to not allow my child to do a reading in church?

[GooseyLoosey]

Dh and I are atheists. The dcs attend the local school which is C of E (although wholly state funded). There are no alternative non-C of E schools locally.

The school tends towards being very religious and there is a special Easter service in church for the school this week. Ds (5) has been given a reading to do at this service. It includes many "Praise God" and "God is good" type statements.

I don't wish to over react but getting ds to actively participate in an act of worship may be a step too far for me. AIBU to object and to consider telling them to get someone else to do this?

"Do you allow your son to celebrate Christian festivals such as Easter and Christmas?"

Sure, why not? It is not as if there is any immediately obvious religious significance to either day anymore.

Christmas is when everyone gets presents and streets are all lit up.

Easter is when she seeks out chocolate eggs etc in the garden with her friends.

They might not have any religious significance for many people, but I think that it is reasonable that children are told how they came about.

Wow - I have been away and am amazed to see that this has gone on so long without me.

For those of you who are interested, ds did the reading, although we talked about it in advance and what it meant to us. I also reminded his teacher (in casual conversation) that we are atheists.

I did not go. Ds did not ask me to and expressed no desire to see me there. However, I did have to deal with a number of shocked parents who wondered how I could bear missing my child's moment of triumph.

It has been very interesting reading this debate. The most surprising thing I have found is the number of people who have said that I should just move or send my child to a different school. It has always been my view that when I perceive that something is wrong (as I think religion in state schools is), I should not shut my eyes and hope that someone else deals with it, but should confront it openly.

It's been a good thread gooseloosey - thank you for starting it. It has been an interesting discussion which I think most particpants found very illuminating - no matter what their actual beliefs were/are.

I hope you also found it useful. Did your ds enjoy doing his reading or did he still feel a bit uncomfortable? Did his teacher comment at all when you reminded her that you were atheists. Or do you think she is still hoping to get your ds to "see the error of your his ways"?

Bet you never thought that this thread would verge on running out of capacity!

I think it has been interesting. I feel very strongly that the government should explain that all state schools are Christian in ethos.I expect that in another few weeks someone else will start a thread because they were under the impression that their DC was at a secular school.
I can see that you don't think that there should be faith schools GooseyLoosey, but there would be a major problem. The Cof E has
4,470 primary schools and 220 secondary schools. As I understand it the church owns the buildings-could the government afford to buy them off the church? Historically the church provided education up until 1870 and then the 1870 education act provided Board Schools for the places that didn't have a church school. It is very complicated-the government can't just seize the church's assets.

I understand the general point you are making piscesmoon - but it's not as black and white as that with regard to "church assets". From what GL described, the school in her village was built and is funded by the LEA, it is just run be the CofE

SO it is being paid for by the tax payer, ie us.

The tax payer will pay for a lot of it-but I would be surprised if GL knew exactly who owned what and who paid for what-I taught in one and haven't a clue! Do you know for a fact GL that the church doesn't own the land and buildings?

As the church is a 'state church' there should be no difficulty in transferring one set of state assets to a different branch of the state, ie the education system. If the church were not a 'state church' the property would be private and there might be more of a difficulty. This argument always seems to me to be a red herring. The pro-state church people want to have it both ways - ie we're a state religion, so everyone has to put up with us and support us whether they like it or not, BUT our property belongs to us (ie the churchytypes) and everyone else had better keep their hands off. What's yours is mine, but what's mine is my own.

The only way that schools will stop having the 'state religion' is if church and state separate-in which case I see no reason why the church would hand over very valuable assets. While they are intertwined it doesn't really matter as there isn't a lot of difference between church schools and non church school.