Does anyone on here believe in The 10 Commandments being displayed in classrooms?

[CurlewKate]

And if so, why? And if so, why The 10 Commandments, not The Beatitudes?

The Ten Commandments don't say to chill on Sunday. It says to rest on the Sabbath, which is Saturday.

Yep, but the Romans moved it to Sunday when they were trying to adapt pagan practices to the new Christian religion.
A day of rest is a good idea!

Those people just regurgitate nonsense from the USA that they think sounds good.

Any church goer in the UK can see absolutely no rise in Christian nationalism. Churches in the UK are growing due to Africans, Indians etc. not white or even black UK born people.

Christianity just isn’t a big thing in the UK. I can’t see how Tommy Robison et al could possibly turn that around.

Yes, our local RC Church has a bigger congregation now because of Africans and Indians, plus some Eastern Europeans. It's very different now.

Oh yes they have no idea what they are talking about...

But even if it is completely divorced from any actual religious practice - it can be used as a symbolic reinforcement of identity.

I was always taught that the Ten Commandments were literally God's word passed down via Moses. If you believe in the Bible it seems somewhat disrespectful to ignore the literal word of God in favour of what some random Romans made up for political reasons hundreds of years later.

Absolutely not.
I had zero choice about that utter nonsense rammed down my throat as a kid, I do not want it forced on my kids.

I would have no problem with them on the classroom display.

Can you explain why?

Yeah, but that's what happened. Same with Christmas (Saturnalia) and Easter (Spring festival). All co-opted, not in the Bible.
That's why the rule of Oliver Cromwell got rid of such practices!

I think having ‘thou shalt not kill’ as a reminder would be good, especially in history class. Or maybe for the army cadets.

Teaching children 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' seems to be a fairly good idea.

People do some amazing cherry picking with the 10 Commandments! They always seem to skip the first 4. And I’m not sure Thou shalt not kill and Thou shalt not commit adultery should be part of the primary curriculum either!

I don't believe any religious rules should be on display in classrooms. Children should learn that religion exists but certainly not be forced to follow it.

I'd never advocate for a display, but the Ten Commandments are taught in primary RE even in secular schools.

Actually I’ve thought about it and I am Team Beatitudes.

Could you explain why you would have a problem with it?

I am assuming your objection is that you feel children would be somehow brainwashed with them, but surely children are part of a wider society and they would be put in context i.e. “this is what some people believe”

So that we don’t cherry pick, here they are:

1. I am the Lord thy God. Thou shall not have strange gods before Me.
2. Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the Lord's day.
4. Honor thy father and mother.
5. Thou shall not kill.
6. Thou shall not commit adultery.
7. Thou shall not steal.
8. Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
9. Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife.
10. Thou shall not covet thy neighbor's goods.

It It’s a Christian faith school, then perhaps if they are written in a child friendly way, so as to be understandable and relatable to the age of the children.

In a general state funded school, then perhaps in the RE room, but would need to have the rules for living from the other main religions as a comparator, and I’m thinking secondary age.

Age appropriate version in a Christian setting fine.

Absolutely this!

No definitely not, and state religious schools should be abolished.

DS went to a Christian faith school because it was the village school, it was that or have to pay £10 a day in bus fare for me and him to get back and forth from the nearest non religious school. I hate that there are religious state schools, there's plenty of time outside of school for parents to ram their religion down their kids throats if they must.

A general overview of religions for tolerance is fine of course.

Ooh I think I scored 10 out 10 today! (Sorry spider but you broke our agreement about you staying in one corner)

Thank you for sharing the 10 Commandments with us- I king of assumed that anyone joining this discussion would already know them, but hey…
My problem is nothing to do with brainwashing. My problem is that many of them are nothing to do with general morality- they are to do with the observance of Christianity. They aren’t “rules to live by” for children- killing and adultery don’t feature much in most children’s lives. Not lying, stealing or being jealous maybe. And automatically honouring your parents is not necessarily a good thing! So that’s 3 out of 10….

1. no - either teach all religions or no religions
2. no - I'd rather have the periodic table, times tables, list of capital cities, flag of the world
3. no - knowing children, they'll likely see that anything outside of those 10 things is permissible
4. no - given the moral code of some of my teacher-friends, I'll instill morals and values in my children thankyouverymuch, not school
5. no - I would tell any local authority to get their religion out of my child's face. The US right wing is all about small government, and yet they want to shove these values right into my child's life every school day. Putting the 10 Commandments on classroom walls has fuck all to do with morality and everything to do with entrenching the power of the conservative right
6. in case it needs repeating: NO.

Having said all that, I think it's absolutely crucial for all children to be taught RE (as we used to call it). It's almost impossible for young people to understand current affairs without a solid grasp of all the abrahamic faiths, and I suspect in the course of their lifetimes, far eastern faiths too. They also need to be aware, if they're not already from their home lives, that religion and faith is extremely (life-changingly) important to billions of people around the world.

It's impossible to understand politics, philosophy, economics, religion, English literature or the law without a solid understanding of each of these things.

That’s the second time I’ve seen the Beatitude question be asked in the last couple of days.