How to Unlock the Prison #2

At the start of a new academic year, Richard Coton, CVE Scotland Trustee and former headteacher, writes in a series of four blogs on the way in which CVE Scotland is helping schools and churches in Scotland work together:-

It’s not inevitable that children and young people must be imprisoned by stereotypes like “Science has disproved religion”, “Only old people now believe in God” or “Christians are all bigots”. Believe it or not, there are several thousand Christian teachers spread across Scottish schools, each one of whom can help their pupils make real choices about whom to believe and what to value.

But too often those teachers also feel they’re in prison. So, unlocking that prison is our second key, and in CVE Scotland we are committed to setting them free!

Key #2: Christian teachers need to feel they’re not imprisoned, muzzled and endangered. When we first get them together, we frequently find them isolated, unsure if they can even talk about their faith in schools, and worried about attack from militant secularists.

When surveying Christian teachers about their concerns, typical responses include:

• “Afraid to talk about our faith at workplace”
• “Legal direction – uncertainty about what can be taught (about Christianity) and how”
• “Hostility towards Christianity from parents”
• “Our faith is against political correctness”
• “Reassurance that I can live my Christian faith in my workplace”
• “Clarity in what and how to teach (about Christianity) in a primary school”
• “How and what Christian values can be introduced in educational settings”
• “How to be salt in an “anything goes” environment”
• “Advice re answering questions on controversial issues”
• “Need not to feel alone”
• “How to teach RME as a (Christian primary school) teacher”
• “Gender issues”
• “The way sex and relationships are being taught”
• “Starting up an SU or similar group in school”

Successful training and prayer events for teachers (& sometimes also parents) have been held in Glasgow, Edinburgh, West Lothian, Aberdeen, Stornoway, Dundee and Inverness. The CVE Scotland website www.cve-scotland.org.uk has solid practical advice about how you can share your faith, where the boundaries are in the classroom, how to respond to current “hot” topics….. And there are lots of ideas too to help you take the initiative.

Impact: Well over 200 teachers have attended CVES events in the last 12 months. Responses (via evaluation forms) indicate that our events are addressing these needs, though we are in no doubt about the size of the challenge (both the extent of the pressure and the number of teachers we need to reach – 4000+ committed Christian teachers in Scotland):

Legal position: “Encouragement that the law gives Christians the right to be open about opinions/beliefs”; “Insight into legal rights surrounding us as Christian teachers/fellowship/scope of Christians on school PTA”; “It was lovely to be reminded of essential fundamentals. We focus on children’s rights as a Rights Respecting School & good to remember we too have a right to express out opinions”

Vision and encouragement: “Inspiration and encouragement on being a Christian in the workplace”; “Reminder of the importance of seeing classroom as belonging to Christ”; “Reminder of God’s perspective of our children, schools and place of work”; “Renewed perspective on my role as a teacher”; “Encouragement to speak up a bit more”; “A reminder that God is with me in school”; “The importance of being salt and light”.

Networking: “Good to be with local colleagues and feeling supported together”; “Encouraging each other in our faith and in (our work in) school”

Impact: Our Facebook and Twitter pages (on which we post daily) now have 500+ followers between them, with posts reach on occasion at 2000+. There is still much to be done to raise awareness of all the services we offer to Christians in schools, however, and our major website refresh (currently being worked on with our web developers) should help further.