RC Easter lessons- dd upset

[Naughty1205]

Dd is 5 soon and in Junior infants (we are in Ireland). They have started on some Easter religion lessons ie Jesus dying on the cross/rising from the dead. Dd is really upset about it all, comes home from school saying she has an awful picture in her head of Jesus dying and 'I can't talk about it'. She told the teacher she was sad and upset. Anyone else dealing with the same reaction? Dd is very sensitive to most things. Thanks.

Do you have the right to withdraw her from these lessons? I think lots of schools in the UK would not talk about this in such graphic detail to 5 year olds. It would not be my choice of school, but obviously NI is different. I am sure others may offer suggestions on how you can help your DD, but this will continue, won't it? Every year. I guess you could go down the "it is just a story and nothing like that happens now (?)" line and concentrate on the good that came out of eveil (if you believe all that). I am surprised other parents are happy with this. The sooner religion gets out of schools the better, really.

My DS was told, in yr1 I re-call (in a non-faith school), the story of the good Samaritan.

The RE lady (not his usual teacher, but I think someone who came in to cover PPA time & taught RE during that time) was really graphic in her story - a poor man was kicked to the ground, left laying there, people walked by, kicked him some more etc etc. My (uber-sensitive) DS was traumatised for nights after , said he couldnt get the image out of his head at night.

I went in the following week and told the teacher (on the day that PPA cover would happen) that he was really upset and could she please ask the RE lady to tone it down plus we sent him to a non-faith school so please quit with the over-egging of parables thank you very much.

All sorted. I dread to think how he'd have taken the crucifixion of jesus being told to him

Thank you both for replying. Completely agree with you. 99% of schools here are RC so you've not got much choice. I just find it very strange that they have to expose them to all this at such a young age. We are somewhat lapsed Catholics ourselves. I'll just keep telling dd it's a story, or as dh keeps telling her religion is all a fairytale anyway.

My dd was 4 last Easter, she was fully traumatised by the telling of the Easter story. She kept asking why people would put nails Jesus and would people put nails through her? It went on for weeks.

Yes cuppa, this is probably going to go on until after Easter. Dd has the memory if an elephant unfortunately. I think I'll ask the teacher how much detail she has to go in to. I suppose either way now the 'damage' is done.

I was very interested to read your post re. your child's reaction to the Easter lessons. I presume she's following the new Grow in Love series? I'm a primary teacher (Junior Infants) in Ireland, and myself and my other Infant colleagues (Junior and Senior) have lots of reservations about the new programme ( e.g The annunciation being taught as "Mary alone in her bedroom and a stranger coming with news" ) We tried expressing our reservations about that lesson to the Diocesan Advisor when she came for her annual "inspection" just before Christmas but she didn't seem to acknowledge our concerns at all. I'm sorry that your little girl was so upset by the lesson-it's a lot for them to take in. We've tried to really focus on the "Good News" that Jesus "rose from the dead" (THAT was difficult to try to explain to my Junior Infants) on Easter Sunday, which is why Easter is a time to celebrate. Honestly, between the new RE programme and the incessant 1916 lessons ( trying to gloss over the executions of the leaders- but the older classes are full of it!) I can't wait for Easter holidays this year!

My ds was traumatised by a cartoon shown in class about Buddhism. I was about getting old and dying. He saw a dead body in the cartoon going to be burned. Ds couldn't get the images out his head. I have had a few meetings with the school to explain how upset ds is about this. The educational psychologist has said I need to keep discussing it with ds and answer any questions he has on the subject. And read books to him about the process if death.

It is awful, talking about it and reading about it is not helping. I really don't know why schools font realise some kids are really sensitive to these subjects.