Religion in schools?

sueeve

For church schoolsAided or controlled, the law is different. I can answer specific questions, but enough is enough on my last post

grey_lady

I think religion should be kept out of state schools as much as possible. There are so many different religions in the UK as well as agnostics / atheists it just seems strange that state schools have to practise a predominately Christian nature act of worship on a daily basis and it sounds quite old fashioned.

I dont disagree with teaching relgious studies in a classroom if it teaches about many different religions but saying that a young muslim or hindu or child of athiests will be singled out as 'excluded' and will feel isolated if he/she doesnt take part in a daily Christian act of worship?

That's kinda emotionally blackmailing parents into allowing their children to take part in an act of worship which isnt relevant to them or more than 40% of the people in this country at the last census count.

Maybe the policy needs updating.

mumps

My children did not go to denominational schools and I never found assemblies to be very religious affairs. My family is very multi cultural/faith/colour, in fact most of the multis you can think of. I suppose we can all find things that offend us, personally I disagree with abortion and have always found it difficult that in school it seems to be taught as a positive thing, my DS actually came home at about 14 and told me that "It didn't matter if he got a girl pregnant as Sir said she could just have an abortion." I have talked to Deputy Head about a more balanced view. I also think it is hilarious that the school won't give kids a paracetamol, even with parents permission, but will happily take them to get the morning after pill without even informing the parents. I suggested to the school that it would be more useful to hand out condoms every Friday but they felt that wasn't appropriate.

3onitsway

onlyroz wrote: »

Yes, I remember having to do that at primary school. I don't think it's the case any more though - at least my boy has never suggested to me that we should "say grace" before dinner...

They still do in my DD's non-church school!

Years ago I was moaning about the £10 school dinner money one morning when she told me I didn't have to pay, god pays for it. She knows because they have to thank him for it before dinner every day. :rotfl:


I was brought up a catholic and went to a catholic school that had, not long before I went, been a convent school so a lot of the nuns were still about. :eek:

When I had my own children I was determined they wouldn't be baptised/christened, and wouldn't go to a religious school. I was really suprised about the amount of 'god' that still goes on in the non-church school, although they do also learn about other religions too.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

There is no place for religious practices in school. Education about beliefs, OK, we might as well learn why people want to kill each other in various degrees of unpleasantness, but no collective worship.

I can still remember the fury and mocking rained down upon my head when, age 7, I stuck my hand up in assembly and in answer to 'Who can tell me where the stars come from?', I launched into a description of nebulae and how superheated gases condense over periods of millions and millions of years, a bit like a big factory (I was 7 ) as I was so excited by the chance to explain the stuff I had been reading in 'proper grown up books' in words that would make sense to everyone else.

Apparently, I was wrong, everyone knew that God made the stars and he put them in the sky one by one (I have a mental image of someone bunging them up like Christmas tree decorations). Moreover, as I was deliberately saying stupid things, I would lose my playtimes all week.

At Easter, it was made clear that the Jews (as a race, not as a belief system) were the bad guys and not a mention was made of Passover.

Had it been a Christian or Catholic school, any of this would have been understandable. But it wasn't.

The only thing it taught me was the importance of working out exactly what someone wanted to hear before answering the question the way they wanted you to.



DD1's senior school acquired a deeply religious and incompetent head. Once she started trying to get the school singing and clapping their hands for Jesus, she lost any last traces of respect, mainly because she was offending all but about 5% of the school population. She left the following summer.

DD2's main brushes with the Christians came at an early age, where she was told she had to pray, kids were telling her she was going to burn, teachers telling her that Jesus was son of God as a fact not an opinion. She never had any problem with going to mosques or a buddhist temple or a church for education, but the apparent Christian obligation to force it upon all and sundry was enough to make her decided that she wasn't 'having anything to do with the religion stuff'.

itsallinthemind

3onitsway wrote: »

They still do in my DD's non-church school!

Years ago I was moaning about the £10 school dinner money one morning when she told me I didn't have to pay, god pays for it. She knows because they have to thank him for it before dinner every day. :rotfl:

Golly, I'd have troubles keeping my opinion to myself!
Although currently mine would need to thank the tax payers as I am a carer-possibly even more confusing!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Had it been a Christian or Catholic school, any of this would have been understandable. But it wasn't.

Exactally. I must say I am very happy that the school my first goes to has almost a 'ban' on religion. My seconds school will be different, I honestly can not see myself tolerating that. Maybe I'll just have to rise above it!

onlyroz

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

I was so excited by the chance to explain the stuff I had been reading in 'proper grown up books' in words that would make sense to everyone else.

Apparently, I was wrong, everyone knew that God made the stars and he put them in the sky one by one (I have a mental image of someone bunging them up like Christmas tree decorations). Moreover, as I was deliberately saying stupid things, I would lose my playtimes all week.

:eek: I'm appalled. How long ago was this? And what sort of school? :eek:

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Bog standard English Primary in the 1980s. (London to be precise)

That convinced me there and then that the God stuff was BS (although not in those words at the time). It made the Tuesday morning hymn practice interesting. My voice was fairly low (in tune though, just a full octave difference) and carried a fair distance compared to the other girls. And completely disbelieving of the stuff I had to sing. I got transferred to the orchestra pretty sharpish

moromir

Person_one wrote: »

Well not really. I'm fairly sure children aren't born religious. People only learn to follow a religion by being taught to/informed about it. Atheism/agnosticism requires no input, you can't 'impose' it, its the default.

I can think of more than one major world religion that believes you ARE born of a certain religion!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

The Judaism debate is where the lines are blurred because it can be seen as an ethnicity as well as a belief system. And is how people, observant or not, ended up being slaughtered due to their grandmother's people. But, it can be possible for a Jewish person to have Christian beliefs or no beliefs for this reason too.