To be sick of people slating Faith schools

[Jenga123]

Don't get me wrong I understand why some people may be against them but the negativity I've come across recently is, quite frankly ridiculous. I've been told by friends of friends, family etc that they pay for my dd's to attend their catholic primary and secondary schools and that tax payers that are paying towards these schools should not have to do so if their children can't attend these schools. Well let me just say the average amount of income tax each individual pays, that actually goes towards the upkeep of schools is minuscule, so they aren't in fact paying for them. Myself and the other parents of my dd's schools pay a considerable sum each year to the upkeep of the school and the school contributes 10% towards the costs of running their school and repairs etc.

I also come across animosity at the fact my children are getting a good education and people putting that down to them simply being baptised. But my point is if they feel that their own children are missing out by going to a less desirable school then I'm sure they could have them baptised therefor giving them a higher chance of securing a place at a faith school, and whilst I'm not advocating people pretending to be of the faith, I'm simply saying there are options.

As for my dd's schools like I said they are Catholic and are obviously places were parents of the same faith opt to send their children as they want them to be educated within that faith, and I can't see any problem with this to be honest so why am I hearing nothing but negativity from people?

Look at the end of the day the system is the system and I very much doubt it's about to change anytime soon

Not if people don't campaign against it, no.

Unjust systems have a habit of changing, but generally only because ordinary people stood up to them.

God gave us free will

But there's loads of examples in the bible of God overriding people's free will? What about that couple in Acts he struck dead because they lied about how much money they had. So he gets more upset about adults not giving him money than he does kids getting raped?

I'd just like my DC to go to the local school and he not ridiculed and bullied due to his beliefs. There are no options round here, you have to go to the local school due to distance and most of those are faith schools. So he goes to the C of E school. Sadly his class teacher can't understand that not everybody is a xtain so despite our legal request to remove him from worship she's been sending him anyway and making constant comments about him not believing, so bad that other parents have been concerned and telling me. I've had to make a formal complaint against the xtain teacher for breaking her own schools equality policies, but xtains exclude themselves from our counties equality laws and are allowed to, so she probably thinks she's justified to bully and ridicule a 6 yr old. Happily the HT didn't, but then she's an Atheist. Obviously gaining all this extra time means he gets much more time to work on real things so his reading and writing has leaped ahead. I also discovered what a lovely boy my son is, he cares more about his teachers feelings than she does about him. I will be so glad when OH loses his job soon so we can move far away from this bigoted, backwards hell hole and get my DC a proper education free of fairy stories taught as fact.

The system is about to get far far worse. Nicky Morgan wants to change the admissions from 50% faith based to 100% faith based, the head of Ofstead wants to include teaching faith as a criteria for marking up inspections. This is going to get worse unless we Atheists stand up and be counted. Nicky Morgan is also ignoring court rulings on how RE should include Humanism, so committing contempt of court, but guess what, has got away with it, sadly not been arrested yet! One set of laws for us another for the Xtains!

even attending church

And if those parent's have a different God? Should/would a Christian initiate their children into say, Islam, to get them into a school. School admission should have nothing to do with the religion of the parents of that child.

The alignment of our solar system, the positioning of the sun and the moon are perfect for our planet

It wasn't always that way. The moon is moving away and used to be closer. You don't need a god to explain it, just some GCSE level knowledge in physics.

Yep. It's fucking depressing.

No coherence from this government. You must integrate! We want to lift children out of poverty! Oh no, not if it means going to school with our kids, that would be icky.

We're just going round in circles.

I always find it interesting seeing how theists explain the world around them.

Alan, that's part of the weird binary of some Christian posters - their faith is the default for everyone, they assume everyone is choosing between Christianity or nothing.

Of course the government is panicking, they're watching their more discreate control literally dying off.

About the alignment of our solar system etc. (I think it's called the Goldilocks effect - everything being just right?)

I think you have to remember there are billions of stars in our galaxy (so lots of solar systems) and billions of galaxies in our universe.

When you think of it that way there's more chance there would be (relatively!) intelligent life on one of the planets.

Very interesting to wonder if there may be other intelligent life out there somewhere?

Amusingly (to me) leafing through DS's faith school RS book he was asked to tell them one thing that he believed in .....
He said "aliens" (was always brief and to the point - and of a scientific persuasion!)

Out of the mouths of babes Jug! My DS whilst talking to the HT about his teacher said he 'just didn't want to worship other peoples invisible friends'. I've so fucked up the start of his education by thinking that a faith school was accessible to all, you know like it says in their literature.

HaHa Scaredy

You can take a horse to water ...

The alignment of our solar system, the positioning of the sun and the moon are perfect for our planet. The odds of that happening by chance are so remote as to be impossible

This is just an instance of the weak anthropic principle, surely. Conditions that are observed in the universe must allow the observer to exist.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle

"The principle was formulated as a response to a series of observations that the laws of nature and parameters of the universe take on values that are consistent with conditions for life as we know it rather than a set of values that would not be consistent with life on Earth. The anthropic principle states that this is a necessity, because if life were impossible, no living entity would be there to observe it."

If your child's education is that important to you then you would surely be willing to jump through hoops to ensure that they get a good education... even attending church

And this sums up the problem with privilege. The system is inherently unfair and the only solution Christians can suggest is cheating in order to gain the same advantage as them - not changing the system!

A lot of Christians seem to be missing the fact that local authorities have a statutory duty to provide primary education. My case is extreme due to location but my child is excluded from 4 of the 6 nearest state schools. A Christian's child can apply for all 6 and being treated fairly by 2 and have priority access to 4. If the Council allowed such discrimination in any other of the areas they administrate there'd be up uproar - cheaper business rates if you are a CofE business owner, more frequent rubbish collection if you are Catholic. What about reserving 75% of parking permits for Christian residents, with everyone else having to wait for the leftovers?

I never use the expression "invisible friend" myself,but I have to say, I don't understand why people get so upset about it. It's a bit tedious, I suppose, but I don't think it deserves the accusations of disrespect leveled at it.

You did notice that I said I never use it, didn't you?

How about explaining, rather than just being unpleasantly aggressive?

Having the piss taken out of you on an anonymous online forum is pretty insignificant relative to having your child rejected from your nearest school though isn't it?

[Ditto I don't use the phrase invisible friend, I respect Christians, well I respect those that fight unfairness, inequality and injustice where they see it].

I do think getting cross about some tedious and rather childish language is also an excellent way to fail to address the whole issue of Christian privilege. "I don't have any privilege- look, somebody called my god an invisible friend. That means I am actually being persecuted. How dare you suggest I'm privileged!"

Itsmine Please explain what is disrespectful about invisible friend? Nobody has seen him and he's a friend to other people, so invisible friend is correct to a six yr old and factually correct, they keep telling him god is real. He wasn't laughing, unlike his teacher when she told us our son didn't believe in god, in front of him which can be nothing other than disrespectful. Bare in mind this was said whilst the HT was trying to establish if she had the evidence to formally discipline his teacher for her behavior to my infant school child because he want to learn facts, not fiction. My DS show plenty of respect, until you are rude to him repeatedly for months.

And yes I am very proud of him, he showed/s more respect, compassion and understanding than his xtain teacher ever could.