School and Family: What Type of Educational Alliance is Possible in a Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Religious Context?

Abstract

The religious and cultural pluralism now offers new operational parameters for the teaching of religion in public schools. The debate is on and sees opposing positions, both in terms of doctrine both in terms of case law. In this contribution we will enter the heart of this debate with a key that does not want to find a definitive solution, but rather look for a method (a model) that can deal with the conflict that is the background to this debate. For this purpose it will use a rule of interpretation derived from the canon 796, which is the school-family relationship as a necessary instrument ‘to excolendam educationem’, to investigate in what way and how the relationship parent-teacher- child could be an exemplary resource for the current reflection on the teaching of religion in public schools. It will consist of the school-family relationship on the basis of three parameters (to know, to will and love) which will be associated with a biblical face. They will deepen, on the one hand, the conflict that these three parameters generate in their mutual interaction, and on the other their possible three model solutions.