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?

I consider myself vaguely pagany. I very much doubt that I would have considered sending my DC to a school like this.

Firstly, I want them to go to a school where the teachers are professional, and respected enough to be paid properly. What’s to stop volunteer teachers from buggering off mid way through the year and leaving their class with no teacher? I want my kids to learn that skills and expertise should be valued, not expected for free.

Secondly, I suspect that the type of parents who would send their children here would be at the more eccentric end of the spectrum. The children would all be called Rainbow, Karma, Leaf and Meadow. Head lice would be rampant, and behaviour would be horrendous, because little Meadow is just expressing herself when she smacks Rainbow over the head, so we mustn’t tell her off. And half the school would be wiped out by a measles outbreak due to parents being antivaxxers, and exacerbated by classes being held outdoors regardless of the weather. I’m sure this isn’t what you have in mind Op, but this is what other people will imagine. So poor exam results will lead to the more capable kids going elsewhere, leading to more poor exam results, etc etc.

I'd be very concerned about relying on donors for funding and expecting staff to volunteer. What would you do if the donations don't come in to the level you would expect, just have staff working for free indefinitely? I'm Pagan and work as support staff in a school and there's no way I could just work for free for years and still be able to afford basic necessities like food and housing! There are a lot of costs you wouldn't expecting running a school and donations are variable. How can you pay suppliers when you might not have the funds coming in?

In a world with a worldview that values contribution to the greater good over money.

Educating and safeguarding children is too vital a job to operate on a good faith system rather than stringent qualifications, training and fair pay.

You seem to be implying that teachers who don't want to work for free are somehow less morally upstanding than those who would be willing and able to?

Everyone working for love and not money is a lovely idea conceptually but in reality funding is required to do things fairly and safely when it comes to jobs such as teaching.

In a world with a worldview that values contribution to the greater good over money.

How do these people afford to eat, heat their houses, travel etc?

Presumably they'd be residential too.

Would it even be legal to do this, not even paying minimum wage? A 'community' where people have no financial independence could be quite problematic.

@ErrolTheDragon

Presumably they'd be residential too.

I work in a residential school.

No one eats every meal in the dining hall. You are still working then.
You need down time away from the students and to cook your own food occasionally. That requires money.

Most 'alternative' faith schools in this country have been set up by parents or leaders of those faiths. Most of them are private. Those that are state funded have to follow state requirements for education, whereas for example, private Jewish schools can teach only Torah based things, text books have bits which don't align with their beliefs removed. It's not the same with state funded faith schools - the local catholic primary school still has to teach about Islam for example.

The staff of the school will still need to have the appropriate qualifications, enhanced dbs and have safeguarding procedures in place. These are basic requirements for any educational facility and it can be costly. Depending on your contribution levels these may initially have to be self funded, I'm not sure how viable this is?

Good for you.

We reject the notion that money, and pay, are the overriding considerations here. There are better ways of organising things.

1. I have listed some of the beliefs and practices that are considered pagan
2. They identify as pagan themselves

YOu have said they are not, but you have not said why they are not. I dont think you have got an answer

well, of course, no one wants to be associated with steiner history, ( and nor do they) but their world view is pagan

this is exactly what I am saying. There is no one paganism. as a word, it does not mean a specific belief system, and many people of many different belief systems have adopted the word, largely because it has a bit of street cred, rather than for what it means, then they all say that everyone else isnt pagan and they are, and that is why you could not have a new "pagan" school. YOu would need a school for a specific type of named paganism, such as Steiner, and parents who want that type of system praying to the spirit of the fire, praying to the earth, etc, would not leave Steiner to go to a different type of pagan school becasue they get what they want from Steiner. A lot of Steiner parents are not pagan themselves, but have chosen a pagan school, and the fact that Steiner schools are often very undersubscribed, shows there is not really any further market for this anyway

parents who want a pagan education are already well catered for in Steiner schools

so, like most teachers then.... but they still need to be paid something! There are no teachers, you will not be able to staff a school with volunteers who are capable teachers who will pass a DBS check

If you think you can, go ahead

Steiner cant do it, and they pay!

I assure you, pay is not the overriding consideration for any one in the country choosing teaching as a career 😂

It sounds like a cult and indoctrination. Randomly selecting people who are keen to work for free to teach children is a humongous recipe for disaster and safeguarding nightmare.

I think we've already covered this.

They are not randomly selected.

YOu have not said why you dont consider them to be pagan, when most other people do, and certainly anyone looking for that type of education would go there, and they cant find either the paid staff, or enough students, so how will you?

I get you dont like their past. They dont either. But I am talking about their belief system. What is it about them that you do not consider pagan?

Neither Pagans, nor the Steiner schools themselves, consider them to be Pagan. For you to say they are, you are, in effect, telling Pagans what Paganism is.

Our group will provide the teachers. You don't need formal qualifications to teach in a home school, for example.

you explain why not please.

YOu have started a thread on paganism, not me!

YOu say I am telling pagans what pagans are, no, I am telling you who has told me they are pagan, and pointing out that there is no one definition, as far as I can see.

Steiners tell me they are pagan, and they certainly look pagan to me.

I have asked you why you dont consider them pagan, and am genuinely very interested to hear your answer but you dont seem to be able to give one

Do you think they would consider you to be pagan?

steiner fits every definition of paganism that I have googled, except the practice of ritual sacrifice.

( some may argue they do!)

My other question is what is your school going to teach. Aside from paganism. What GCSEs an A levels? and how, without qualified teachers?

A member here in a position to know has already told you that they don't consider themselves Pagan, though there might be individual Pagans who teach at them.

What do you mean by saying that they look Pagan to you?

They are part of the New Age movement, which is heavily influenced by Christianity and Eastern thought, as well as modern psychology and other techniques and theories. These things are fine, of course, but are not Paganism.

I've just had a look at their website and there is no mention of Paganism. So you'll have to argue now that they're trying to hide it, for some reason.