There are four primary schools in my area, all close to our home – one which is actually within walking distance – and all of them have great reputations. But I won’t be sending my kids to any of them because each of them are Catholic-owned.
By now you have probably seen several petitions doing the rounds online, asking for religious discrimination to be removed from the enrollment process in Irish schools. There have also been further calls for the Catholic church to remove their hold from running the majority of schools in this country entirely.
After much debate in our own house on where to send the kids to school, Alan and I have decided that as non-practising Catholics, we will make the effort to drive the kids out of our way to the next town over and enroll them in an Educate Together.
Equality-based models of education such as Educate Together have grown in popularity immensely, with 20,000 students in Ireland currently attending an Educate Together school. The ethos is simple; they guarantee equal access to education for children “irrespective of their social, cultural or religious background”.
People have said to us, ‘it doesn’t matter if they aren’t christened, they can still get a place and just won’t make their communion’. And so what, I’m going to opt in to secluding my kids from the rest of the class while they prepare for and undertake this cermony that everyone makes a HUGE deal out of? I’m going to make my kids the odd boy-and-girl out? Why on earth would I do that?!
Other people have said, ‘Would you not just get them christened, get them into the school you want, let them make their communion and then let them make their own minds up when they’re older?!’
I DID consider that as an option for a time. Even though we had beautiful ‘Naming Ceremonies’ for both our kids which were full of family love, storytelling and wishing them health and happiness in the world; I considered christening them too, because every single school in our town is a Catholic-owned school and I felt like we didn’t have a choice.
So I was close to doing that, very close. And then something would come up in the news about a mother and baby home exposé, or I would hear another story about child abuse in the church, or a representative from the church would express their anti-gay views during the YES campaign, or then I’d remind myself that there are no female Catholic priests..
..and so for me, I just can’t. In all good conscience, I can’t christen my kids, or send them to a Catholic school. I can’t teach them that they should follow the guidelines as set out by the church, but that they don’t apply to our gay friends and families. I can’t teach my son that his little sister is deemed unworthy of it’s ‘stage’ just because she is female. I can’t teach my daughter that her body is anyone else’s business but her own.
I just can’t. I can’t be a hypocrite. I have to stand my ground for my children, and for the future of their own children. In my view, the church has no place in our children’s schools. They should be there to learn, to be educated, and not unwillingly signed up to a religion on account of their enrollment.
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