Episode three: Morals Without Religion, the history of humanist education reforms | Unholy Histories podcast

Education has always been central to humanist thought, and the latest episode of Unholy Histories, the Humanist Heritage podcast from Humanists UK, traces that relationship from its Victorian roots to the present day. Hosts Andrew Copson and Madeleine Goodall are joined by Dr Lois Lee, Senior Lecturer in Secular Studies at the University of Kent, and Dr Susanna Wright, Associate Professor in the History of Education at Oxford Brookes.

The Moral Instruction League, founded in 1897, sought to introduce ethical education into state schools without a theological foundation – promoting critical thinking, empathy, and citizenship for all children regardless of their background. Wright, who has spent more than two decades researching this field, explains how the league drew on teachers, curriculum writers, and energetic organisers to make the case that morality need not rest on Christian belief. Among the figures discussed are Gustaf Spiller, the Hungarian émigré whose remarkable networks and organisational drive kept the movement moving, and Frederick James Gould, a teacher and writer who travelled the country demonstrating what secular moral education could look like in the classroom. Also discussed is Iona Balance, who served as secretary of both the Moral Instruction League and the Union of Ethical Societies – unusual as a woman taking a front-and-centre role in organisations that, despite all their talk of morality, were largely fronted by men.

There was a striking affinity between teachers and the humanist movement from the very beginning. A 1971 survey of British Humanist Association members found that the most common occupation among them was teaching – and the pattern held across Europe too, where secular leagues and ethical societies drew heavily from the profession. In France, the idea was made explicit: the schoolmaster was cast as the humanist antidote to the priest, there to feed the flame of reason in the child where the priest would snuff it out. The largest French member organisation of Humanists International today is still the national union of teachers.

Should humanist campaigners fly their flag openly, or is it more effective to embed their ideas in mainstream institutions and let them take root quietly? It is a question that haunted the Moral Instruction League, whose shifting name – Moral Education League by 1908, Civic and Moral Education League by 1914 – reflects decades of uncertainty about how to frame the project. The 1944 Education Act, which made religious instruction compulsory in every state school, felt like a decisive answer in the wrong direction. Yet humanists went on to shape citizenship education, relationships education, and RE itself through figures like Bernard Crick and James Hemming.

New audio episodes of Unholy Histories arrive every Wednesday, followed by video versions on the Humanists UK YouTube channel every Thursday.