Religion and Children's TV?

[Insanityismymiddlename]

Just watching Mr Blooms nursery and the episode is about the harvest festival, children are singing "all things bright and beautiful" and thanking god for the harvest.

Surely if we aren't allowed to have religion in non dominational(sp?) Schools then it shouldn't be on a children's TV show.

I mean we aren't allowed to celebrate Christmas now a days its "happy holidays" so not to offend other cultures so why is this any different.

Not actually bothered myself we aren't a christian household and have our own religions but just live and let live, I just think its a weird contradiction, AIBU?

[SoftSheen]

YABU. Completely harmless. Harvest festivals and the hymns that go with them are part of our culture, whether or not we are Christian, of another religion, or atheist.

[StitchingMoss]

Sorry CSI !

[StitchingMoss]

Insanity, the assembly will include prayers to god - it's separate from RE lessons.

[meditrina]

If you don't want "religion" in schools, then if you are in UK you will need to go to a private school or HE.

[HorryIsUpduffed]

I knew this would be about Mr Bloom.

What I found about it wasn't the fact of talking about Harvest Festival, but the way it was presented as "what we do" rather than "some Christians give thanks for the harvest by..."

Let's Celebrate, on the other hand, only crops up on festival days and very explicitly talks about how a particular group celebrates the date. That's much closer to the accepted "teach about" method preferred (mandated?) in most educational circles nowadays.

[StitchingMoss]

Meditrina, true but utterly disgraceful that that is the case.

[BaronessBomburst]

I just switched it off. Personally I'd rather it wasn't there, along with the hysterical and prolonged build up to Christmas which will probably be starting any day soon.

[ShakeAndVac]

I think its great the way that they cover events from a lot of different religions and cultures. Even if children are being raised in that religion then knowing about other peoples beliefs is a good thing.


^^This.

[thegreylady]

Most religions celebrate and are thankful for the harvest and the bounties of nature, it goes way back before Christianity. God does not refer only to Christianity. All religions have one or more 'God' figures and the hymn you mention makes no specific reference to Jesus or Christ but just to a Creator. Let children grow and learn and look and be thankful. There are worse things they could be doing.

[Insanityismymiddlename]

Horry that was my point but badly presented obviously.

I'm not against teaching religion, I just thought this particular programme was odd.

learnt something about the daily act of worship though as I didn't think my school did it as my DCs have never once mentioned assemblys.

[Catsize]

Oh dear. Have we really come to this?
Burn the churches, lest our children should see one and ask why it is there.
Like it or not, the Church of England is part of our legal system. Try disestablishing it before attacking Mr Bloom and his veggies.
I hear the village church bells as I type this, and thank God for that.

[meditrina]

That's been the position since the founding of state education in the early twentieth century. Before that, the major provider of education was the Church and e change represented a significant removal of church influence from schooling.

But it's a side issue to the main point of OP, which is about what is on children's TV. Now I can remember seeing a piece about Diwali on a chikdren's show. And know that programmes such as Blue Peter cover lots of festivals of many creeds and nationalities.

We're ere any particular religions you thout were not getting fair coverage?

(And the 'not allowed to celebrate Christmas' stuff is total urban myth, though one that has proved amazingly enduring).

[KatyPutTheCuttleOn]

YABU. The TV has an off button.

[Insanityismymiddlename]

Where in the thread does it state we shouldn't have churches or religion?

Like previously stated (several times) Its not religious teaching thats a problem as long as its not just one religion being taught.

[StitchingMoss]

Yes catsize, that's we were all suggesting .

Slightly hysterical post no?

[StitchingMoss]

And that NO religion is also an option which IME experience of RE it rarely is.

[EduCated]

Hmm, doesn't sound great if it wasn't presented in a 'some people' kind of a way.

[HorryIsUpduffed]

It really didn't feel inclusive. One minute Mr Bloom was explaining how farmers plough/sow/harvest to make enough food for us all to eat, the next we were going into a country church to sing All Things Bright and Beautiful and having actual prayers ... then a weird garden party with Most Beautiful Vegetable competition and WI-style cake competition. Representative of only a tiny proportion of UK children and never explained.

The programme could have had an infant school singing Cauliflowers Fluffy and collecting for a food bank.

[Insanityismymiddlename]

So glad someone else watched it so can see what I mean.

[fancyanother]

I agree with stitching. What is really not allowed to be discussed it seems without the press treating people as dangerous degenerate s is that a lot of people don't have a religion and don't believe in a deity. Mr Blooms nursery for example would have been better off just celebrating the harvest in a non religious way. You don't need to talk about any religion at all to say that this is the time we have an abundance of fruit or whatever

[StitchingMoss]

My DS1 does an amazing version of cauliflowers fluffy !

Yes, being an atheist is not mentioned in the RE syllabus but being brought up in a non religious is a reality for millions of British children experience.

[StitchingMoss]

Household

[StitchingMoss]

Excuse typos!

[Sparklymommy]

Does anyone remember the school hymn that had the chorus:

and the creed and the colour and the name won't matter

This thread reminded me of singing that in assembly at school and loving the message it sent across.

[Sparklymommy]

Sorry, missed out the last line: should read:

and the creed and the colour and the name won't matter,
I'll be there