AIBU to expect religion to be taught & practised at religious schools?

[KristinaM]

I am getting rather fed up with the threads that go........

" Although we are not Jewish we have chosen to send our son to the local Jewish school, its got a good ethos and great results. Now he has started we are very angry and upset to discover that they celebrate all the Jewish festivals and have acts of worship with a rabbi present.They even take them to the synagogue.

I don't want to have my child brainwashed with fairy stories.I only want him exposed to my particular beliefs. I am worried he will grow up and have a mind of his own and not believe the same as me. How can I get the school to change to suit me??"

sugarmatches - the USA is a hotbed of religious rabidity and state faith schools are banned. That is interesting.

At the risk of really making you upset...I think you are completely unreasonable?
You want equality for every religion, but not for every academic ability!
Spoken like an atheist without a child with special educational needs. The latter part is just a guess if you can support schools that wont consider a SN child!!

There is really no arguing this with you is there??

yes, i can't see that banning religion totally ins chools is a good thing- it is too central to peoples existence. but religion doesn't have to be taught from a 'I believe' perspective- many RE teachers are agnostic or atheist, indeed all m RE professors are- there's a massive difference between a good and inclusive religious education, and a 'brainwashing', and i do wonder that if some Americans ahd recieved good quality RE (esp. in Islam at thsi moment in time) there may be slightly more understanding in the world as a whole?

I don't see why you bring SN into it - it's yet another can of worms. If I had a child with SN I'd want the school that was right for them, but that's a debate for another time.

I know Caroline...crazy.
You can have religous clubs, but outside of school hours. It is illegal to discuss religion, but we do learn about Darwin.

I am sure there are some schools that don't worry about the laws and quietly support religion, but if even one parent objects there are "up a creek" as we say.

I've never expressed a desire to ban religion from the curriculum, but if it were up to me I'd want it taught with some sort of socio-cultural perspective.

I always found it interesting at primary school that, while we were taught some very interesting lessons about Greek myths and Egyptian gods, these were presented as "these funny things that people believed all those centuries ago", while Bible stories were presented unquestioningly.

streaming doesn't work exceot at the ends of the spectrum- children such as ds1 whoa re academically poor due to Sn butable on areas such as music tend to lose opportunities (if ds1 transfers to asd school music provision is not available and he would ahev to drop violin after a few years study), and I sugffered because my school's streaming couldn't cope that I was in some areas fairly gifted but in other areas struggled extremely- you had to be weitehr band A or Band B. With the result I was downgraded, not allowed to take the sciences I wanted (and would have apssed- I was amde to do typing instead of Physics- booted out of typing 9would you guess? and sent sewing class ).

Schools should reat kids as individuals not a single ability entity. We are ALL mroe complex than that!

UQD...do you live in a dreamworld where every SN child has a place at a lovely school that suits them perfectly? Well, they don't! There are long waiting lists, depending on the needs.
That is another issue, I can agree with that.

More simply, you belive in equality of religion but not for kids that may not grow up to be doctors or have another kind of professional career.

You don't ask too much of English schools at all do you?

Well, I'm sorry, I don't know the circumstances of trying to school SN children. We can't be experts unless we have done it. I know it's a hot potato on here, which is why I steer clear of it.

I don't want "equality of religion" anyway, I want irrelevance of religion!

No jumping on you, agree it is a separate matter. I would like to register my surprise that you passed the 11+ though .

Caroline - ?????

What the HELL is that supposed to mean?

You want to get into an argument about academic credentials?

I agree Peachy that religion may be helpful on the curriculum of American school, but as UQD said on a social level.
If we can learn about other peoples religion or culture, we learn to be more tolerant.

Not many people understand Islam in America, expect to think it is tantamount to terrorism. That is not really acceptable is it?

UQD - It was a joke.

Anyway it IS a separate issue- because religious schools and choice are being debated, with Sn one applies for a statemnt and the LEA decides where they are most suited (or where it is cheapest to place them, only looking further if they fail in that cost effective environment)- the decision isn't down to the parents at any real level.

There are primary RE Specialists taking an MA in my Theology lecture programme this year I can assure you they are he MOST questioning of any of the students! And nobody I know teaching that the stories are fact either- the correct term isn't superstition, it's myth and legend- as in most stories seem to have some cultural basis or historical starting point. The exception is ion religious schools- where frankly you wouldn't expect anything else, would you?

And I'm sure the fact that faith schools entrench division doesn't help us to understand Islam either.

bad joke.

UQD, can't you just see that it will never happen. There are too many people with strong faith and it may be a tad too late to change the school system now. A shakeup of the school system when there are so many other things going on in this country now??

UQD - I don't suppose now is the right time to ask you which college in America you purchased your degree from (and could you give me the url)?

Peachy, I didn't really mean SN, I just meant kids that don't test as well as other children. The ones that would be completely ignored by Grammar schools.

SN is a separate and complicated issue, I respect that.

I agree it's difficult, controversial and would get a lot of people's backs up. On the other hand, they said that about the smoking ban...

That shouldn't stop me wanting it to happen!

Anyway, I sense I am reaching the point where everything I say only refers back to something I have already said, so I don't think I can add anything new.

And I have to go out and do some work...

Caroline???
UQD is quite obviously a well educated man.
That was out of order.

You know UQD, I think we all do fundamentally agree with you about faith schools. I just don't think it is realistic to expect it to ever happen.
Bit like a lottery win I am afraid

Sugarmatches - That is why it is so obviously a joke.

Sorry, sometimes irony goes straight over my head.