worried about confusing/odd of religious to year 1

[acebaby]

DS1 (age 5 and in year 1) has been doing Genesis in RE at school. He is really into space and astronomy and is (understandably!) confused about the mixed messages he is receiving about how the Earth was made.

Last week, he came home and told me he was a 'non-Christian' - apparently because his teacher had said 'astronomers are not Christians because they don't believe that God made the world' (he thinks of himself as an astronomer). I don't know what is less likely - that DS1's teacher told him this or that he thought it out for himself. DS1 is a clever chap and a deep thinker, but only five and a half!

I am not sure where to go from here. I do not want to offend his teacher or get into any sort of discussion about her personal religious beliefs. On the other hand, AIBU to think that these beliefs are, at best, controversial and should not be shared with a year 1 class?

If it is at all relevant - the school is a private prep with (I had assumed!) a fairly low key Church of England affiliation, and we are not particularly devout Catholics.

Any advice or thoughts about how to handle this would be much appreciated!

Sorry - the thread title got scrambled. Should say

worried about confusing/odd teaching of religion to year 1

Talk to the teacher! If this is what she did say maybe you want to talk to the head. This is not standard C of E teaching, sounds more like fundamentalist Christianity, not C of E.

I sincerely hope the teacher did not say that astronomers are not Christians as that is demonstrably false. There are certainly some Christian astronomers. It is true that you will be hard put to find an astronomer who believes in a 7 day creation but most Christians don't believe in that either.

As a Christian myself I would be seriously upset if a teacher said something like this to my children.

Thank you for your perspectives.

Euphemia - I agree that in principle this would be an interesting point for discussion. But DS1 is only 5 and takes everything his teacher says as the absolute truth. He has even been professing his non-Christianity to his Grandma, who is quite religious .

mummytime, phd47bridge - thanks for your views on this. It is good to know that these are not standard beliefs and that I am not the only one surprised to find them being taught to young primary school children.

I will have a chat with DS1's teacher. I think it is entirely possible that DS1 has got the wrong end of the stick completely (and I hope this is the case!) If the teacher did say this, I'll ask her, as diplomatically as I can, to keep her views to herself - at least when teaching Year 1 .

Euphemia
"
She didn't state her own beliefs, or make any judgement about anyone else's, and it sounds like she gave the kids something interesting to think about."

the op said
"Last week, he came home and told me he was a 'non-Christian' - apparently because his teacher had said 'astronomers are not Christians because they don't believe that God made the world' (he thinks of himself as an astronomer). "

i would hope that is the teacher's opinion rather than statement of fact - I'm a christian and I'm into astronomy.
i'm also a scientist and i believe in god as creator...

I think you need to chat to the teacher to ask what she actually said - my first thought (having gone in all guns blazing when DS was that age....) is that your DS has probably joined up statements which were meant to be separate and made a connection which the teaacher didn't mean.

I can't quite guess what she said, but possibly that "Christians believe X" and "that doesn't match what astronomers believe" and he's made the connection himself.

A teacher said something similar to my DS, and I started this thread. You might like to use some of the examples - e Catholic priest who was the father of the Big Bang theory might be a good example for a budding astronomer.

I hope you discover that he misunderstood what the teacher said. It would be very wrong of a teacher to denigrate any faith.

Thank you all again.

Nikelbabe: Unfortunately, DS1 takes everything his teacher says as a statement of fact. He doesn't get the whole people having different beliefs and opinions thing yet. I also know many scientists who are Christians. I am a scientist myself and not an atheist (although I am not really a practicing Christian anymore)

AMuminScotland: I'm sure you are right. It is far more likely that DS1 has misinterpreted what the teacher said. So I will assume that when I speak to her to clear this up. The only thing that DS1 is consistently accurate about is what they had for lunch!

Onimolap: Thank you for the link. Lots of things there to discuss with DS1 over the next few years!

don't worry, it'll come!
I think i was the same at that age!

I think there's a problem with teachers using opinion at that age - children really don't understand the difference.
Might be worth confirming with him that he can be both...