My 5 year old niece was told to go home and pray

[freyjasauntie]

I am really upset that my 5 year old niece was told by her school teacher to go home and pray at bedtime. Although she goes to a C of E school, this is due to logistics of living in the country, and the school are aware that she is being raised atheist, (she was enrolled as such) with a view to letting her decide her own path when she is ready to understand what that entails.

If a Muslim teacher had told her girls to go home and wear hijab, there would be uproar, but it seems to be accepted that schools can promote Christian ideology. I have no problems with my niece being taught about Jesus, about being kind to each other, about truth telling and other so called Christian Values (which can be found in almost any religion) but I strongly object to her being told to give up something for Lent (she had no idea why she should do so), and to pray at bedtime.

Religious Education should be EDUCATION, as a qualified RE teacher, I have always presented all world religious as equally valuable, but there is a real difference between education and what I believe is insidious indoctrination.

Lost Identity, athiesm isnt an unbranded form of religion

Getting my child to ask an 'external presence' for guidance, is a biggy if you are an athiest. As an athiest, why should I want to talk through my childs prayer, when we dont believe there is anything to pray to?

are you the OP? I was talking to the OP.

Why is it a 'biggie' if nothing is there?

Shouldnt matter one bit then in that case!

No, but I have contributed to the thread and your comment re prayer, is quite staggering considering the little girls family are clearly athiests

Its a point of principle about respecting others right to hold a particular belief, I would respect anyones right to worship, and I expect the same consideration for our choice not to

but it's not a question of your or my beliefs, is it? It's nothing to do with what the OP thinks, either.

I guess this is one of the problems with AIBU, really. We all have opinions, and to be honest, it's really down to teh people concerned - although in this case, as I've said (and I have gone back and read the other pages now, I think I should before shooting my mouth off ) I simply don't understand what the aunt has to do with it?

As to 'principle of respecting others' right to hold a particular belief'... I'm a Quaker. Trust me, it doesnt' get more liberal than that!! A point which was particularly sore with my old Baptist pastor, when I left that church to join the Quaking Brethren, shaking in their very boots.... LOL!

Where has OP gone, btw?

Okay I can understand why you might feel niggled or even irritated by this. I am myself atheist and hold strong views about religion and education, luckily I can send my DCs to non-religious school. But maybe your your niece's mum or you could explain to niece that maybe that's what some children do (pray), but not what we do. Maybe the person who suggested praying just didn't remember or know about niece's atheism.

I actually dont agree with deciding for the neice she is an athesit though.

She has a right to choose.

I'm sorry, I haven't read half of the posts on here (annoying I know) but if the family are raising their daughter as an atheist then she should not be going to a faith school. She is taking the place of a child whose parents genuinely want them to be taught religious beliefs.

My son goes to a C of E school and I never expected him to have learnt so much about religion BUT I am happy as we chose this school for him. They really push religion and rightly so as the name gives it away "Church of England school"

am inclined to agree that it should be the individuals choice. But lots of parents get their children christened, which is pretty much the same sort of thing

Pudding, pls read the thread, it is the only choice for many rural communities. Us rural folk dont have a list of non faith schools to choose from.

Its just part of tradition these days and a chance to celebrate baby.
Plently non-religious folk do it.

Good points WestYorkshire

If she is in a small village you could argue she is doing the community a favour by enrolling, as most are struggling to find enough kids to keep all the schools open

They are? Not around here- especially the Catholic schools which are amazing everyone wants a place; but not a chance!

coco, are you in a town or out in the countryside. Big difference IMO. Where we used to live in the SE quite a few parents used to 'get' religion about 2 yrs before their kids started school as they wanted to be able to choose the faith schools.

Out in rural Derbyshire there isnt much choice and secondary is either private or the one your village bus service goes to.

Before we moved we were London borders (very urban)

Now we are in a village but found the same both places.

No doubt many parents are faking there way into the schools but there is something about Catholic schools which get results, they seem to have magic!

But you do have more than one choice of school. It wasnt until we moved north I realised what a joke the concept of parental choice really was. There is choice if you can pay for it, but not if you cant

Hmm, not really. Well we would have one more choice If I didnt mind driving an hour everyday, but we love the local school (and were fortunate a place came up) and would do if it was faith or not. Im not bothered about faith as much as if the school brings out the best for dc and suits her etc

My kid are in a local christian school where they bump along quite happily. The teachers are kind enough to say that they contribute a lot by being happy to discuss and debate the existance of god

Thats lovely then!

I guess I havent come across these horrifically pushy burn-in-hell type schools either (even as some who worked in schools!) and all have been accepting no matter what.

A majority of religious schools you wouldn't notice that much of a difference really, just the odd thing here or there.

Why would they want to lease the building and land for a nominal rent? If they are not wanted they could sell it as prime building land.
I still dispute the fact she was 'ordered to pray', I think that it was a misunderstanding-entirely reasonable at 5yrs of age.

Maybe the person who suggested praying just didn't remember or know about niece's atheism.

I am surprised that at 5yrs of age the niece is either an atheist or a Christian-she must be very advanced to have weighed it all up and decided! I think that at 5yrs they parrot what the parent says.

.... I prefer Buddhism, personally....

Wow, thats a lot of posts!

Obv can't answer all of them, but basically we had a choice of 2 schools, both C of E and both share one head teacher due to v small sizes.

I think dd made her mind up when she was 3. One of our chickens died, dd asked what happened when you die. I told her that no-one knows for sure, but different people believe different things. Some people think we go to a place called heaven, some people think we are born again as an animal or another person, some people think you become part of the world and all the plants and animals. And dd said "Well, yes, or maybe we go in the ground and get eaten by worms".

Yes we do talk a lot outside school and try and present a balanced view of faith and society, but when a child is told by a teacher that something is fact, that child will find it hard to understand that a teacher can be wrong!