Aibu in being shocked at this school newsletter?

[whensitmyturn]

Aibu in being pretty appalled at this school news letter or am i being naive?

Children attend a catholic primary school- dh is Catholic I am not. Never had an issue with the school, children are in the last couple of years there.

Had a newsletter home tonight saying that a new ‘children and social work act of 2017’ has been passed and that parents will no longer be able to remove their children for PSHE lessons but that the government are still deciding what content the lessons should have. There is a public questionnaire on gov.uk to write your ideas.

The newsletter then goes on to say that we need to ensure that things that are age suited to children get suggested and I quote ‘to avoid respect for alternative lifestyles being allowed to undermine Christian principles of marriage and family life’.

It then goes on to link ‘coalition for marriage’ for help with us filling in this questionnaire.

Coalition 4 marriage is a group that promotes a traditional family set up and states that children should be taught that ‘marriage between a man and a woman as the gold standard of adult relationships’ Also that ‘they believe there is no age-appropriate way to teach primary school children about same sex marriages or transgenderism’. In blinding hypocrisy it then goes on to say ‘we should be teaching children broad values of tolerance and respect’.

!? I thought that in this day and age in the uk even if you attend a faith school inclusivity was seen as important/ the norm.
Would you be angry at this or just see it as an unavoidable downside of attending a catholic school?

If you send your child to a Catholic school you should not be surprised that they follow Catholic values. I really don't understand why anyone would want their child educated in a school that had different values to their own. The Catholic Church does not keep their beliefs secret. Apart from the fact that I am not a Catholic, I also do not agree with some aspects of the Catholic faith so I did not send my kids to Catholic school. It really isn't that difficult

HeckyPeck
I would have a problem with schools teaching "gay marriage is wrong because of the bible"

The last place you are going to hear a statement like that is in a Catholic school or from a Catholic pulpit.

That is a statement you would find from a sole scriptura denomination - most protestant denominations, for instance.

The RC church is a prima scriptura church, relying on scripture, tradition, the work of the Church Fathers and current insight (from the Pope speaking ex cathedra) for its catechism. Scripture is held to be part of tradition. It is relied on primarily but not exclusively. There is a constant dialogue between scripture and current reality, science, philosophy, art, with scripture always the primary reference point but not the only one.

Thus, the Catholic Church was able to accommodate the principles expounded by Darwin.

I really don't understand why anyone would want their child educated in a school that had different values to their own.

Other options are not always available.

If you send your child to a Catholic school you should not be surprised that they follow Catholic values. I really don't understand why anyone would want their child educated in a school that had different values to their own. The Catholic Church does not keep their beliefs secret

Exactly.

JessyRadlett
And they’re teaching bible stories to small kids, telling them in assembly that the Christian god is real, and in RE telling them the dear old bible stories about heaven and earth, the land and the sea. And it’s hard to explain to little kids ‘this bit of the bible is allegorical, but this bit is absolutely true’. So the kids come home going ‘so we had RE today, and the Bible says the earth was made in a week but that’s not true, is it Mummy, because of the Big Bang. So God can’t be real.’

Again, the prima scriptura vs sola scriptura thing comes up. You shouldn't assume that practise in a CoE school is going to be like that in a RC school.

RC children do not get taught bible stories, at least not in my experience of five children in a RC school to age 13. I was not taught bible stories either, in the Catholic junior school I attended. The exceptions were the story of Noah's Ark in my case and the Nativity in both cases.

RC children are taught by means of the example of one's own family about the family of God. The family meal and family relationships are foundations for instruction on what baptism means and what Mass is about - i.e. the Eucharist.

As they grow older, the life of Jesus is commented upon, in particular the events of his last days, with a focus on the Resurrection.

Children are also taught about the various sacraments as they prepare for each one - baptism, communion, reconciliation, confirmation. There is reference to both OT and NT as background for these. An outline of the fundamentals of the sacraments of marriage and last rites and holy orders is formally taught later.

