BHA provides evidence to APPG on contribution of RE to good community relations

reference: https://humanism.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/APPG-on-RE-inquiry-into-the-contribution-of-religious-education-to-good-community-relations-comments-from-British-Humanist-Association.pdf

Pavan Dhaliwal at BHA says:-

"Our main topic is the need to include non-religious beliefs in RE, and why it is harmful for RE and its contribution to cohesion for this to not occur."

Towards a theory of moral education: Michael Hand delivers the 2014 Blackham Lecture

March 12th, 2014

source: https://humanism.org.uk/2014/03/12/towards-moral-theory-education-michael-hand-delivers-2014-blackham-lecture/

It should be possible for schools to teach a form of moral education that imparts universally agreed and logical beliefs onto younger generations, and in fact, ‘all teachers are moral educators; all have a responsibility to respond to pupils when they raise moral issues.’ This was the central thesis of the 2014 Blackham Lecture given by Michael Hand, Professor of Philosophy of Education and Director of Postgraduate Research in the School of Education at the University of Birmingham. 

The Blackham Lecture, organised by Birmingham Humanists with support of the British Humanist Association, is named in honour of Harold Blackham, philosopher, educator and founder of the BHA. Blackham also chaired the Social Morality Council, advocating a sort of moral education similar to that which Hand proposed in his lecture.

Hand started the lecture by pointing to the contradiction between the essentialness of moral beliefs (implying they should be imparted by schools) and their usually controversial nature (implying they should be avoided and left to parents). Blackham himself advocated teaching about different religions or beliefs but also inculcating social moral values that are universal.

Hand defined ‘moral standards’ as those that individuals not only hold as standards but also that we would wish everyone to hold to, and would wish to penalise those who do not do so. Some moral standards are plainly controversial, for example those related to theology, and therefore moral educators in schools should not endorse them due to this contentious nature. However, a subset of moral standards is universal in society and justifiable, and therefore should be taught as such – for example, cooperation-sustaining and conflict-averting standards of conduct.

Equally, teachers should object to unjustifiable moral standards such as homophobia. But they should leave open to exploration rationally disputed ideas; that is to say, not seek to inculcate those ideas but simply to educate pupils about them. In practice this reflects what high quality Religious Education looks like today.

Notes

• For further comment or information contact Sara Passmore, Head of Education, by email atsara@humanism.org.uk or by telephone on 07795412765.
• Read a conference paper by Hand on the same subject: http://www.jubileecentre.ac.uk/userfiles/jubileecentre/pdf/conference-papers/HandM-TheCognitiveAspectofMoralEducation.pdf
• Read a Storify of the event: http://storify.com/BHAhumanists/blackham-lecture-2014-towards-a-theory-of-moral-ed 
• Read more about Harold Blackham: https://humanism.org.uk/2009/01/27/news-209/
• Get ideas for including Humanism in lessons in schools at our www.HumanismforSchools.org.uk website.
• The Blackham Lecture sits alongside the BHA’s annual lecture programme, which also includes the Darwin Day, Voltaire, Holyoake, Shelley and Bentham lectures.
• The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf of non-religious people who seek to live ethical and fulfilling lives on the basis of reason and humanity. It promotes a secular state and equal treatment in law and policy of everyone, regardless of religion or belief.