Has anyone ever challenged the head over something said in assembly?

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DS has just started year 6, and there's a new Head. It's a CE school and the new Head has come from another faith primary school.

Going by DS's account, something the new Head said in assembly today was untrue - I'm not just talking in the "faith" sense, but historically and fundamentally, provably incorrect.

He's old enough to know it's not true, so came home scoffing about it. I'm thinking about having a word - which I never would have done when DS was younger, but now he's in Year 6 I'm feeling a bit more assertive.

I don't want to humiliate her in her first week of a new job, so wondering what's the best way to go about it - probably face to face, in a "this was what DS said he heard, but surely that's not right" sort of a way.

What was it?

Curious about what it was...

Did she say evolution is wrong, and from now on the whole school will be learning creationism?

no but I wish I had challenged the dick head who after the Tiannamen square weekend said that it showed what happened when people didn't follow rules!! I spoke to my colleagues afterwards, but the only two who were in the assembly said they hadn't been listening to him because he was such a bore. (True). I did 'speak ' to my class though. We had a discussion in the pm about whether it was sometimes right to break rules.....

Very fortunately the teacher of Chinese heritage had called in sick , she was exhausted from doing a vigil outside the Chinese embassy all weekend.

Massively depends on what it was, if I felt it was important enough then yes I would have a word

She said there were no rules in society before the Ten Commandments - that it was chaos and people just did whatever they wanted.

My DS is no history buff but even he knows that there were ancient civilisations with their own codes of conduct.

I think if you are going to pick a fight with school, you should choose your battles more wisely.

That seems iffy even from a Biblical point of view doesn't it? I'm not too good on my OT order of things, but surely there wasn't 'chaos' before the 10 Commandments even in the Bible?

Tricky especially with a new head.
I did email the head after a Christmas service at the local church where there was a collection for an orphanage in Eastern Europe and sent him a link to JK Rowling's charity. I got a polite response back saying he would pass it on.

From a Biblical literalist perspective, that's defensible. Batshit; but defensible. The whole point of the Ten Commandments was that they apply/applied to everyone always, rather than the tiny rulesets of the smaller groups.

Interestingly, when you look at lists of human universals there are very few genuinely universal moral laws, but the overlap with the Ten is pretty close.

I'd leave well alone and not poison relationships over something so trivial.

I think if you are going to pick a fight with school, you should choose your battles more wisely.

This. Sorry

Pick your battles. Your blood pressure will not survive the academic year at this rate.

I agree with crumbs. It's great that your ds is using his own knowledge to question things but it's not worth making an issue of.
Most of the bible doesn't hold up to scrutiny (imo) so it should be interpreted as a story rather than fact.

Gosh, I think that's batshit even from a biblical point of view. "Don't eat the fruit from that tree over there" sounds like a rule to me. But I wouldn't bother the head about it: if it's like this on day 1 I'd save your thunder for when it's even more batshit.

If it's really bothering your ds, perhaps you could encourage him to ask the head what she meant (and not get involved yourself).

If he can catch her in the playground and ask her, she'd probably be delighted that he's showing interest and some independent thinking.

Look on the bright side - he's intelligent enough to question what he's being old and to form his own opinions. Point him in the general direction of historical facts and consider it a good skill for him to keep developing.
This isn't the hill you need to die on imo!

Do you think it may have been introducing the new rules for the school and she used the Ten Commandments as an example of how rules can make something work?

I'd be inclined to say something, and DH definitely would.
A cursory google finds a Christian website talking about the code of Hammurabi predating the 10 commandments, https://pastorreeder.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/the-date-of-the-law-code-of-hammurabi-and-the-ten-commandments/

Why not ask DS to speak to the head. "I've been thinking about what you said in assembly about the 10 commandments. How does that work with some of God ancient civilisations who had rules?" Open question, non confrontational and any decent head would respect this from a yr 6 child.

Not worth picking a fight over I'm afraid.

Just do it.

If you're going to be that parent, you may as well give her the heads-up on day 2.

Anyone who is an educator should be pleased to have their knowledge extended.

Well, maybe the HT meant there were no rules in that society at that time.

It's very tricky, but I wouldn't speak to the head myself. As pp says, if he is bothered, I would ask your ds to speak to HT himself.
My ds goes to non religious school, but once he came home and told me that "the God" made the world, etc, after RE when he was younger(4/5 old). We simply told him that some people believe that, but we don't, and had talk about various religions. Now he is older so he gets it. If he goes to C of E school, I just think it's kind of inevitable that the school teach children on slightly skewed view, and it's up to the parents to teach otherwise?