Religious talk in school

[AnD4D]

I'm really sorry if this isn't the right place for this discussion. I only came here after writing and subsequently deleting an email I was planning on sending to my daughter's school.

Recently, I picked my 7yo daughter up from school, and noted that she was surprisingly quiet. Usually she's bouncy and chatty about what she's been up to.

Finally, at home, I sat her down and asked her what was wrong. She asked me if the world was going to explode. I was a little confused and asked what brought that on.

She told me that today, while learning about religion, her teacher blew up a balloon, held it up in front of the class, then said "This is the Earth. If God stopped existing..." then she let go of the balloon.

I know it's a small thing, and I feel petty, but it bothers me and wanted to get some thoughts on it.

Personally, I don't consider myself a believer, but my wife is, and we always agreed that we would teach our daughter about all faiths and thoughts on the subject of religion.

For example, I will never say "God doesn't exist" but rather "I don't know if God exists." and my wife would say the same but add on "...but I like to believe that he does."

I'm perfectly fine with this, but to have a teacher, someone I've encouraged my daughter to learn from, express their faith in such a definitive way has me concerned. On top of that, the fact that I've expressed my feelings on the subject has caused my daughter anxiety because she seems to think the world's about to explode.

Following on from this, my daughter said she'd been worried for a while, because the week before, the teacher told her that if God died, time would stop, and we'd all freeze forever.

Honestly, I'm not sure what to do about this. My wife told me to just let it go, and that we should tell our daughter that her teacher doesn't know everything and is wrong about the world exploding, but I would hate to put the idea into her head that she shouldn't listen to her teacher.

Again, sorry if this is the wrong place. It's just been on my mind for a while now.

I can’t imagine any teacher saying something like that.
I would question your dc interpretation of the lesson first, then ask the teacher to explain the objective of their lesson. Children can get the wrong end of the stick. I wouldn’t go to the head first.

That’s probably because it’s live and let live....except for the animals that die.

Ah, I see what you mean, from that perspective!

I unfortunately can imagine some people willing to risk their entire career and profession to "save souls"

I've known those people

But hopefully it's not that.

Are you really comparing climate change (factual) with religion (opinion)?

We can factually show that the Earth is screwed and there is little we can do to stop it. We can’t factually show that if God stops (stops isn’t the correct word here since there is no proof that any god exists - and in fact there is strong evidence for other theories of origin of life - but I’ll use stops since it was in the OP) existing that the world will float away.

Now obviously you ensure that you teach climate change in a way that is appropriate for the age and understanding of the children - but let’s also not shoulder them with the responsibility of feeling they have much to do with global climate change, or that cycling to school is going to save the world, somehow. They need to understand the bigger picture.

I say this as someone who is really interested in climate issues, before anyone thinks I’m some sort of climate change denier.

I didn't say the child wasn't telling the truth. I said they could have misunderstood or misheard what was being said. Read before commenting please.

Nice attempt at deflection. Read what I said. You have changed the goalposts.

"If God died"

This doesn't sound like a scenario a person expressing the importance of faith to children, speaking from a position of faith would say.

Does DCs teacher get their lesson plans from the more far-fetched atheist parts of reddit?

Are you really comparing climate change (factual) with religion (opinion)?

We can factually show that the Earth is screwed and there is little we can do to stop it.

I think you may have misconstrued my point - about leaving children frightened and feeling helpless.

So are you of the school of thought that everything we're being encouraged to do to help the environment is just a pointless smoke screen and that we should be honest with children that switching to electric cars and all the rest is useless (maybe it's one big government conspiracy?) and we should just accept we're all stuffed and enjoy humanity whilst it lasts?

Ok, sorry about this. I didn't expect it to spiral so much.

Many of you are right that I should double check things before going straight to the Head.

I'm good friends with the parents of another student in the class, so I should be able to confirm what was said.

