To not want the school to educate my child that disabled people did something bad in a past life?

[Kimi]

DS1 age 12 came home a bit miffed that while learning about the Hindu faith the teacher said people who lived a bad life came back as something bad like a snake or where given a disability .

Fair enough if this is what those of the Hindu faith want to believe then so be it but I think it is something that needed a deeper discussion as to the whys and hows, not just put out there.

I really feel like having a chat with the school would that be unreasonable?

yanbu
what a crock of shit
and probally breaks the law

DS1 is thankfully to smart to buy in to this but I Would put money on it being used against someone at school fairly soon.

Didn't Glenn Hoddle have to resign as England football coach for spouting some similarly strange, quasi religious thing.

Not unreasonable at all!

That is disgraceful! I would be very annoyed about this and would DEFINITELY be speaking to the school about it

I think the teacher may be putting his own spin on it a bit, I am not sure if this is how a Hindu would see it, I grew up with lots of friends of all faiths and I can not recall ever hearing this from any of my Hindu friends, but I am not as up on my Hindu as I should be. I shall have to ask one of them.
Do you think it would be rude to ask on of our Hindu friends to speak with DS1 about their faith?

But it was something he was taught about, not much different from believing water into wine, resurrection with bloody wounds in the side, islam teaching that in martyring yourself you get 13 virgins to be in heaven with.

Being taught about the loony things people believe (and I include Christianity in that as a Christian ) is part of the curriculum. Just like being taught that people used to believe in a flat earth.

Hopefully it was taught sensitively (more than me saying about 'loony' beliefs) and encouraged discussion.

YANBU
I would definately have a talk with the teacher

"Didn't Glenn Hoddle have to resign as England football coach for spouting some similarly strange, quasi religious thing. "

he did indeed.
the fact that hoddle was such an absolutely physically gifted athlete as well made that stick even more with me. because he obviously thinks he earned his god given talent.

stleger I'm not convinced that the Hindu faith is quasi religious.

It maybe that they were giving an oversimplified insight into the Hindu faith but I think it's over reacting to condemn the school for this particular aspect of the curriculum.

YABU as parents its our role to provide deeper discussion.

DPs take on the whole paradise thing....

13 virgins would be no good, 13 hookers might be more fun.......

Any Hindu MNers who can clarify what the actual Hindu take on this is? I have heard something similar WRT religions which include a belief in reincarnation: that disabilities are a 'punishment' for what you did in your past life - and by bearing them bravely, you get to be not disablied in the next one.
I am not, by the way, saying that I believe this. I am an atheist and think reincarnation just as daft as all the other aspects of religion.
However, I don't find this particular belief that much worse than all the homophobia, misogyny, genital mutilation etc that other religions often peddle.

Hindus believe in reincarnation. A lot of religions believe in this.

You need to find out what the teacher said, so YANBU.

Is this in the National Curriculum?

My eldest is only 8 but I wouldn't want this taught to him at all.

Did not want to turn to google, I think I will ask one of our Hindu friends to talk with DS1 although any Hindu mumsnetters out there all help is welcome.

I should just say that my mum has recently had her leg amputated and is now in a wheel chair so I think this is something that has come at a time when as a family we are trying to cope with mums new found disability, also DS1 has tourettes and is in the AS spectrum.
I don't want him thinking it is in any way a punishment.

But I do not want to over react, I have read Dawkins, and I am a fully paid up bible basher I know that knowledge is power and we should look at what others believe and discuss, but DS1 says it was not talked about just told....

Hmm. "The Sins of the Fathers" being revenged on their descendants is something that features in the Bible too.

V.v. dodgy.

Also there is a verse in the Bible ("the Jews" asking for Jesus to be killed and agreeing supposedly en masse for revenge to be taken on their children if they are wrong) that has been used as a basis for anti-semitism for many years.

I'd have thought that the need to find sensible strategies to cope with these sorts of things would be on page 1 of the RE Teacher's Handbook.

I don't think Mr Hoddle was influenced by Hindu theology though (and I find Hindus very sane, open minded people on the whole). I think Mr Hoddle's philosophy was of his own devising? Or am I confusing him with David Icke?

Did the teacher say that disabled people have done something bad, or that this is something that traditional Hinduism teaches?

Because there is a big difference. Children have got to be allowed to learn about the wacky beliefs that people have held in the past/still do hold, and distinguish belief from fact.

Teaching children about nazism is not the same as teaching them that Jews are subhuman.

Traditional reincarnation belief does include the idea that you will be reborn in a new guise according to how you behave in the present life: so if you are really bad, you will be an animal, slightly less bad a suffering human (poor/lowcaste or disabled), if good you will have a more comfortable life. However, the comforting side is that you don't just get one reincarnation: if you then behave better, you can have a better life the next time. The ultimate reward is to get out of the whole treadmill and not have to be reborn at all.

Of course, Muslims and Christians also believe that you get punished after death: the difference is that it happens elsewhere, where we don't have to see it, and that you only get one stab at life.

Ideally, of course, a lesson on Hinduism and reincarnation ought also to include how modern Hindu theologians interpret this. Because I am fairly sure most Hindus do not use reincarnation belief to feel smug about disabled people.

My dcs have learnt about a whole range of religions as part of the National Curriculum, but they always seem to have understood that this is about learning how other people believe, not about facts. They don't have to become Christians one week and Sikhs the next.

Well wait, your thread title and OP both say contradicting things.

The thread title suggests that the teacher told the class that if they live a bad life, they might come back in the next life with a disability (and that people who are disabled did something bad in a previous life.) Which of course is totally inappropriate.

However the OP suggests that the teacher stated that reincarnation is part of the Hindu belief system, and that it is the Hindu belief that misdeeds in one life may be punished in subsequent life by being reborn as an animal or disabled person. I have no idea if this is a commonly accepted Hindu belief but if it is, it's no worse than saying that Christians believe that if you lead a bad life, you go to Hell. IMO.

YANBU wanting more discussion on it, but maybe they didn't have time or something.

Reincarnation is an important part of Hindu belief, and yes they do believe that people who are poor or disabled have done something bad in a previous life. It's one of the reasons communism or revolutionary ideas have never taken hold. I think discussing all faiths and atheism is an important part of religious education. To discuss Hinduism and not discuss this aspect of the faith would be negligent.
I'm surprised that at 12 your son doesn't understand that just because Hindus believe this doesn't make it true, and that it is just 1 of many beliefs. My son is 12 and finds world religions interesting (he's doing Buddhism at the moment) but sees the mythology angle.
Is the problem that you have a poor knowledge of world faiths?
You can't discuss the whys and hows of faiths. People believe stuff because they believe it, usually because that's what their parents have told them is true.
It was doing world faiths and realising people believed hugely differing myths that made me decide they were all a piece of nonsense.