FAITH SCHOOLS! If you don't agree with them, step this way, my dears.

[onebatmother]

What can be done?

It seems to me that many of us don't agree with them, and some of us (not I) are quite knowledgeable about the ins and outs.

Could we not start a movement?

It's all so wrong, really, isn't it?

Sorry. I assumed nametaken was talking about the kind of 'teaching' that my dc get at church ie the specifics of that particular faith.

A bit surprised that Christianity is now so far removed from a carpenter talking to a crowd of people on a hill or at a party that you need to be a qualified teacher to teach it. From my limited knowledge of Christianity, this would seem to go against its ethos, but hey ho.

I think religion does require a qualified teacher.

By that reasoning, does IT require a qualified teacher, or Domestic Science, or English Literature even.

Come on! RE yes. Because it is taught as an academic subject. But teaching children about the faith in which they are raised, that their parents presumably live, is a different matter.

And to use your analogy, food technology requires a qualified teacher. Teaching your own children to cook, to eat healthily and to love food does not. In fact, it's the best place for that kind of education, don't you think?

I so haven't been paying attention to MN for the past few days, so if this has been said already, just ignore me.

I think that the very best strategy would be for people of faith to act with altruistic motives in running a school. The school should be for local children, regardless of the faith or no-faith or them or their parents, for the purpose of giving them a fully rounded education.

The religious element should be restricted to the motives of those who actually set the school up as a charitable function to serve people. Simple as that. I don't think it's practical to 'ban faith schools', because the CofE run so many good schools, however, admission should absolutely not be anything to do with faith.

There should be a straight-forward religion and philosophy class as part of the the curriculum, and daily assemblies should be for the purpose of school corporate identity, not piecemeal quasi-religious gubbins.

I found the idea of sending ds to the local church school when it came to it. I did not feel happy with the religious supernatural made up stories I could see myself shaking my head in wonderment at for the next 6 years. So happily ds has got a place at the non denom.

So count me in.