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 ??

The majority of Irish children go to Catholic schools. Most of their parents are not Catholics in any sense, and nor are the teachers. It's an enormous game of pretend. Nothing terrible happens. None of their children actually grow up to be Catholics. They/we don't suffer problems for the rest of our lives as a result. They don't get taught when they're 4 that fairies, unicorns, Harry Potter, Santa, the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny, Hindu gods, leprechauns and magic aren't real. Some of the posters on here genuinely have more vivid imaginations than any 4 year old I've ever met.

Stupid ignorant comment. How does Catholicism seek to control? Anyone can walk away from it any time, no consequences whatsoever. They do not try to convert people and let others be. What on earth are you talking about? Keep your ignorance to yourself please. You have shown that you know absolutely nothing.

I have my own experience with this, I don't agree. Just because a lot of people do something doesn't make it harmless.

Hear hear, I have read such ill informed and pathetic tripe on this thread, it is embarrassing that adults are so ignorant.

If that were genuinely the purpose of school then why don't all schools simply sit down the reception class on their first day and explain to them all the things that aren't real. I gave a partial list just above. The non-religious schools would have to add that gods, devils, demons, angels, chi, chakras, crystal healing, psychics, astrology etc etc are also not real. There's a reason no school does that, it's not actually the purpose of education.

Irish people are demonstrably no more nuts than English people, the vast majority of whom do not go to Catholics schools. All children are taught nonsense because all adults believe nonsense, whether grounded in religion or not. It's the normal human condition.

Nuts? I never said that. If you don't already know the implications of Catholic school you'll never know.

If about the same number of children emerge from it sane as do from any other educational system then these mysterious 'implications' are irrelevant. I'm Irish, I've heard every single possible treatise on the horrors of Catholicism and Catholic indoctrination. Rabbitting on about it has been a national pastime for several decades now.

Magic encompasses witchcraft, bkack magic, demons , monsters, dragons etc
I can remember a boy at school telling me he could do bkack magic and woukd nake my little sister and oarents die.I waa vwey relieved when my dad explained there was no such thing as magic

I’m a bit confused by this OP. You started your thread drawing a parallel between what the teacher said and the school’s Catholic/ religious ethos (the latter which you said you were fine with).

Based on a lot of the replies you then acknowledged that the general consensus was that it wasn’t a Catholic/religious issue but a teacher issue.

Then you say you are seriously considering moving your daughter out of the school. This seems a bit extreme. In your initial post you said it was you who were upset at what the teacher said, not your daughter. How is she feeling about being corrected by the teacher about fairies, unicorns etc? Is she otherwise happy and settled at the school?

I actually get where you were coming from in terms of why did the teacher have to rain on your daughter’s parade, so to speak, but I’m with the people who have suggested that religion didn’t have anything to do with it.

Children may have hazy notions of reality and fact. But it’s just not true that “A minority of adults are apparently now vehemently opposed to this.”

Parents have always told children that there is no such thing as ghosts, witches, vampires, goblins, the bogeyman etc etc.

That means, in turn, that parents haven’t strung their children along that fairies and unicorns are real.

I’m always amazed by threads on MN that say that an older child still believes in Santa or that a younger child genuinely thinks the (wretched) elf on a shelf comes alive at night. They are the modern minority, IMO.

'Parents have always told children that there is no such thing as ghosts, witches, vampires, goblins, the bogeyman etc etc.

That means, in turn, that parents haven’t strung their children along that fairies and unicorns are real.'

Good lord no that doesn't follow! Most parents will happily allow their children to believe in things that aren't real at an age-appropriate level provided they're nice, non-scary things, while at the same time reassuring them that other things that are scary are not real. They'll literally teach them that God exists but the Devil doesn't. Angels exist but demons don't. Heaven exists but not hell. Fortunately small children are not hugely logical and will accept this.

I'm sure that 12 year olds who still believe in Santa are a minority, yes. 4 year olds who don't believe in Santa are also a minority. So I have no idea what kind of parents you think are a minority.

Correct. It was me who called catholics dour and joyless. I say that as a child of a parent who was beaten by priests. Also as someone who briefly attended Catholic private school (no beatings for me), it was worse: dull, joyless and also not very academic. Plus ça change!

Think you’ve tagged me incorrectly here.
Think you meant this for the previous poster
Never mind

@junbean
just in case you are wondering that was me who reported you.
your comment was classed as hate speech.

Thankyou MN

We’ll have to amicably disagree.

When I was at primary school (in about 1907) a common way of expressing disbelief was ”oh yeah, and there are fairies at the bottom of my garden”.

I don’t recall unicorns being much of a thing among children back then.

Did she actually ruin anything for her though, or are you projecting? Was she upset?

@Tandora she was not upset. She was very matter of fact. Which took me aback.
Her teacher could tell her that my daughter's skin is actually bright purple, and she would wholeheartedly believe it and shout at me if I told her otherwise.

Simply the teacher is correcting them. It’s not like she said Santa isn’t real.

It's exactly like it. If a kid said Santa was real and a teacher corrected them, most parents would kick off. So I totally sympathise with the OP.

I really don't think ANY children believe in mythical beings like fairies and unicorns, and if they do, they should be put right. Why are you going to lie to them like that?

There are enough amazing real things in the world to make it totally unnecessary to confuse children and destroy their trust in you by pretending made up things are real

Aw bless her. see that’s the thing- I doubt it has ruined anything for her knowing they aren’t “real”. I think to an older child or adult it’s sad thinking these magical things aren’t real. But the mind of a 4 year old doesn’t quite work the same way- Everything is fantasy to them and life everywhere is full of wonder. What is real or not means less and matters less. I bet you she will still love fairies and unicorns all the same xx

Agree.

And actually, as a survivor of a convent school from 4 to 18, no one there ever expected me to believe Genesis was literally real, or that celebrating Halloween was sinful and anti-Christian, both of which my DS was taught at a C of E school. Catholicism has much greater latitude re supernatural stuff in general. Though English Catholicism seems rather more uptight.

Adults have traditionally allowed children to believe/sorta kinda believe/have hazy boundaries about things that are not real. A minority of adults are apparently now vehemently opposed to this.
I think there's a big difference between adults giving space for imaginative play and adults being invested in promoting that fairies/unicorns/dragons are literally real beings.

My general observation is that adults have always done the former, and even now most adults haven't got a problem with it. Imagination is fun and imaginative play is good for children.

More recently there's adults who seem a little over invested in promoting fictional characters as literally real.

There's something similar with Santa. I remember being a child and almost working it out around 6/7 and adults generally accepted the questioning was part of growing up. We still played along for a year before we properly asked.
Now there's threads on Mumsnet every year where adults are devastated that their 9 year old has questions about Santa, how can they keep the magic alive, how can they keep DC believing. What are they going to do because their child is going into Year 7 next year so this is the last magical Christmas and how are they going to tell them Santa isn't real.Then add in the introduction of that bloody elf. It could be a fun piece of make believe, but some adults are invested in telling their child there's a literal elf visiting the house with a phone line to Santa.

I think there's been a shift in adult attitudes where they think unless they teach something as literally true, it's not fun or magical.

I agree with a lot of what you say, and I agree with the insanity of trying to keep children believing in father Christmas, but I disagree that it is common outside of Mumsnet.

I have literally never met a single child over the age of 3 who "believes" in Father Christmas, rather than just enjoys the game with their parents, knowing full well it is just pretend