Pagan faith school / college

[DaughtersofFrya]

There are many faith schools, but no Pagan ones, and I'd be interested to hear some opinions on the subject. Would you like to have attended one, or would you consider sending your children to one in the future, for example?

What's his source?

The ONS has 405k people (0.7% of the population) who chose 'other religion' in the last census, of which 74k identified as pagan:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/bulletins/religionenglandandwales/census2021

Dissatisfied with the state of the education system in general, and also with its wilful ignorance of Paganism.

It's well known that the census grossly underestimates Pagan numbers. Prof. Hutton based his findings on surveys of groups and festivals.

It would better for all schools to be secular. DS is at a Christian school as it’s most local to us, but it gets very awkward when I have told him something is a myth and his teacher tells him it is history.

“Paganism is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism.”

Hindu = paganism, Budhism = paganism. We are not just talking Wicca or Jedi.

All faith schools should be outlawed imho as they do nothing but brainwash.

It's well known that the census grossly underestimates Pagan numbers. Prof. Hutton based his findings on surveys of groups and festivals.

Don't people give their own answers to the census and is everyone asked?
On the census 74 000 people said they were Pagan.

Why would so many pagans lie to the census people and then complain that they are not represented.
Or maybe the people who attend the festivals gave the answer that was wanted at the festival and were honest on the census.

I don’t mean to be offensive but ‘pagan’ doesn’t really mean anything in religious terms. It was a description used by the Christian authorities in the late Empire to delineate people who had not yet been evangelised. It just means people who are not Christian, within that you could be a worshipper of Isis, or Cybele, or Woden. Jews and Muslims, though, were not described as Pagan ( a distinction adopted by Islam during the Conquest).

‘Pagan’ originally came from the word describing people who lived in the countryside and so by implication were not exposed to the sophistication of city life. It had a slightly pejorative implication : so ‘rustic’ , ‘bumpkin’ or even ‘yokel’ would be a suitable translation.

I hear there's a lovely one on the small Scottish island of Summerisle.

That is not how the term is used today, by Pagans themselves.

It's well known that the census grossly underestimates Pagan numbers. Prof. Hutton based his findings on surveys of groups and festivals.

The census has 94% coverage of the UK population. That 74k isn't an 'estimate', it's what people who completed the census said. I agree it's likely to be more than 74k as I daresay a fair few didn't feel strongly enough to specify.

Is Prof Hutton's sample size statistically reliable? I mean if he surveyed a pagan festival I guess quite a few participants would be pagan.

Even so, the pagan population proportion is going to be less than 1% and presumably spread across the UK so would there be sufficient concentration in an area to make a pagan school financially viable?

Steiner schools are not pagan! They're an obscure esoteric sort of Christian. They very much follow a Christian calendar and believe in that version God and creation. They add in some pre Christian gubbins as well, but they're definitely Christian at the root.

A lot of Pagans gave answers like Heathen, Wiccan, Druid, or a host of other names for specific branches within Paganism.

faith schools largely are privately funded, particularly their buildings. Even the state ones

Ah okay thank you, do I agree with you as I said, I just found your first post slightly unclear

I do have a migraine this afternoon so that'd probably just me sorry

Pagan is a term used by Pagans today, and therefore has meaning.

I think it's a great idea. Celebrating all the festivals on the Wheel of the Year and having lots of forest school activities. It really gets children in touch with the cycle of nature. I bet it would catch on. I say this as a (very liberal) Christian. I'd happily have sent my DC to a pagan school if it was nearby and good. I'd just take them to church on Sunday too.

It would be a residential school and therefore cater for the whole of the UK, or indeed the world.

but bhuddists are an organised religion, and Judaism is an organised religeon, whereas quarter of a million pagans are likely to have quarter of a million definitions of what paganism is

you have proved that yourself, by saying that you dont consider steiner schools "pagan" when they mostly consider themselves "pagan" and pray to fire, and earth, etc.

No Pagan I know of considers Steiner schools Pagan.

I already feel sorry for the world wide community of kids destined for this school

I grew up deeply immersed in the Steiner movement (in the UK) and I can say with some certainty that the schools do not consider themselves pagan. Some of the staff do, I imagine a higher proportion than in state schools.

You can start you own school if you feel there would be a call for one.

faith schools largely are privately funded, particularly their buildings. Even the state ones

State faith schools own their buildings but the vast majority of their running costs comes from the state. (And in the case of the CofE, as it's the state church with its property largely the result of gifts from the crown, taxes etc arguably they're state assets too).

there we go, exactly

many steiners consider themselves pagan

many others consider steiner pagan

They pray to the being of the fire, the being of the earth, and so on, they are all hung up on angel type beings and reincarnation and so on

They define themselves as pagan

what is it about them that you specifically consider not to be pagan?

They are mostly state schools.