Let's all calm down for now :) I'll follow up with any news once I have any, but for now, it's gone midnight, and I need to try to sleep 😅

Kids are kids for such a short time

When they're able to comprehend things and empowered enough to be able to do anything- we can give them cold hard facts

This obviously isn't factual and like PP said could well even be an atheist meme that's been re-done badly to kids

Either way, it's extremely unfair for kids to be suffering anxiety bc adults can't age appropriately teach and if I was the teacher and had said something completely acceptable but had a child suffer anxiety misunderstanding me - I'd want to know and rectify that urgently for that poor child

Not that an atheist meme would be acceptable either

I would tend to think the teacher might have said something else, but it was over the heads of those children. Whether or not it was appropriate in itself, it clearly wasn't really developmentally appropriate.

That being said, this seems less egregious to me than some of the horrible climate change stuff I've seen taught to quite small kids, and even some of the stuff about historical atrocities. Some adults seem to over-estimate the ability if small kids to really put these things in context.

Did you read all of my post or just the bits you bonded?

No, we should teach children the causes and real impacts of climate change: locally and globally. We should teach them the things that governments can do to control climate change; because that’s where the real change happens. To suggest “buying electric cars” is somehow going to stop climate change is disingenuous for many reasons. Firstly; we can not renewably source enough electricity yet. Secondly, they are cost prohibitive for many, especially in the current economic climate. Thirdly; electric cars aren’t that great for the environment due to their large batteries. And we need to teach children to know that these small things that they can do only have a tiny impact; but governments and corporations have power to change. And the best way to minimise climate change is to understand the environmental policies of the various governments.

I teach 11+ though.

Climate change and historical atrocities are part of the curriculum. The world blowing away if god dies isn’t.

Did you read all of my post or just the bits you bonded?

No, I read it all; but it kind of suggested, with your question to me, that you maybe hadn't read all of my post.

That aside, though, what you wrote in your first post - that we are screwed regardless; seems dissonant with your later post - that we aren't screwed?!

We really don't know what the context of the remark was. If it was part of the religious education component it may have been an attempt to give the students a sense of what the concept of God is meant to mean. Beyond the whole "man in the sky" idea which is pretty much a completely false characterization of all major religious systems.

Learning about the nature of different religious systems is part of what children learn in religious education.

However it's clear the student didn't understand, and worse, was scared. So not an effective teaching tool, even if the context was reasonable.

The fact that atrocities and climate change are part of the curriculum is really irrelevant to whether it's appropriate to be frightening children in this age group around things which they have no control over. It's not developmentally appropriate, and if it can't be done without that happening maybe they should be removed.

I'd be curious what religion this teacher belongs to, because I've never heard of beliefs like that. It doesn't sound like any kind of mainstream Christianity to me.

I'd also wonder what the exact words said were because kids can sometimes misinterpret things.

what beliefs did Tim farrow say are a sin? how can beliefs be a sin?

That is absolutely mental.
I can't imagine how a 7 year old would make this lesson up, it wouldn't even occur to them. Possibly something else was said but was way over their heads - but struggle to imagine what else could have that take home message.
Unless it is a Church school, they shouldn't be teaching any god as 'the' god(s). I would be having words with the head. That is not acceptable.

It’s not a grey area. I would speak to the head and the teacher to get to the bottom of what was said. I would also make it very clear that the teaching was inappropriate and unacceptable.

Can't remember any non-believers trying to goad him into say anything.

Was it a thought experiment in PRE? The idea that God the Father could die is not a Christian teaching as Christians believe He has always been and always will be. Jesus died (when He was a man), but the world didn’t explode.

A thought experiment about the universe ending sounds a bit heavy for a 7yo, and it sounds from OP like it was taught as fact.

If the teacher actually said that, then they may need help with their mental health.
It is not a concept in Christianity- God is eternal and indestructible. Our physical world will end eventually of course, with the dying of our sun, and our mortal bodies die, but our souls and the kingdom of God are not bound by time and space.
OP, I would seek a meeting with the specific teacher and ask them to clarify what they said. Say that your DC may have got the wrong end of the stick, but has been suffering severe anxiety ever since, and you would appreciate her sorting this out with the child directly.