Or is teaching 6 Yr old about crucixation out of order?

[Whostoblame]

I might be over reacting but after multiple nights on the trot sleeping no more than 45-60 mins at a time I'm at the end of my tether. 6 year old goes to a non dom school and we are agnostic/atheist at home. School have been teaching them about Jesus and Easter etc including how Jesus was crucified. I now have a sobbing child every night who can't get the pictures out if her mind (and I'm not surprised!!)and subsequently cant sleep from about midnight, crying. Aibu to complain to school that 6 is way too young to be taught this?!

My daughter is 3 and in preschool, and learnt about the crucification of Jesus. I was shocked to be honest . They don't need at all to learn about it until they're much much older. She retold me the story by saying "naughty people put him on a cross and then he died". That's just awful. I covered a RE lesson for a colleague years ago with a Year 2 class (your child's age). They had to listen to the story, then cut pictures of the whole story out and put them in the correct order. One boy asked me if they could colour the pictures in once they were done. There was so much red everywhere! Just a gory unnecessary scary story for such young brains...

Sorry, but which part of it do you find “awful”. I can’t see anything bad about it. Do you object to a 3 year old being told about death? You say much older, what age? Many kids will lose grandparents at this age, what should they be told? What do you say to kids about Easter up to that point? Or do you not want anyone mentioning a religious festival? Utterly bizarre!!!

so kids, 6-7 were drawing lots of red when someone dies, not really surprising, many teachers seem to think kids this age are mature enough to decide what gender they are so a bit of red felt tip is prob not the end of the world.

Do you object to kids learning about the world wars? About slavery etc? About Victorian schools, work houses, the plague? The great fire of London? Anything apart from fluffy bunnies and rainbows?? No wonder kids are growing up so mentally unprepared for adversity if this is the prevailing attitude

However sweet, where does it say in the Bible God won’t judge you more harshly than you judge yourself? He literally wiped out the planet apart from a handful of humans and 2 of every species of animal for not worshipping him. He cast out the first humans for eating an apple a serpent (which by definition God must have made£ and punished every one of their descendants. He destroyed cities, he left a whole face wondering round a with little food or water for 40 years on a journey google maps says takes 6 days to walk, and these were his chosen people!!! He drowned millions of Egyptians, killed thousands of Egyptian children. He really is very judgey.. He did a trial run on How it feels to kill your own child )well stopping in the Nick of time) I. The OT then went through with it in the NT. if you believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible then you believe in quite an evil God.

How do you decide which parts to take literally and which parts metaphorically and which parts to totally ignore?

However sweet, where does it say in the Bible God won’t judge you more harshly than you judge yourself?

I know, I was surprised too. But I'm Catholic, we have Priests, if they're going to tell me something then unless it's utterly awful I'll roll with it.

The New Testament depiction of God isn't as violent in his depiction as the Old Testament one.

He gives us Jesus who gives us an out from most of the judgement if we follow Him. But even in the OT, most of the time repentance makes things ok sooner or later (if they get the chance.)

How do you decide which parts to take literally and which parts metaphorically and which parts to totally ignore?

I try and do most of it really except the cutting off my arm bit, because I seem to be one of the few people that ever thought of that as what should be part of the Christian rules.

The only other bit I'll never do is give any husband I might have in future sex when I'm not in the mood. I'd rather be single for life. I explained to a Priest that I would find it very psychologically unpleasant and he said a husband is supposed to care for his wife, so shouldn't expect that of me.

Catholicism is surprisingly laid back in some respects or at least can be. Though I did come across someone on Youtube who said not shagging your husband on demand is a mortal sin.

I was educated by catholic nuns, whilst I appreciate the ritual, symbolism and magic within the catholic faith I’m afraid I can’t subscribe to the hierarchy and indeed the idea that what priest say goes. I think we’re all priests of our own spiritual lives, we don’t need professionals.

what rules do you follow though deciding which parts of the Bible to take literally or not though, why not cut off your arm etc if you follow the other rules

We are Muslim and my child was taught about Jesus being crucified and rising at Easter. She's the same age and was fine about it. I'm not sure if they used pictures or went into it graphically for which I agree there is no need. All kids are different mine is on the sensitive side and has lots of questions. She did ask me about it as school whilst non dom presented it as fact. I just told her that was the Christian view that we believe a different version and told her that. She can believe whatever she wants or not at all. I also reminded her that attaching someone to a crucifix isn't something that happens nowadays.

Maybe talk to school to find out what level of detail they went to and explain the upset it has caused her. If the details were graphic it could be that other kids were upset too. It could be a learning point for them? Then work with your child to discuss things when she finds them upsetting and help her as much as you can at that age to put them into context. I'd want to work on this now because it's quite a strong reaction to have.

This is probably the best and most balanced post on the thread

I'm Jewish and wouldn't have a problem with my kids learning about Jesus and crucifixion as it's fact that they used to crucify people, and Easter is about celebrating Jesus. I would want them to be careful with how they word it though and keep it as non-graphic as possible. My 6 year old learned about the Pesach story and was told that one of the plagues was the death of the first born (he's a first born himself!) but it didn't seem to bother him as I guess they had explained it in an age-appropriate way.

"I also reminded her that attaching someone to a crucifix isn't something that happens nowadays"

Unfortunately that is incorrect information.

But I agree with the other poster, your post was one of the best I have read on here.

I was born and bred Catholic and grew up with Easter Story. The point of it was much more that Jesus died for our sins not that he was killed in an awful, horrfying way. Because he died for us, taking all our sins upon him, he ascended into heaven ("and sits at the right hand of the Father" as Catholics profess every week at Mass). I vaguely remember a teacher saying they nailed him to the cross, explaining about stigmata, the spear in the side - but it was all in a good cause, obviously.

I think mum must have explained it more gently when I was much younger, say 3ish, so I wasn't particularly upset by our teacher; I think I was probably about 7 then and believed fervently that our sins, my sins, were washed away by Jesus' sacrifice.

PS, I'm no longer Catholic.

In the story he was tortured. We don't need to tell 6 year old about torture. Christians will make their own decisions but too much detail is massively inappropriate to atheists.