4 year old taught creationism as fact

[bulbhead]

Hi all,

My partner's child is 4 and has just come back from her reception class telling me that an (emphatically male) God created the world. She has also been taught how to pray.

When asked if she was taught that some people believe this or taught that it's really what happened, she's sure that she was taught it as fact.

I'm extremely angry about this - we send her off to school to be taught real things (at this stage literally just letters and numbers...) so having creationism taught alongside them, with the apparent same factual tone, is maddening.

This is not a Church of England school, it's an English state primary. Could anyone please tell me if this is common and whether I'm able to effectively complain to the school about it?

Thanks!

Ask the head teacher what the school’s policy is regarding religious teaching. It seems to me to be too dogmatic, especially as there may be some children who are from families that come from other traditions or even none.

No matter how sure she seems, I would make your first approach one of enquiry.

I would ask the school rather than trust the words of a 4 year old.
Especially using words like emphatically.

You realise you do have right to withdraw your child from --indoctrination-- creative worship or whatever it was called. My DCs went to a church primary school as it was the supposed to be the best one in our local area.

Ask the school. 4 year olds are not wholly reliable at relaying this kind of information.
Many primary schools have daily 'acts of worship' in assembly even if not church schools.

Shes only 4. Children's perception of events is very open to variation at age. Like when they absolutely 100% see something that they haven't really seen.
As a teacher, 99% of the time when a parent comes in with something like this, the child has misunderstood (I'm not saying she's lied on purpose!)
The concept of 'was it taught as fact or as something some people might believe' is quite advanced for 4 years old.
Please just speak to the teacher first. Being extremely angry about it and ready to complain may be a little far. Of course if that's what really happened then you have a right to be but a 4 year old isn't a reliable source. You also don't want to teach the child you'll always go to school and complain over what she says - they pick up on this very quickly and use it to their advantage.
Last week a year 6 child told their parent I'd told them that Hitler was in hiding, seeking revenge against the English. They had nightmares. The parent complained to the head which isn't a nice phone call for me to receive. She'd also put it on Facebook.
We'd watched a BBC video that mentioned that after death, conspiricy therioes were rife about his whereabouts despite that his cause of death was known (I didn't say anything about it!) Another child said the rest and the child remembered it all completely incorrectly. Fun day for me!

All schools are suppose to do collective worship every day unless a child has been removed from this. Have her parents removed her from this?

As for the stuff about creationism you need to check what has actually happened before complaining. My 4 year old has given 3 different reasons why her teacher gave her a sticker saying ‘brilliant’ and I’m 99% certain that one of those reasons must be true but who knows it could have been something else.

Her parents also have the right to withdraw her from religious education which is different to collective worship.

@Marmite133 surely a yr 6 would know it's virtually impossible for an adult in the 40s to still be alive now?

@EasyCheesyToast just as there are adults in this world who are less intelligent or who haven’t thought things through there are also 10 year old who are the same.

@EasyCheesyToast There are plenty of y6s that would not be able to work that out, no. Their concept of history and time isn't always great.
A very head smashing on desk moment for me.
A lot of these kids still believe in santa though, so 🤷‍♀️

Definitely ask the teacher. I had a 4yr old child turn up at school ready for a trip to the zoo. No letters or anything had gone out, but the parent believed their child because they were so convincing.
The children had set up chairs to represent a train, when I asked where they were going they said “the zoo”’we sang the song as a result pretending to go to the zoo!

My dd (yr1) goes to a state primary school where the headmistress proudly repeats constantly that although she’s catholic, she runs a non-religious school.

Does she bollocks. I have lost count of the number of Biblical stories my dd has come home and told me are FACT because they got told so in class.

I obviously can’t say “don’t believe what your teacher tells you” because that sends all sorts of wrong messages, so i counteract by telling her stories of the myths and legends of many countries (Greek, Norse and Hindu to start of with). This leads to discussions about history and why people felt the need to tell these obviously unrealistic stories when, e.g., they didn’t understand the causes of natural events, or needed a comfort and unifying structure during times of political and social unrest, or simply needed a way to pass on family history and important health & safety information over thousands of years in a non-literate nomadic desert tribe.

This approach seems to be working fine, although it did lead to the slightly impromptu nativity she put on for me and dh in which she was the Star-Angel-Mary, and her baby sister was the Baby Nature Goddess Persephone-Jesus. Lets just hope i’m not asked about that one at parent consultation evening.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm pretty sure she's correct that she was taught it as fact but I'll make sure to question the headteacher on their policies first.

Good approach @RubaiyatOfAnyone!

Headteachers are exceptionally busy at the moment. It might be worth a quick phone call to the teacher first (as the head will go to them anyway to find out what happened).
They are there to help in situations like this, especially when the head is dealing with so much else.

My daughter is 5 and i would definitely not be able to be 100% sure about anything she told me about the school day! Definitely check.

You do realise this isn't your child and you have no say on what is or isn't taught to the child but is up to the parents so why are you so mad?

@hypochondriacseveywhere

@upthewolves

My daughter is 5 and i would definitely not be able to be 100% sure about anything she told me about the school day! Definitely check.

I don't know what your issue with step parents is but I'd appreciate if you could keep them out of my thread. I'm posting sitting next to the mother shares my concerns and asked me to post here for advice. Thanks, all the best.

The above at @hypochondriacseveywhere, I misquoted, thanks otherwise for the advice.

Don't get me started - I am secondary RE trained (and a vicar's daughter)and now I teach in primary I can't believe the way fundamentalism is taught. Not in my lessons. It really shouldn't be like that,even in reception.

RE is a great way to teach independent thought. Such a pity the opportunity is often wasted.

My year three child has being coming home and telling me he can't cut his hair again because it's a sin and his teacher doesn't cut his hair. I told him none of it's real but he tells me it is because his teacher says so 😂

At the start of the school the headteacher said in his presentation ‘we won’t believe everything your child says about home if you don’t believe everything your child says happened at school’

I think this is very true. OP a 4 year old is wholly unreliable

My reception aged child has come out with some interesting things after re lessons. I don’t think they do fully get it at that age but I also can fully believe some things are taught quite emphatically based on some of the conversations we’ve had at home. She’s certainly not been questioning what her teacher has said and is saying things as fact. Now the teaching may well be more nuanced but If so, that nuance has certainly been lost on mine.