To think that a RECEPTION teacher shouldn't have said this ???

[AutumnalPumpkin]

My daughter goes to a catholic school (it was the only school available to us) we are not a religious family, but it does not bother me that she is being immersed in religion. After all, she will only make her own mind up later in life anyway. But this is relevant.
They use god in almost every part of the day, and in all aspects of learning.
As those who are not religious will know, we and a lot of others view god as "made up" or a myth, if you will.
Now this brings me to where I have a problem - her reception teacher has picked up on some of the class talking about unicorns. A typical 4/5 year old thing... and has proceeded to tell them that Unicorns, fairies and dragons etc are all made up, and do not exist.
This is absolute insanity to me!!? They are 4/5 and all have wonderful vivid imaginations.
We regularly take my daughter to "the fairy forest" and she immerses herself into it and tries to find clues to where the fairies could be hiding, and loves to think that at nighttime all of the magical creatures come out to play.
She's now come home saying that it's all untrue and they are made up.
I'm actually really upset about this.
How can you push the belief of god, and they go all out for Santa etc. but actively shut down the belief of magical creatures ??

I had an adult friend who thought narwhals were mythical.

@manilafiller look how many people have said this is NOT a faith/religion/catholic issue and is more of a teacher issue.

@YourNan don't they just!! I think every post I make there's some sort of attack. I don't let it phase me as everyone is very different. And rightly so. We all deserve an opinion x

I can't think anyone would teach their children that unicorns & fairies are real. Not the school for you though.

@RichardArmitagesWife I love a narwhal. Unicorns of the sea and all that

@luckylavender I'm tired of repeating this now - this a long thread. Please read it or at least skim it if you can before commenting.
I'm not teaching her these things are real. And I'm not expecting others to teach her they are real.
She believes they are real herself, and I don't expect others to rain on her parade. And that of her friends for that matter.

Most averagely intelligent children have, and use, their imaginations. They do not need to be told that the creatures beloved in their imaginations are real though. Fairy tales are not true, but are no less enjoyable for that fact.

You may not think you are complaining about the Catholic religion but you are not accepting what they are teaching. How do you cope with the cognitive dissonance? What were the children taught in your DD’s “Muslim” nursery? If she received a religious education there, is now being taught another, different religion and you don’t believe in either religion, do you not think you’re confusing the poor child? Who is she supposed to trust? Her Muslim teachers? Her Catholic teachers? You? Goodness, even I’m confused 🫤

Embarrassingly, I too thought this much further into my adult years than I’d like to admit. If only a teacher had been less blunt with me about unicorns early on, eh? 😅

It's genuinely insane to me that you would send your child to a catholic school when you’re an atheist…. That’s just crazy! I went to a catholic school and although I have made my own mind up now, I genuinely think it’s incredibly unfair to subject your child to a heavily religious education when you have no inclination at home at all, simply due to the confusion it would surely cause your child. I have no religious inclination either and I honestly can’t imagine the confusion it would have caused my son had I sent him to a catholic school. Sorry, this genuinely isn’t meant to be a criticism, it’s just having been through that education system… don’t underestimate the confusion and the impact of it all.

@BurnToastAgain I think you must have had the privilege of having many school and transport options. That is not the case for many. Myself included.
The closest nursery was primarily Muslim. They actually didn't really do anything religious there at all. They were very neutral. Only thing mentioned really was Eid.
It just so happened (again, as we live in a big multicultural city) that a large majority of the children were Muslim.
It is the same in her school now.
Many people have told me this is not even a religious issue but a teacher issue. Which I'm sure you have seen.
Not confusing at all. I was just asking whether saying what the teacher said was unreasonable

And now I have the Narwhal Song in my head. My kids sang this for years.

I'd be fucking fuming! Not at 4 or 5 years old ffs. Let them believe in magic for another year or two at least!

Oh for goodness sake you cannot send your child to a Catholic school and then be uppity about the religious emphasis.

Speak to the teacher about the issue and find out what happened, don't rely on a child's version, there may be a perfectly reasonable explanation. You won't get an explanation here. Half the time the teachers aren't even religious or practising. Some might have a very religious emphasis but you really need to find out expectations from the school, you can't cherry pick the bits you want.

It sounds like you have massive reservations about religious education, you've got another 6 years of it. Is it really the right place for you? It used to be you had to be a practising Christian to go I don't know why they changed it.

Pps are just trying to start a pile on OP but I'm with you

@RichardArmitagesWife i grew up with this ! What a tune 🤣

And this is my point. Thank you !! X

OP, to be blunt, children are being slaughtered in the middle east at the moment.

Your child will be fine. Most know unicorns are not real animals, even at 4 or 5 years old. Mine does anyway.

I'd leave the teacher alone and you should realise that you are really, really privileged if this has had enough of a negative impact on your life that you've created a thread about it on Mumsnet.

Unicorns are not mentioned in the Bible.

Keep seeing mention of Santa - Saint Nicholas. Who do you think gave that Turkish Bishop his sainthood?

As far as I know, there is nothing in the Catholic doctrine that says children can't believe in fairies.

So your daughter didn’t actually go to a “Muslim” nursery at all did she? My child went to a nursery that was owned and run by Muslim teachers but that’s not a “Muslim” nursery!

I’ve always lived in the countryside and you say you live in a “big multicultural city”. Confusingly, you believe that I have/had many school and transport options, whilst you have very few. How did you reach that conclusion? I drove my child to the nursery of my choice, ditto the school. Could you not find any suitable transport options in your big city? Surely there are choices available to you if you’re not happy with your choice of school?

firstly, I wouldn’t push my kids to believe that any of those things are actually real, like Santa and baby Jesus, it’s all just a fun story that you can choose to believe or not. I would never sit my kids down and expressly state they are real.

secondly if you send your kids to a catholic school when you aren’t Catholic you will have to accept they will be taught things that sing align with your values.

As an aside I was told in a non denominational secondary school by an R.E teacher that dinosaurs weren’t real, luckily I was old enough to know better by that point!

Our nearest academy school is an Islamic one. Would you say the same about that school? If so, to whom would you direct your complaint? If not, why is this school different in your opinion?

@Ineedaholiday23 with all due respect. This is irrelevant. Don't try and pull that one please.
People start threads on here about what they are eating for dinner today.

Jesus was an historical figure, and well-documented.

Whether you consider him divine is another matter, but he existed and is not mythological.