To question the teacher/school

[khlo5]

Year 1 DC came out of school saying. ,I learned that God made the world and the people and you and me. And he is watching us all the time to see if I am being good. Jesus saved us all etc etc '

Now on the face of it - nothing wrong with this. However
I purposely did not send him to a church school as I don't want Christianity taught as fact. (Which it seems to have been in this case).

We have spoken at home previously about different people believing different things. He is aware that they are beliefs not fact. But seems confused his teacher said it was true.

Aibu to mention this to the teacher? Or am I just being a complete knob?

Honestly, as a teacher, I'd have no problem with a parent approaching me about this, and I'd be more than happy to explain the curriculum and approach in lessons.

Any teacher in a non-religious school should explain that, "Christians/Muslims/ Jews believe..."

The only time I ever encountered problems was when an outside group of volunteers lead a session and one in particular was very vocal about her beliefs and how they are 'right' and others are 'wrong'. Teachers quickly stepped in, and I did apologise to parents who were (rightly) upset.

Thank you all for your replies. I'll send an email to the teacher. She is really young and it's her first year since passing NQT (I think that's the right phrase?) - so I don't want to challenge her in any way. I think she is most likely still finding her feet!

I don't want to be labelled 'that' mum on the first week !

You can clarify, I’d be super surprised if it didn’t start with ‘Christians believe’

@Bringonspring you are probably absolutely right. Not sure I can trust a 5 year old to remember EXACTLY what was said !

Remember it’s an age when they believe in fairies, unicorns and magic, not sure I could break a sweat about this.

@breaconoptimist unicorns aren't real what !!!? Seriously though, point taken- far more important things to worry about !

Tell your DC that’s it’s just a story like a fairytale and compare and contrast different religions. My DS likes the idea it’s just a story, he was very creeped out with the whole ‘he’s watching you’ thing.

Yes I hate elf on the shelf for the same reason, always making sure you’re not naughty! I’m sorry to break it to you about unicorns, I’m sure some people believe in them!

My niece is taught that Christianity was a fact in school. She recently asked me who wrote the bible, i told her men wrote it a long time ago.

She said ‘oh, it’s just stories then’. She is seven.

I think kids will decide what they believe and what they don’t. Unfortunately there is no escape from religion. It was taught to me as fact all through my childhood. My parents (who were atheists) never told me what they believed and even sent me to Sunday school.

I never believed any of it, but I respect those who do and understand how important it is to them.

It’s getting the balance right as you equally want children respecting others beliefs so educating them that it’s on a par with the tooth fairy probably isn’t right either. Jesus lived and died that is a well established fact. Whether he died and lived well that is a different matter.

It’s really difficult, I think teaching them as wide as possible on the concept of X believes ...and exposing them to a large circle of diverse people will hopefully make this generation more tolerate than my generation

That isn't the case at all - it is covered in GCSE (I teach it).

My mum had this argument with an nondenominational school my brother went to. He came home saying God was his real father.

It pretty much meant he was no longer included in they lessons and sat outside class colouring. This was 25 years ago mind you