Monday 16 July 2018

Assimilated liberal Jews threaten the religious freedom of observant Jews



Liberal democracy is unnatural. It is a product of power and security, not innate human sociability. It is peculiar rather than universal, accidental rather than teleologically preordained. 


But power is a protean thing; it doesn’t just mean state power but any kind of hold over human beings. This highlights one of the paradoxes of liberalism: the ideology gains more power in terms of popular appeal at the expense of the states that make it possible. This is a good thing to the extent that liberal attitudes check abusive government. It’s a bad thing to the extent that liberal attitudes deprive states and populations alike of the wherewithal to combat external threats when they do arise. Pacifism, as a cousin or acute manifestation of liberalism, is a case in point. It’s one of the ideological luxuries made possible by security, but if adopted generally there would soon be no security left to leave it a choice for anyone but martyrs.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b9v6cw


Emily Buchanan:

There was a time when being Chief Inspector of Ofsted meant simply monitoring pupil welfare in schools and keeping a beady eye on academic standards, but as cultural and religious standards increase, the job is now much more challenging. Amanda Spielman became the Head of Ofsted 18 months ago and has found herself at the sharp end, often treading on religious sensitivities as she attempts to exert what she calls Muscular Liberalism in favour of so-called British values in the classroom. She gave a speech last week in which she talked of an expanding sense of religious and cultural entitlement by some faith groups.  I asked her what she meant by that.

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/amanda-spielmans-speech-at-the-ascl-annual-conference-2018

Amanda Spielman:

We're hearing from a number of directions that parent groups and community groups increasingly putting pressure on schools to make provision that is very specific to that group, so for example, community groups even that only reflect a small proportion of parents' groups in the school may feel that they have an absolute entitlement to a community language taught, we see more pressure for parents to be able to withdraw children from slices of the curriculum that haven't historically been talked about as being things from which children should be withdrawn as well as disagreements about school uniform policies.

Emily Buchanan:

So why do you think this is happening?

Amanda Spielman:

Well, we are in increasingly diverse world with greater divergence in parental expectation and desire and community affiliation, the job of being a head is harder and it's tougher for them to get all parents to get decisions that they have to take.

Emily Buchanan:

And I suppose with that comes perhaps a lack of confidence in what is meant by so-called British values. You've talked about the need for Muscular Liberalism to be confident of those values but perhaps heads are not so sure what they are?

Amanda Spielman:

Well, at one level I think it's clear, but how it's interpreted, I think it's a question of what is the point at which tolerance of other faiths and beliefs strays a little too far into allowing groups of people to wall themselves off into a bubble that nothing else can penetrate at which point the sense of a school as a cohesive community can start to break down.

Emily Buchanan:

Well, now you've clashed with a number of religious groups, haven't you, from the Muslim Council of Britain and the Christian Institute. They would argue that there's already too much interference by the government in education.

https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/ofsted-criticises-charedi-school-for-failing-to-teach-about-same-sex-orientation-1.60382

Rabbi Bassous calls all Jews with the flame of the Torah still burning in their hearts to take a stand against "fundamental British values" which have fallen dangerously below the minimum standards of the Noahide laws

Distinguishing authentic Orthodox Judaism from Reform Judaism is crucial to preserving the good of Jewish identity and keeping observant Jews safe

Amanda Spielman:

I don't think that's the case. I am talking about state education that is funded by the taxpayer and about a system that is designed to make a nation that works for all children. Schools have to make a balance that works for all children. Nobody should feel left out, nobody should feel not included. If anybody wants to make one identity that shuts out all identity - tribal identity if you like - then it creates problems for the people around them. So what we're trying to do is to make sure that we properly apply the framework of law and policy that we have to apply and that way we work helps heads balance out those competing interests, those competing cultural and religious preferences to make something that is fair and sensible for everybody.

Emily Buchanan:

Well, can we talk about hijabs in schools? In your speech last Monday, you spoke about aspects of a school's provision dictated by the preferences of a particular group whether that be uniform, curriculum or after school activiities, but why shouldn't parents whether they are religious or not be able to express a preference about what their child wears?

Amanda Spielman:

I start at the other end: we have for many years in this country had a default expectation that there is a school uniform that is something that is simple, age appropriate and that everybody wears so that nobody feels left out, nobody is marked off as different by reason of what they wear, and that's not something that is true in every country but that's something that we have. So if you unpick that then you get into a world where everbody wears what they want and you would probably have little girls wearing high heels, make up and jewellery  in classrooms - things that most people wouldn't be comforable seeing.

Emily Buchanan:

But that's not what people are talking about, is it? A lot of parents feel that what their child wears doesn't really affect their learning and they feel that if they're not allowed to wear the hijab that the government is somehow targetting Muslims in particular which of course alienates a group that you want to integrate.

Amanda Spielman:

And that's unfortunate because it's so clear that this is not a matter of religious requirement. It is very much a cultural preference. Remember, we are talking about very young children here, we're talking about children in the first half of primary school long before there is any age of religious expectation, so if you allow cultural preferences to determine what one group of children wear then effectively you have to apply that to all groups.

Emily Buchanan:

Would you prefer to have an approach more along the lines of what they have in France where religious face coverings are banned in public buildings including schools?

Amanda Spielman:

I think legislating is something that polarises and crystallises dissent. I think it's always much better to work to a degree of consensus and what we see is heads trying to exercise their responsibilities fairly and sensibly and that's what we at Ofsted are endeavouring to support.

Emily Buchanan:

Apart from clothing, what other aspects of the curriculum have you seen under threat from religious groups? I mean there's obviously evolution, but there are others that you have been concerned about ?

Amanda Spielman:

Yes, we've seen children being withdrawn from dance and music and drama. We've also seen in recent inspections things that are quite central to the national curriculum around areas of history, areas of science, thinks that most people would be quite surprised.

Emily Buchanan:

Do you think that inevitably, religous groups and religious preferences and even religious freedom has to be curtailed then?

Amanda Spielman:

I read and Adam Wagner piece in the Jewish Chronicle last week which I thought made a strong point that religious freedom isn't an absolute that trumps everything else. We exist in a framework of competing rights and perhaps what we need to discuss a bit more is very much the substance of my speech earlier this week is to recognise and acknowledge the place where different rights bump into each other and conflict and we would be better off having adult conversations about how those tensions ares best accommodated.

Ofsted's approach to Charedi schools has changed - for good reason Freedom of religion is not an absolute right, argues Adam Wagner

Emily Buchanan:

I suppose the other problem for you if you want to exert your muscular liberalism and give British values more clout is that these British values change all the time. I mean once upon a time Christian school teaching that marriage was between a man and a woman would have been fine but now that would be seen as against British values.

Amanda Spielman:

I think it's really important to stress tha ta vast majority of faith schools do a very good job. I'm talking about a very small subset of schools that struggle with this and I very much hope they can draw from the example of the other faith schools that do it so well, because there are so many that do.

Jewish school faces closure for refusing to teach its young girls transgender issues despite its religious ethos being praised four years ago
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/g00/news/article-4694610/School-faces-closure-refusing-transgender-issues.html
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