Too much religion in Reception?

[Trifle]

I am not religious and don't particularly believe in anything. To discuss Jesus/God or any such subject matter was not something I ever envisaged having to do age age 4. However, since Ds1 started Reception in September he is increasingly coming home with questions about Jesus. I think this stems from him having a particularly religious teacher who told Ds1 at Christmas that he had to say thank you to God. I'm not sure exactly what he was supposed to be thanking him for or what his understanding of God is. Since then he has talked about going to Heaven when you die, that Jesus was nailed to a cross and bled to death and who/what/why did this happen. As it is just a regular state school I cant see the point in them having any religious instruction and would far rather they concentrate on reading and writing. Exactly how much are schools obliged to tell them about religion at age 4 and are they going overboard. The father of one child in his class is a Vicar so came in one day to give a great talk about Jesus which will obviously be biased due to his own beliefs. It surely has to be confusing to a young mind to be seemingly bombarded with so much information. I've managed to brush most things off and dismiss it all as a fairy story but am getting annoyed that I am put in an awkward position by the school who are drip feeding him bits and pieces which he then wants me to explain.
Is he getting more than his fair share?

But what i am trying to say is can you not accept that other people don't have that need?

Don't get me wrong i enjoy long walks, and playing the piano, i just don't feel the need to call it nurturing my soul.

I promise i am not trying to pick a fight here just want to hear if you can accept that, in the same way i accept and respect whatever beliefs others have.

Gwenick - Maybe, but a vast majority can be covered ensuring that every child of the schools religion/faith is covered and more. That would satisfy me.

Fran, of course I accept that is what you believe.

BTW - I agree about hell being a bad concept to teach a child - but I don't believe it exists, so no problem there!

But why only stick the religions of children in the school? Surely the whole point of RE is to give ALL children a general background into other religions? What if you've got a school which is made up of Christians and Atheists, perhaps one or two muslims but no other religion - do you just 'not' teach about other beliefs because it's not relevant for the children at that time in their lifes?

On that basis I don't think it's possible to cover all of the religions/beliefs in the UK -

Christian
Muslim
Hindu
Sikh
Jewish
Buddist
Bahai
Spiritualists
Mormons
JW's
Pagans
Jain
Zoroastrian
Wicca
Rastafarian
Gnostic
Humanist
Atheist
Agnostic
Satanism
Scientology

Are just 'some' of the ones that were either a) mentioned on the census information about religions (offical website not the bbc one) or b) are 'known' to be practiced in the UK.

Hmmm. Clever wording, ionesmum.;)

My kids do brilliant assemblies for all the major religious high days and holidays. One of my sons was a most fantastic Eid present fairly recently.

Caligula, I don't mind if my daughter learns about Christianity first or predominantly, not because it's more valid, but because it is embedded in the culture she's growing up in.

As Cod says (I think), my daughter will need a good knowledge of Christianity and the Bible to understand how it has affected everything around her, for good and otherwise. Especially effin' 'ethics' and lterary anlysis (thank you Cod it will always be effin' ethics from now on)

Upon reading this (massively updated since yesterday!) thread.. what strikes me is that you/we/everyone can argue and debate until they are blue in the fact about all the different organised religions and belief systems..it does not and will never change the fact that 'all that is'.. quite simply, 'is'! Despite my Christian roots/upbringing/leanings etc.. I am becoming more and more convinced that this human-creation called 'religion', whilst containing much good and many profound truths, (and of the course the oppostite).. they are in fact, ALL barking up the wrong tree to come extent... some slightly, some massively.. but that is relative of course, depending on where you stand about what is 'right' and what is 'wrong'.

I honestly think the humanist/spiritual approach is the closest people are getting towards 'barking up the "RIGHT" tree'.. all the other stuff is just a human creation.. based around some very remarkable and enlightened human beings (Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed.. etc. ..etc) who almost certainly did walk this earth and live extraordinary lives in order to try to help the rest of us understand what 'it's' all about. And it would appear that more and more of us are feeling this way about exploring our spiritual side.. and for those of us who choose not to, that's fine too.. because we are all exploring our own path.. making our own choices.. creating our own realities (and affecting those of others).. and in doing so, that is part of 'all that is'. One way of decribing 'all that is' is by calling it "God"... but equally, if you choose not to, this doesn't make 'what is', any less real.

SJ x

Gwenick, i am not prepared to keep arguing about this, did you not see i said to teach the majority, to include those attending the school????????
I sense you are looking for an argument that isn't happening

but Fran - you obvsioyly don't see MY point in that how do you 'decide' which the 'majority' are???? And if you 'limit' it to only those found in families with children at the school you could easily omit some of the MAJOR beliefs in this country.

I AM NOT SAYING ONLY TEACH THOSE OF THE CHILDREN WHOM ATTEND SCHOOL

Eemie I agree with you - I also think it's important for kids to learn about christianity because it has been so deeply embedded in our culture that of course they need to know about it to be properly educated - otherwise there's a hell of a lot of effin' cultural references they won't get! But equally, it wouldn't annoy me to hear that my kids had been learning about "worshipping stones" either. For me, that's no more or less preposterous than any other kind of worship. (Although to be pedantic, I'm not entirely sure there is any religion which worships stones - but I'm sure if there are, any stone-worshippers out there on Mumsnet will correct me!)

lol Caligula. I would actually like them to be taught about stone worshippers because it would put all the other faiths into perspective. Worshipping a "God" is just as absurd, to me, as worshipping stones. Think stones would be more fun though

Lol Tinker.

Surprisingly common misconception though that Pagans do worship the stones. Had quite a few arguments about that one.

Message withdrawn

I guess it shouldn't piss me off that my faith can be likened to 'worshipping stones', but it does.

"Worshipping stones"??? I think YOU LOT needed a bit MORE R.E.!

I don't think anyone worships stones really MP! (It was that fishy troublemaker who started the worshipping stones digression! ) She's right about the white though - not too flattering for most people over the age of about six, I think. Nice natural fabrics though.