One of our oldest and poshest boys’
schools, Scotch College,
was founded by a Presbyterian pastor in 1851, and the Presbyterian Church
still maintains considerable control. It is now seeking to persuade a judge that only Christians should be appointed to the school
council.
Melbourne’s numerous private schools –
most with church affiliations - do good work. Such is their reputation for
excellence that they attract many students from abroad, especially from
Asia. My wife and I send our kids to state (government) schools, but we can
see that the private colleges provide a benchmark that raises the overall
quality of much teaching.
But how Christian are these Christian
schools? An article in the
Sunday Age attempted some answers:
Michael Balfe, a 42-year-old company
director, left Scotch in 1977. He said his personal experience was that the
college had "very little to do with religion and a lot to do with values".
"I would be hard-pressed to find somebody
who really put a lot of emphasis on religion at school," he says. "I'm
planning to send my child to Scotch and its Presbyterian-ness has nothing to
do with the decision and, if they start really emphasising the religious
side, it could affect my decision in a negative way."
An emphasis on values is to be applauded.
The article also quotes former pupils who point to an insistence on
consideration for others. Would that our state schools had similar
priorities.
Yet I cannot help but return to words I
wrote a few years
ago in my book Living Water to Light the Journey:
I cannot understand…why so many posh
private schools are associated with our Protestant churches. Why on earth do
these churches feel that it is their duty to operate schools in places like
Camberwell and Kew [suburbs of Melbourne], and in similar leafy suburbs in
other cities? I am still searching for that bit of the Bible where Jesus
instructs his followers to provide a superior education for the
eastern-suburbs elite while virtually ignoring the needs of underprivileged
kids from the western suburbs.
Perhaps there are good historical reasons
why the churches felt they should establish schools that allowed parents,
through a degree of self-sacrifice, to choose a Christian education for
their children. But today these schools have become out of the reach of
numerous families. And, to justify the high fees they charge, they must
provide a lot more than do the government schools. So the
Christian-education side is often downplayed in favour of technology labs,
music studios and whatever else is needed to attract enrolments.
The result is that, for me, these elite
private schools, associated in some way with many of our Protestant
denominations (the Catholic Church runs schools too, but they are aimed at
all Catholics, not an elite), symbolise the church’s continuing
accommodation with the establishment. I would suggest that if the church
were serious about its role it would sell all its highly valuable school
land, and use the money to provide superior educational facilities for the
underprivileged.
November 19th, 2002
Update
The Presbyterian Church lost the case,
on technical grounds.
December 18th, 2002