Wrt the Big Bang theory - it was a Catholic priest, physicist and astronomer, and former WW1 Belgian artillery officer, Georges Lemaître, who in 1927 first proposed what became known as the Big Bang theory. He had been working on Einstein's general theory of relativity. Edwin Hubble's research provided essential proof of the expanding universe.

And they’re teaching bible stories to small kids, telling them in assembly that the Christian god is real, and in RE telling them the dear old bible stories about heaven and earth, the land and the sea. And it’s hard to explain to little kids ‘this bit of the bible is allegorical, but this bit is absolutely true’. So the kids come home going ‘so we had RE today, and the Bible says the earth was made in a week but that’s not true, is it Mummy, because of the Big Bang. So God can’t be real.’
Italics fail.

I would keep teaching love and respect and marriage equality to your children. And as others have said, pull them out of classes teaching hate and intolerance. Interesting they are notifyjng parents they cant pull gheir kids out- obviously many feel the same as you Op. They are desperately trying to change the hearts and minds of children. It is really sad they are still teaching hate towards gay people.
There is nothing they can do to change the hearts and minds of parents who respect people who are gay. People will continue teaching their children to respect gay marriage .

sunshineintheclouds Fri 02-Feb-18 23:02:48
Catholics believe marriage should be for a man and a women. This is written in the Bible they follow and they believe it is a command from God.
Because of this instruction from the Bible Catholics do not believe in a man marrying another man

The term Prima Scriptura and what it means for the Catholic religion and how RCs make conscientious decisions is apparently completely unfamiliar, which is odd considering that most people in England and Wales went through a school system where Religious Education is taught.

'Prima scriptura' asserts that the word of God as found in OT and NT is part of the 'deposit of faith', the foundation of sacred Tradition of which there are other elements, with the bible the primary part but not the only one.

The bible as we know it in the RC church (it is different from the KJV) was recognised as the divine word and put together by the early church, with the Gospels and epistles added as they were written, after consideration and a process of discernment, by church leaders who claimed apostolic succession and whose claim was acknowledged and accepted by the church. These also became part of the deposit of faith.

The point where the RC church parts company with others on the topic of what to do with that deposit of faith is in its claim to continued apostolic succession and thus the right to authoritatively interpret the bible. In most post Reformation denominations, individual interpretation is urged. Individual interpretation alone informs conscience. This is the concept of 'sola scriptura' - scripture alone with no mediator.

So Catholics do not normally refer to the bible as the informer of their consciences, but to the RC catechism, which is a long distillation of scripture, sacred Tradition, theology, and philosophy, and to Papal encyclicals. (If at all).

People will continue teaching their children to respect gay marriage

And the Catholic Church will continue to teach children to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.

In other words, to respect the law of the land and to be good citizens, but to understand that freedom as a religious concept doesn't come from any human system of laws, or a constitution, but from God.

It is a huge pity that terms like 'intolerance' and 'hatred' are being bandied about here, based on very little actual understanding of what is taught by the RC church. I would hope that those of you who have children in a RC school whose beliefs on certain topics diverge from the teaching in school would be tolerant enough to explain to your children that what is taught in RC school applies to Catholics and that the RC church has the right to teach its own constructs to Catholic children. This is the law of the land, after all.

I would hope also that you would not use wording like 'hatred' or 'intolerance' in criticising what is taught. It would be enough to say 'that doesn't apply to you', or even 'that is something I disagree with and here is why'. Otherwise, you risk entering hateful and intolerant territory yourself.

This is why religion needs to be eradicated.

It teaches people intolerance and external blame.

God is not great. The good book is evil. Good people do good things and bad people do bad things but it takes religion for good people to do bad things.

You're naive not to understand the evils of religion and thinking that sending your children to a school which will try to indoctrinate them while the children are young and impressionable is a good thing.

Appreciation of irony is clearly not a strong suit here.

Mathanxiety

"I would hope also that you would not use wording like 'hatred' or 'intolerance' in criticising what is taught. Otherwise, you risk entering hateful and intolerant territory yourself."

We should be intolerant.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"

Those teaching our children to disrespect every single gay persons marriage are teaching intolerance towards all gay people, and disrespect of their human rights. intolerance of gay persons and their rights has historically led to gay hate crimes.

