Humanism?

[Lacrimosa]

Is anyone else out there a Humanist? What do you do about RO in your childs school?

Whats a humanist? I havent heard of it before

Humanism has more than one meaning,it is an attitude of mind that is centered on mankind and human interests, not to the exclusion of other animal species , but definatly to the exclusion of gods devils angel and other make believe things, and for the promotion of human happieness in light of reason and co-operation of others is that too heavy?

what's an RO? (i googled humanism)

Religious Observance, praying .

Don't know what I'll do. Probably let him take part for integration's sake (it's a community primary so the religion is fairly light I think) but tell him that God is just a story at home.

Aloha, do you live in Britain?

do they still touch on religion in primary school these days? I thought they squeezed all this out of the school system years ago?

Religion Observance is actually required by law in British schools Humanists are activly working on having this changed as the observance/prayers are based on the general community. In scotland they are supposed to spend at leat 6 hours a week doing this!

strange. surely this should just be a private thing at home (which is what you're probably saying)

i'm indifferent btw, just curious.

I believe that all children should have Religious Education to try and prevent sectarianism etc. Though I also believe that religion is a personal matter and that it is up to each and every individual to chose what they believe to be true. Most of my friends are very faithfull to their religion, and none of them are Humanist! The law for RO was written over 103 years ago! I cant believe that the Scottish Executive still adhere to it so much!

Yes, English school.

Maybe if you live in an area where ther are many religions you will not find it a problem, I live in the west coast of scotland where sectarianism is a problem, most schools in my area are Catholic or Protestant

My parents wrote a note exempting me from Scripture (as we called it in the 70s) and assembly/praying etc because we are Atheists. I thought that was all you had to do.

The idea of RE is to educate the childen in belief's of others to try and create a harmonious world. Our school teaches about protestants, catholics, jews, ratafarians (sp), muslim's, sikh's etc etc. They don't ask that you convert to a faith or believe in what you are being told, all they want is for the children to acknowledge and respect each others cultural and religious differences. Many school use the lords prayer after assembly but if you are a non believer you can either give it lip service or just stand quietly whilst they others get on with it.

our school isn;t a church school but they pick up a lot of mainly Christian stuff. dd2 (3 and at the school nursery) has a doll that has been "Jesus" since December. Today she told me that her baby had "got God". She couldn't actually formulate an answer when I asked her what that meant but I think it had something to do with the miniature books that were getting stuffed up Jesus' vest at the time. in other words I'm not particularly worried! dd1 is 5 and picks up more. We approach it all from the "some people believe...." angle. Obviously there are certain truths about Jesus but there are certain bits subject to debate. she just knows that we don't believe he was the son of god etc (mainly coz we don;t believe in god) but that some people do. I don't believe in bringing her up to think the same as we do would rather let her make her own mind up. (I'm not humanist but am an atheiest leaning agnostic iswim, with a broadly Christian-like morality-ish thing with some humanist elements thrown in I think, and a bit of concern about certain elements of organised religion)

I think you are all right I really want my children to learn about loads of religions and to try to understand them, I believe it is the only way they can grow up to respect others. The school stuff wouldnt bother me so much but my ds was told in front of the school assembly please sit in the office you are different in front of adults also! So you can understand why its such a bug bear

good night x

I describe myself as a humanist. The BHA's definition is "Humanism is the belief that we can live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs. Humanists make sense of the world using reason, experience and shared human values. We seek to make the best of the one life we have by creating meaning and purpose for ourselves. We take responsibility for our actions and work with others for the common good." which I think sums it up fairly well.

mummyhill - a lot of schools don't do any more than you are describing, but legally they are supposed to have a daily act of collective worship "wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character". That's what RO (Religious Observance) is, as opposed to RE (Religious Education). I'd never object to RE for DS (at least, I'd never object to the concept of it, although I might object to the execution. But then the same goes for other subjects) but I'm not keen on RO. Ultimately I think he should make his own mind up, though. If he wants to be excused from RO then I'd back him up in that; if he's happy to go along with it then that's also fine.

I suspect it's not going to be too much of an issue at his likely primary school because it's sandwiched between a very good CofE school and a very good RC school, which between them are likely to have siphoned off most of the enthusiastic Christian contingent.

Hi! I'm an atheistic / humanist RE teacher, believe it or not! Whilst I would defend the role of RE to the hilt (I think every child should be given the opportunity to ask questions and think for themselves), I do not agree with taking assemblies, or praying. My DD does not go to school yet, but when she does I will specify that we are atheist and that she should never be forced to pray. If she wants to do it just to fit in then I'm not too bothered, as I don't believe in it, I see it as no more than empty words, but if she were to object and they were to force her, then I would exercise my right to have her removed from acts of daily worship (as an ultimate last resort). But she is only 2, so we're no where near that scenario yet!