to think worship has no place in a school?

[HollyMiamiFLA]

By all means - talk about what people of faith believe in, use examples from their books as moral examples, use example of people with no faith etc. Lots of good opportunities for "doing the moral thing" and talking about right and wrong.

But keep "collective worship" out of it. If a child wants to pray, they can do it at their own time.

Yes - people can opt out. Children can sit there and contemplate. But it's difficult to opt out. Surely opting in rather than assuming that children want to pray to a God they really do not understand is better.

But it's compulsory - and in theory, OFSTED will look to see if your school is doing this:

" All maintained schools in England must provide a daily act of collective worship. This must reflect the traditions of this country which are, in the main, broadly Christian.

Parents have the right to withdraw their child from the daily act of collective worship and sixth-formers can decide for themselves whether or not to attend, without giving a reason for doing so. Schools must comply with this wish and must ensure a duty of care for pupils who are withdrawn from collective worship."

(I seem to be on a bit of a vent at the moment [grin[)

winter - Because it is upsetting to a child to be taken out of assembly regularly while their friends stay there. So many parents who don't want their children taking part in collective Christian worship in schools, think it is overall less upsetting to their child if they don't remove them.

Doesn't make it right though.

Winterhat, the simple solution to the opt in/out then is to not have actual worship of a god in school time. Only educating about religion.

YADNBU.

Children of atheists are normally taught that there is no God. If they do not get a chance to experience worship for themselves what real choice do they have?

niminypiminy - what do you base that assumption on? Is it because you say later that you teach your children what you believe to be true because you feel you have a duty to and you therefore have assumed that atheists do the same? DH and I are both atheists and whilst we discussed our beliefs with our dc as they have been growing up we made it clear that they were our beliefs and that it was important for them to think about these issues and decide for themselves. We teach them tolerance and respect for other people's views (not saying that you don't btw but I think you seem to have the wrong idea about atheists).

Both DC have been taken to both catholic services by my family and methodist services by DH's family for the very reason of letting them see what other people do and believe and so that we weren't just paying lipservice to the idea that they as individuals should make their own informed choice on this.

I personally would be very happy for my (Christian) children to experience the worship of other faiths

Have you done anything to make sure they have the opportunity to do this?

I still think people who are atheists tell their children there is no God despite all the atheists saying they don't tell their children that? Riiiight.
IME atheists/agnostics (and vegetarians for that matter) tend to talk to their children about their personal beliefs and ecplain them and that other people believe/think toher things but you don't want to believe that (because your argument is based on untruth and fallacy).

I don;t teach my child much about what there isn't, what a negative view on view. I teach him what there is and what I believe much more life affirming in my very humble opinion.

I tell DS that I don't personally believe that there is a God but that many people do, that I believe in people and their power to do the right thing and make the right choices and that we can contribute to the world being a better place by doing our best not only for ourselves but also for our family and friends and for our community and the world community. I rarely mention god in fact (I don;t tell him that there are no unicorns or fairies or father chrsitmas either - though to be fair I do tell him very firmly that there are no ghosts or monsters but that's more to do with his nightmares). Contrary to popular belief, I have also taken DS to church services.

I also tell him that the majority of children believe what their parents believe until they are old enough to have experienced life a little more and to have thought through some pretty big questions for themselves. IN my experience that quite a bit more balanced and accepting that what many friends who are religious teach their children.

My understanding is that Buddhists (who are after all also atheist) teach what Buddha believed and he didn't believe that it was unnecessary to believe in god to achieve enlightenment. So I doubt they teach that there is no god either.

What school teach in "worship" rather than RE isn't in my experience any like as thoughtful as that and I'd really rather they didn't bother personally.

Beautifully put, kewcumber.