Again, it seems my remark on irony has gone completely over your head, nextDayDelivery.

Midsummabreak, nobody is teaching anyone's child to disrespect every single gay person's marriage, gay people, or gay people's human rights.

"Again, it seems my remark on irony has gone completely over your head, nextDayDelivery. "

Yes, and I still can't see it. We should not tolerate religion.

Religion poisons everything.

Yes the Op's school does. They dont want 'respect for 'alternative lifestyles' being allowed to undermine Christian principles and values'. So apparently if one respects 'alternative lifestyles' such as a gay person's lifestyle- OMG they are to blame for undermining Christian principals and values

I went to a c of e school and there were prayers, hymns and trips to the church nothing over zealous and up until now this school had been the same.

No it hasn't, it's just that you have only now noticed it. What do you think they have been learning in PHSE? It won't have been about some children having two dads and some having two mums.

Do you have a girl? She's be taught not to use tampons when she starts her periods.

Oh and at my RC girls' school EVERYTHING was taught with an RC slant so I was taught exactly how many people died under Elizabeth I and they did the right thing by not becoming protestant, I was told nothing about the hundreds put to death by Mary I.

nextDayDelivery Sat 03-Feb-18 03:23:13
This is why religion needs to be eradicated.
It teaches people intolerance and external blame.

Can you see it now?
Your own brand of intolerance and penchant for external blame?

I haven't read the full thread but OP I don't understand why you are shocked at a newsletter frya Catholic school following Catholic teachings.

If you feel strongly write to the board of governors, HT etc but there will be a lot of parents and people on the board of governors who support this as it's there religious beliefs. It seems to me that you would only be flagging up to the school that your Dc are not Catholic and neither are you which is fine but why send them to a catholic school.

Nobody would send their child to a muslim school and then complain that some children are expected to fast during Ramadan.

and seriously they won't teach a girl not to use Tampons that is ridiculous but as it's a primary school they might not cover that.

They’re in a ‘gay’ panic about children being taught about ‘gay sex’ at school. The actual plan is for children to be taught that LGBT people exist and sometimes get married. All the catholic schools are saying this sh@t to parents.
They also ran similar campaigns before Civil Partnerships came in and Marriage Equality.
It’s what you signed up for, part and parcel i’m Afraid.

And I say this as a catholic - a gay one!

I'm intolerant of evil. Religion is evil.

I'm intolerant of racism, sexism, infanticide, genocide etc too and I think I'm a better person because of this intolerance. I do understand why you think there could be irony in my beliefs but the bible, koran and torah are demonstrably evil and people demonstrably do evil and believe evil things because of religion.

For example,

BNP Member: I bloody hate the Asians and the blacks.

Me: Fuck off, moron.

BNP: Do you see the irony in not tolerating my views?

Me:

or

Me: Why the hell are you holding that knife?

Ab. God told me to kill Isaac, my son as a burnt offering to him.

Me. Are you a fucking idiot?

Ab. No. He told me to. Did you hear what happened to Lot's missus
or those "dashed-upon-the-rocks babies?
Don't be so intolerant of my views and pass me the matches.

or

Christian: No, I'm not going to bake a cake you you and your gay boyfriend

Me: (I'm a gay man in this one) But we love each other and make each other happy. He means everything to me and check out the big arms!

Christian: The bible makes it clear that you are an "detestable" and "an abomination".

Me: You homophobe.

Christian: You're so intolerant of my views.

//---------------

Now, I think "I" come off quite well in those examples. Did they make my point?

So, do we need to tolerate everything? Is being tolerant of evil a good or bad thing?

(I know you're wondering but no, I'm not a playwright - just talented!)

@greenbeansqueen

But what if a gay comes to the school and the children catch homosexuality? I understand their worry!

nextDayDelivery I know! But I also know there will already be some in there! Some of those kiddies will grow up to have LGBT and as for the teachers... the education system would collapse if they threw out the LGBT teachers from schools, they’re everywhere!