Must faith be privatized? Taken at face value, this could seem a curious question, since no one is in a position to "sell off" any religion to private interests, in the way that, for example, British Rail was dismembered. Yet the question is an important one in a contemporary society, characterized as it is by a significant divergence of views about religion. In the face of a growing diversity of belief, and a recognition that religious freedom is one of the most precious and most basic rights, the temptation must be for a state to stand back from all religion, and to refuse to favour, or even to give any public recognition to, one religion in distinction from the rest. In a free society people should be able to meet together to pursue their interests, but it is no business of the state to give recognition, encouragement and endorsement to one group over another. In this article, the author talks about private faith and public education, contending that the impact that religious belief has had on the understanding of humans and their place in the world is so marked that no basic question about how children can be educated should be faced without allowing rational debate about religion and its influence. While a free society cannot, and should not, enforce any religious belief, the author advocates that it should not go to the other extreme, and pretend that religion is of no account from a public perspective.