My DD goes to a CofE school which is basically just an old village school but affiliated to the local church as a lot of schools like that are. Despite being non-religious, DH and I sent her there quite happily thinking there would be no problem with her learning religious stories as they tend to be fairly harmless and generally have good morals to them. In the same way that small children are told about Father Christmas, etc.
However, today on the way to school DD asked me about how the world was made. I began to explain to her about the Big Bang from my somewhat rusty memory of the subject. But DD got quite upset and annoyed at me, shouting "Why are you telling me things that aren't true?!" and insisting that God made the universe. She mentioned the Dinosaurs and I tried to bring up the theory of evolution but received a similar response. She then started to insist "I am God's helper" and told me to stop telling her things that aren't true. I tried to tell her that being God's helper was fine, and suggest that God could have started the Big Bang and the process of Evolution but she wasn't having any of it.
DD is in Year 1, so will be turning six soon, by the way.
So... while I knew that there would be some religious aspect to her education, AIBU to think that her school are not handling this very well if the result is a confused and upset child at the mere mention of the Big Bang and Evolution? Perhaps Year 1 is too young to begin to tackle complicated scientific subjects but the sense of certainty I got from DD that 'God made us' and 'God made the world' was something I found a bit worrying.
I was under the impression that the CofE was OK with the concepts of the Big Bang and Evolution in general so I can't see why that can't be part of any teaching they do about the origins of life and the universe (if that is what they're teaching - Yr 1, does seem a bit young for discussion about this topic).
DD was never christened, we have never attended any church, and on all the forms etc. when she started school I put that we were of 'no religion'. However, she has come home saying that she is a Christian and that they teacher has told them that they are all Christians...
I know I'll get replies saying that I shouldn't have sent her to a CofE school if I didn't want this, etc. but is that really what the CofE is? I'm pretty sure it isn't all about creationism and denial of evolution etc.
And is it fair to handle the teaching this way when the catchment is the whole village and there really is no other choice of school? If there were a Jewish family in the village and they put on the forms etc. when starting school that they were Jewish, would their child come home saying they had been told by the teacher that they were Christian?