You may or may not have known that I was a school governor; in a sense it doesn’t matter since that is no longer the case: I have resigned.
I was what’s called a Community Governor, which is someone from the local area with no particular other tie to the school (not a staff member, not a parent, not affiliated with the LEA) who is co-opted to serve on the governing body of the school. You may be wondering why I resigned; if you aren’t I would stop reading now because that’s the subject of the rest of this post.
There are two things you need to understand to understand my decision. One is the nature of responsibility and decision-making in a school governing body: decisions are made democratically and the entire body is responsible for them once made. This is a fairly common set-up used by almost all collective decision-making systems.
If you are a member of one of these decision-making bodies you are responsible for the decisions which get made. This gives you a potential problem when you are on the losing side of a vote, because you are then responsible for a decision you disagreed with. When this happens, you can either remain a part of the body and take that responsibility or you can leave. Which you choose depends on how strongly you feel that the decision is one with which you don’t want to be associated. In this case, obviously, I decided that I was not happy to be anywhere near a decision the GB reached.
That decision was to approve the school joining the Church of England affiliated schools scheme. I wouldn’t send my children to a church-affiliated school, and I will not take responsibility for creating one. My problem with church-affiliation is not specific to the Church of England or indeed to Christianity; I have a problem with any organisation which teaches that following the instructions in a book is both necessary and sufficient to be a moral and fulfilled human. I was taught that as a child and found it to be a hindrance-to rather than a prerequisite-for leading a fulfilling life. I think I am morally stronger without it as well: anything you work out for yourself is always more firmly embedded in your thinking than something dictated to you.
Well done Phil. The school will no doubt be worse off without you but this is an important issue for civilisation and I’m sure you’re on the correct side of the debate.
Well done firstly on becoming a school governor and then for standing up for whats right.
I agree with both your decision and your reasoning.
Religious affiliation of schools is not part of a civilised society. I think I would have made the same stand against such an utterly immoral decision.