School and religion

[ThisLittleKitty]

Is it normal for a school (not a faith school) to teach children about Jesus? My son came home today telling me he had been told about "baby Jesus" and how he was "born on Christmas Day" I'm a little surprised by this as didn't realise the school would be saying this kind of thing. It's a very diverse school in south east london so many religions and we are not a religious family. Aibu to think this is not right?

Christmas was not celebrated by the puritans in England so that is mid 17th century. I think it was under Oliver Cromwell that Christmas Fay was not celebrated as a feast day. It wasn't anything to do with paganism but with hardline Protestants opposing anything that looked Roman Catholic.

To be fair, I think even in Scotland it was designated a Bank Holiday in 1871, but that was largely ignored until the 1950s, with Hogmanay being the main midwinter celebration there.

The act making Yule (interestingly NOT Christmas - Yule being a pagan festival) celebrations illegal was in force from 1640 - 1686.

HOWEVER, as far as I know the Scottish church still had 25th December as the feast of the birth of Christ, just that it wasn't a public celebration (like Ash Wednesday is a religious, but not public, date)

Exactly, thegreenheart. There is a distinction between 'the date on which the Church commemorates the birth of Christ' - 25th December for many centuries - and whether it is celebrated as a feast day.

If a celebration occurs on 25th December 'because that is the date of Christmas', then unless you give it a completely other name it remains linked to that Christian festival.

I'll call it Yule and watch the sunrise a few days earlier

Absolutely! 'Some people celebrate a festival called Yule, which occurs at a similar time of year...'

I celebrate on the 24th and though I call it Christmas when speaking English it's Yule in the local language (and the whole of December is called Yule-moon which I like). This thread is making me want to celebrate more of the old pagan festivals!

There is no reason for primary schools to even teach about what any religions believe. Its just not needed until secondary school.

Julie,

What would you like schools to teach in the statutory RE slot on the timetable?

I also presume that you would not want the school to mention ANY Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu etc etc festival, or recognise its existence in any way through e.g. having Christmas parties or a nativity play or giving Easter eggs?

With the news full of e.g. Muslim extremists / Palestinian-Jeish conflict, not to mention the small matter of religious buildings in every community and bits of history like the Tudors (and things like Greek and Roman temples), completely failing to teach about religions at all seems almost negligent....

They should be taught in a historical and social sense for sure.

Because I've exempted DD from religious classes (as they teach it as fact rather than comparative religion or suchlike) she'll get an alternative class in ethics which really ought to be on the main timetable I reckon.

she'll get an alternative class in ethics
Um no, she'll sit in the corridor and get bored.
Schools do not have the resources to lay on classes for single children.

There is no reason for primary schools to even teach about what any religions believe. Its just not needed until secondary school.
Hogwash.
The sooner kids learn that what their parents do is just one option, the more likely they are to be open and tolerant later in life

cantkeepawayforever

What would you like schools to teach in the statutory RE slot on the timetable? My point was to just get rid of it in primary schools, I cant see any benefit in teaching young children why they are different from their neighbours.

you would not want the school to mention ANY Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu etc etc festival Didn't say that, you can celebrate festivals, holidays and rituals without giving young children school lessons about why a few people think the origins of the story come from (which is more normal)

With the news full of e.g. Muslim extremists / Palestinian-Jeish conflict, ... That is why it might be valuable to teach to older children in secondary school when they have the intellect to comprehend such matters rationally.

Natsku - are you in Sweden? I seem to vaguely recall that. It's interesting seeing how other countries teach about religion.

Julie8008 - what you are describing is basically how religion is taught in the US state schools. There are no religious celebrations in school. A small amount about religions is taught to elementary and middle schoolers, with equal weighting to several religions. So they know religions exist and that different people celebrate different things. They are then taught religion at high school (so from age 14 onward) in more depth in a history or comparative religion class, when they can really examine how it fits into history and society.

I'm not in the UK ta1kinpeace, she will get an ethics class here because the law demands it. Might be mixed with older children though I suppose. At the moment she just joins another class when her class has their religious lessons as there's no ethics curriculum for preschool yet.

Finland BeALert it's probably similar in Sweden

I would not worry re the fact that the school has multiple faiths represented as they are unlikely to be offended. Most major religions believe Jesus existed and accept he was a prophet/holy man. They are not going to be offended by school teaching about his birth as factual as they believe he did exist. It would seem only atheist parents would be offended by that.
coldcasechristianity.com/2017/who-is-jesus-according-to-other-religions/

I went to grammar school in the 60s. We had a Christian assembly every day and lots of Christianity in RE lessons, we had a Rabbi visit every Friday, a Catholic nun came in to see the Catholic girls every week and a Catholic priest came at least once a term to say a mass for the Catholic girls. Just before I left an Imam started to come in as well as the catchment area started to have more Muslim residents.

I think we did learn alot about respecting each other and also about what we shared e.g. link between Passover and Easter and that Muslims believed Jesus was a prophet.

I do know as the area round the school became even more ethnically mixed in the 70s and 80s other faiths became involved as well. I've never heard of another school that did so much to involve other faiths and cultures in a school but I suppose they must exist.