to operate on anyone’s dime,” writes MacMullen in the book.
Since crossing the Atlantic Ocean, MacMullen, originally from the United Kingdom, said he found that England’s policy on funding religious schools and the United States’ policies had “intriguing differences.”
After a four-year process that started with his doctoral dissertation, the assistant professor recently published his book, which, according to him, is intended to outline what he thinks is the best educational policy. He also said the book is one prescription for the American education system.
This prescriptive answer to faith in schools includes the idea that the government should fund religious schools and have a role in how they are run. Anyone who is interested in attending a religious school should be allowed, instead of leaving the option only for the wealthy who can afford it, writes MacMullen.
Furthermore, Professor MacMullen claims that religion should be handled differently in primary and secondary schools and the governments of democracies are responsible for students in secondary school learning multiple approaches to ethics, including those from multiple religions, atheism and non-religious ethics.
Otherwise, MacMullen claims religious schools could be “a threat both to the civic health of the state and to the embryonic autonomy of children.”
MacMullen’s book, based on political theory, developmental psychology and educational ideas, lays out a detailed plan void of emotion, a plan that students find to be a very emotional issue.
Natacha Lam, a sophomore who went to a private non-religious elementary and high school, said she thinks that faith-based schools and public schools should remain separate.
“Schools shouldn’t dictate public morality,” said Lam.
Will Osberghaus, a sophomore who attended faith-based schools through high school, said he also believes that government funding should be kept separate from religious schools.
“I would hate the government to fund my school because it would interfere with what we were taught,” said Osberghaus.
While Osberghaus thinks there should be Christian education in school, he said the government saying what doctrine the school can teach would lead to an entanglement of religion and government.
Professor MacMullen’s book is available from Princeton University Press. He also teaches a class called the “Political Theory of Education” in the Department of Political Science.