Come and talk to me if you are an Atheist and you withdraw your DC from collective worship

[sherby]

We have been toying with the idea for a while. On one hand I think well its what? 2 mins a day or something but on the other hand I think well if everybody just sits there and thinks like that then nothing will ever get changed

I have asked DD what she thinks and she said she doesn't mind the praying bit although she doesn't take part but that some other children already leave and she doesn't mind leaving either.

Do your children mind leaving, or do you just let tell them to ignore the praying bit? The more I think about it the more it is annoying me that having to take part in this archaic nonsense should even be in schools in the first place let alone compulsory.

Disclaimer: I have no problem with the DC learning about religion in fact it is positively encouraged, I just do not want them to take part in it.

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once more for luck

I think she will meet people of all faiths and may as well get an understanding of what that means to them as she grows up. Why make a point if she's not bothered?

It's a tough one. My husband and I are atheists and my son's school (although teach broadly all religions) do have prayers etc in assembly. I have come to the conclusion that I will not exclude him from this - for lots of reasons - mainly that there are so many other issues for him to deal with in school, I don't want him to to cause any issues for him being 'different' when he is not yet at an age to understand why (5)
So we have had discussions with him about God, prayers etc etc as and when they come up and just explain to him that lots of people believe in lots of different things - and we believe XXX
This doesn't really answer your question - because in principle of course I agree wholeheartedly with you. The practice has proved rather difficult !

I think lobbying your MP or the department of education would be a better way to make the point than making your daughter leave the room, unless she is being actively required to pray or sing religious songs. They are your beliefs, not hers, and although she may say she wouldn't mind, that might change.

And I say that as an atheist since the age of 7, who stood with mouth firmly closed and eyes open during all the years of prayers and hymns in school assemblies. Well, until I got to the sixth form and took to hanging out in the girls' loos to finish my homework rather than go to assembly....

I'm currently facing the same choice. Don't know what to (or, know what I want to do but don't want DD to suffer by my insistence that she gets out of there!). She is only 4, but she might well not like talking about all this 'pretend' stuff anyway.

I am an atheist

But I have been firm to say to the DSs that they must decide what they want to be, and there are many or none to chose from. I would rather they made the choice than me and they can only do that by experiencing and understanding them. I couldn't care less if they were Muslim, Christian or Hindu - it will just make for good debate as far as I am concerned because noone can prove they are right for sure (despite Dawkins and Hawkins)

Needless to say that after reading out a list of possible religions they chose Jedi Knights

Thanks for input

TBH I am not too worried about her feeling singled out if she was to leave, bizarrely there is a high proportion of JW and Plymouth brethren children at the school who also leave before the prayers.

I think the point is that I don't feel that children should be required to pray/worship at school and that if enough parents withdrew their children if would eventually stop being part of the school day.

Just to say I totally agree that collective worship should not be a required part of the school day.
I'm all in favour of learning as much as possible about all different religions (as well as the 'none' option) but actively taking part in religious worship is another matter.

I'm an atheist. I haven't withdrawn them from collective worship because I feel that it's a part of the school community and I don't want them feeling separate from that or somehow singled out. I do, however, contribute to humanist campaigns against collective worship in schools.

However, if, at an older age, my children said they didn't believe and didn't want to be a part of the collective worship, then I'd support them in that and sign any letters required for them to do that.

If enough parents withdrew the children, the school would still have to do the collective worship because it's required. It has to be changed at policy level.

I allowed my DS to remain in these assemblies but encouraged him to undermine talk about the issues raised at home. You will still be the greatest influence on your child in primary school.

Scurryfunge that's what I do with my two DCs as well. I don't think DS (then 11) made himself very popular with his RE teacher last year - she was a methodist lay preacher who was supposedly teaching about christianity in an unbiased way, but obviously finding that rather hard to achieve. DS did his best to help .