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?

Aside from any argument around funding, if you send your kids to a school with a religious affiliation, then you should not be surprised if the school promotes the beliefs of that religion.

nobody is stopping anybody from practising their faith at home or in a house of worship whenever they like. It is, however, completely ridiculous that people who don't want their children indoctrinated to believe in imaginary sky pixies struggle to find somewhere to live where the local school isn't linked to the church. It's a fecking nightmare and shouldn't be.

^Agree totally.

1/3 of schools are religious? Great it gives us choice and considering Christians and catholics are outnumbered greatly by atheists and other religions that number seems fair.

I’m sure people of faith would be happy to only send their kids to religious schools.

There are plenty of choices, and yes if you aren’t happy with any type of school then move.

It would be like bitching about only having choice of inadequate schools when you want an outstanding - you would move, or bite the bullet.

Er my Catholic school and all my Catholic churches I've been to in my life have never spoken like this! I think I've just been incredibly lucky and went to "modern" ones

It’s a faith school - all faith schools, regardless of what the faith is, will teach the same.

The best primary school in my area is a faith one, in terms of results. I want my child to go to the best school possible but I can’t accept what faith schools teach about relationships and so on.

The gold standard of adult relationships that our children should be taught is a relationship of true equals, based on mutual love and respect, that no emotional or financial abuse, no physical violence or fear is acceptable The sex of the people involved should not come in to it.

If you join a football club it's because you like football!! You are sending your children to a Roman Catholic school what were you expecting

My child attends a Catholic school and the school teach Catholic values but also how to value other opinions and that everyone has different experiences.

The school's Priest happily welcomes gay people to Church and has said that a lot of the rules are man-made not God-made. He teaches that your relationship with God is personal and as long as you are a good person God still loves you.

I can't really complain too much about that. Have you considered speaking to someone at the school about your concerns? You could address the hypocritical nature of the letter and ask how tolerance will be taught if these views are instilled?

Good luck x

One wonders why the School pens this homophobia but does not pen anything about pedophiles within the Church.

Do also bare in mind the Bible prohibits the consumption of shellfish more times than homosexuality, but oddly they don't bang on about the sinfulness of prawns...

Hate takes on many forms.

Solo, Christians follow the new covenant, ie the new testament not the old testament where the selfish is mentioned

What did Jesus have to say about gay marriage then? I can't remember

Well Jesus didn’t exist, so likely not much...

Well, no, but I mean in the story

So religious people picking and choosing which bits they are going to follow. Isn't that what the terrorists do?
Personally I think the world would be a better place without religion, it wouldn't mean people are mean to each other, it would just mean less excuse for conflict.

Why the fuck should I move? I would have to move to another part of the country to avoid faith schools round here! We were lucky to find a great school after much searching but unfortunately they've had to join a multi academy trust... which is run by a religious narcissist. Oh joy.

It is what I would expect from a faith school. You can try to offset it by talking with your dc at home, it won't do them any harm to realise you cannot trust whatever the teacher says.

I certainly don't think the current situation is ok, ie. people having to attend faith schools when they would rather going elsewhere and/or tax payer funding of faith schools.

In a way I would go further but I am not sure how you could stop people privately giving a faith education. I do hate the idea of faith schools though. People can be free to practice their faith and teach their children about it, but education should be a separate and secular endeavour.

You cannot list secular education as just one option amongst the various faith educations, it is fundamentally different. It is based on evidence and not on faith. Believing something to be true without reason or evidence is the opposite of a scientific approach. I think all children should be given the same opportunity to learn facts and to learn critical thinking. If they then decide to still follow a religion that is their choice. They certainly should not be getting the divisive message that while lip service is paid to the idea of peace and everyone working together, somehow they cannot be educated together with people from other faith backgrounds.

I have often wondered how many people would be religious if it was something you could only take up at age 18 or older after a secular education, not something you can be 'raised in'. I think many still would, but not as many.

Some of the opinions on here towards religion are far more divisive than anything I've ever learnt from being part of the Catholic church.

In what way,?....genuine question not goading I promise.

We don't have much of a choice in our area, it's a c of E school, a catholic school or an awful normal school, without having a massive drive every day. I'm not planning on moving, I attended a C of E school without coming to too much harm, it helped my parents are atheists but they largely left me to make up my own mind.
I did the assemblies with the hymns etc but after a while it all became like santa for me, I kind of went along with it until I was old enough to know better.
I think just be honest, this school sounds quite intense but if your children come home asking questions just answer them honestly in accordance with your beliefs.
Any God questions I get will be met with something like, this is what some people believe, however I do not, you have to make up your own mind.
If this provokes any more questions they will be answered in accordance with what I believe and you can't really do much better than that.
That being said, surely tolerance for all can't be a bad thing to teach even in a strictly religious school. the line I was sold as a child was that all will be forgiven...seems a bit messed up to preach that and then say that doesn't apply if you are gay or trans or whatever else doesn't fall into line with their thinking. That sounds more like coercion, do as we say or you will be going to hell etc...

It's very ignorant to claim Jesus didn't exist, many historians have studied this and reach the conclusion that Jesus, as a man, was real. You can believe, or Not, that he performed miracles, rose from the dead etc but his very existence isn't in much doubt.
The bible doesn't record much aboit homosexuality. Jesus was a Jewish man, there's plenty in the old testament against homosexuality, he very likely followed these teachings, he also discuss marriage being between a man and a woman. Later in the new testament there are references to it as well but these aren't claimed to be the words of Jesus.

So Catholic homophobic doctrine isn't scriptural in origin at all. Not that it would hold any more weight for me if it were, but it doesn't even make sense to itself

It's very ignorant to claim Jesus didn't exist, many historians have studied this and reach the conclusion that Jesus, as a man, was real.

Can you say the same for god? Nope thought not.

I think you're being naive. That's the sort of thing that's the mainstay of strong religious support for religious schooling on the public dime.

There were hundreds of Judean men called Jesus around at that time, by the way. It's likely that quite a few will have been executed for shooting their mouths off politically. Any more than that is just make-believe.

It is scriptural in origin. There's more to the new testament than the words of Jesus. The Gospels are only 4 books. Hence my references to it later on in the bible.

And no there is no proof God exists, I've never claimed that's any more than a belief

So there was once a guy called Jesus, that existed. Is that it?

And it's all just a storybook.

FFS and you're teaching children to be bigots based on that!