To judge parents who do not even tell their children Easter is a religious festival

[Tuliptana]

I'm shocked that 12 out of 20 children in my childs class had no religious knowledge of the meaning of Good Friday or Easter Sunday for Christians.
All aged 9yrs old.

The date of Easter for the specific day of Easter now used to keep it official, and anyone celebrating religiously, obviously comes from its religious origin. Which came from the date to keep passover timed.

But first problem, passover itself evolved from earlier European spring festivals making the attempt to use this as a reason it's actually religious laughable.

And then on top the name Easter, rabbit symbolism, egg symbolism, the Anglo-Saxon goddess, and spring festivals around that time are up to thousands of years older than Judaism or Christianity.

Basically as expected from a religious think tank, what has come from it is BS without putting a lot of work for more information and context. But yes the holiday is now a blended one for many and there is slightly more to it than just saying religion took that holiday, but you don't have to accept the religious element and that Easter is much older.

As a hardline atheist who was brought up a Baptist, and who knows the Bible pretty well, I was happy to send my kids to a church school, because at the time I used to glibly say 'there's nothing worse that an atheist who doesn't know what the theists are on about'. In fact, it turned out that the school's affiliation to the local church was more about using the hall than spreading the word.

Having met quite a few atheists who were never fed the stuff I was fed, I no longer think you need to know anything at all about the belief systems that religions espouse, because there's no need to argue about it at all.

I think my (now adult) kids have kind of cultural familiarity with what Easter means to Christians, but I don't think they'd score highly in a twenty-question quiz about the events of that weekend. And I don't really see any reason why they should.

To more directly address your point though, I think it's a good thing for schools to teach stuff that parents might disagree with. It's part of learning to think.

20 children in the class?? That’s more of a shock for me!

I would expect 9 years olds to understand that the Bible and Christian religion is flawed and therefore most sensible well educated 9 year olds would understand that evidence shows that it incorrect and false. Even 9 year olds know the difference from fact and fiction

How do you know that very specific statistic? Was your nine year old able to tell you? Meaning they actually paid attention to how many didn’t know and counted them? Odd.

I don’t think you’re misunderstanding @Donttellhim at all. Anti-Irish bigotry is rife on here and is frequently ignored by MNHQ.

Yeah, I think you're right. I reported it and Mumsnet replied that they were "looking into it". So I reported it again, and suggested that if it was referring to (many of) "the English", or (many of) "the Blacks", or (many of) "the Jews" , the offensiveness might be clearer.

For everyone else, if you're talking about "the Irish", you're off to a bad start, and you might want to double check you're not being a racist twat.

My family are atheist, why would I teach my children about the meaning of Easter? Unfortunately, truly secular education doesn't seem to exist, so my daughter attends a Christian school because we have limited other options, and aside from that it is a lovely school. She has learned about it there, but I find it baffling that you'd judge me as a parent for not teaching it to her? Maybe I should be judging you for thinking it's okay to teach children such a barbaric story about a man being nailed to a cross?! Seeing as we're judging!

I judge parents who teach their children that the virgin birth and the resurrection happened

This too!

@WalkDontWalk "To more directly address your point though, I think it's a good thing for schools to teach stuff that parents might disagree with. It's part of learning to think."

I'm not sure I agree with that.

Most children don't develop critical reasoning skills until about 10/11, so education up to that stage must be careful not to implant unhelpful information which may not be age-appropriate.
I would certainly not be happy for any child of mine to be taught for example that there are 72 genders.
It is not the place of the state or public schools to teach children about matters that are at odds with the religious beliefs of their families or communities.

@Parker231" so my daughter attends a Christian school because we have limited other options "

If your atheism is important to your family why not home-school, so you can have control of what is taught?

Or look for a "Community" school which are generally secular and inclusive, they may be referred to as non-religious or even secular schools.

DT’s were lucky enough to attend a school where religious education was banned. Separation of church and state.

I meant what I said!

Was that in USA ?

I have never heard of RE being 'banned' in UK

International school in the uk - French curriculum

OK.

That explains the 'separation of church and state'.

Why would I home educate because I don't like one aspect of school? Aside from the fact that my husband and I both have full time jobs, I don't want to home educate. I also don't have the option of travelling miles out of my way to a different school, that's if she even got a place with us being so far out of catchment.

Then you have the option to withdraw her from RE I suppose?

I do, although I wouldn't, I loved RE at school, I found it fascinating learning about different religions, despite not believing any of them myself. I briefly considered removing her from collective worship, because I think that is different to RE, but ultimately I decided that what she believes is up to her, if something in RE appeals to her then she can explore it further when she's old enough if she wishes. We are an atheist household, but atheism to us is basically a lack of any belief, so there is nothing to teach, god isn't spoken about in our house. I don't love that she has to pray at school, and that certain things are taught as factual, because personally I believe it is indoctrination when children are so young, however I love every other aspect of her school.

Presumably the Christians among them do know

I'm not sure where that idea came from ?

The Bible lists several people who where raised from the dead/brought back to life.
After Elisha the prophet died, he was buried in a cave or tomb. Moabite raiders attacked Israel every spring, one time interrupting a funeral. Fearing for their own lives, the burial party quickly threw the body into the first convenient place, Elisha's tomb. As soon as the body touched Elisha's bones, the dead man came to life and stood up on his feet. The men who tossed the body in Elisha’s tomb observed the man raised from the dead and spread the story far and wide.

The Shummite woman's son - restored to life by Elisha the prophet.

The widows son at Zarapath - brought back to life by Elijah the prophet

Lazarus had been in his tomb for 4 days before he was raised by Jesus.

Our Lord had been in his tomb for 3 days prior to his Resurrection.

Tabitha - restored to life by the Apostle Peter.

Eutychus - fell out of an upstairs window and was pronounced dead. He was restored to life by the Apostle Paul.

If people want to believe that someone came to life after a month they are free to do so, but it isn't physiologically possible as putrefaction would be well-advanced by then.

What have passports to do with religion?
I live in a multicultural Ireland, where there are people of lots of different faiths, & none.
Many people brought up Catholic have looked at the scientific evidence and decided it is not for them, it doesn’t make them less Irish!
The biggest lesson Christianity, and some other faiths, fail to teach to their followers, is respect for those who do not believe as they do.
Teaching about all belief systems from a historical standpoint is fine - indoctrination should be confined to the home and places of worship.
Faith should be voluntary, not forced!

School is the only reason that I learned it was OK to be smart, that there was more in the world than getting a job at the Gas Board at 16, that music existed beyond whatever was played on Radio 2 - and that it wasn't normal to live in a filthy house full of junk or to be hit, screamed at, told that you shouldn't have existed or have a hot iron held up to your face. Oh, and that it wasn't OK to be racist and measurements based upon decimal systems existed despite the parental hatred of anything that wasn't founded in the glorious civilising influence of colonialism.

So I absolutely disagree that schools shouldn't teach things that parents might disagree with. Stuff about the beliefs that have shaped the world and people's actions was as essential as everything else I learned at school.

Could be in France. They have 'laïcité' the separation of the state and religion by law. That's why headscarves are banned in schools. So is the wearing of crosses or any other religious symbols, ablnd they are not taught RS. When we recently had the French Exchange group staying, the kids were astonished that even though we are a state, non-religious school, we have a prayer room.