AIBU to be a bit miffed that DS's (non-church) school does prayers at morning assembly.

[TheSweetLittleBunny]

Christian prayers. We are atheists. I chose a non-church school so why do they pray at assembly? I have no problem learning about religion, ALL religions my problem is that he is being taught Christian worship. I don't want to exercise my right to pull him out of assemblies, because that would mean that he misses all the other stuff that they do in assembly.

We went through a phase of DS telling us we were Muslims as that was what they were studying in RE (in Reception, no less). 4 yr olds cannot distinguish between Jesus, Buddha, Santa and the evil bogeyman living in the toilet.

He is now 9; we have a shrine to Athena in our sitting room as they did Greeks last term; we were required to leave a nightly sacrifice for a while there...

Just saw this thread... my views are much like the OPs. I'm particularly miffed because DDs school is independent and therefore doesn't have to do the hymn&prayer bit in assembly, but does it anyway. One reason we chose it was cos all the nearby state schools are 'faith' ones. No escape!

But DD has got to yr 5 pretty unscathed. She seems quite good at discerning fact from fiction - I guess we gave her a solid grounding in trips to science museums, books about dinosaurs and the solar system, fossil-hunting walks. So I've got a bit more relaxed about it - just as well since she got in the choir and we've been ODed on christmas carols recently

Policy, I think you may need to talk to the school and explain it is upsetting your son, and maybe they will reword to the 'some people believe'. My son would always come home and word it 'Christians believe' or 'Muslims believe' so I think your school does seem to be lacking a comparative element. The RE curriculum does tend to get more technical and comparative as they get bigger, but I can see your problem.

At school, most reception or it might be year 1, do a load of stuff on traditional tales, and perhaps you could explain it in that way to your son. Wolves cannot talk to girls in red coats, pumpkins do not turn into coaches and Noah did not get all those animals on that ark. But you need the school to back you up; I'm sure my son's schools does refer to them as religious tales!

My daughter insists that some wolves can talk and that Bernadette saw the ghost of Mary; my son has never believed any of it.

That's interesting, Milly - thanks. I might just do that at the next parents' evening.

Part of the problem is that DS1 LOVES school and is doing very well, so I think he's very invested in the idea that school is Right. As far as he's concerned, it's like him coming home with a gold star for a science experiment and me telling him that his experiment is a load of nonsense!

MrsSean, I'm sorry to upset you - genuinely. I'm not normally someone who seeks to be rude to people of faith - it's just that this particular issue bugs me. FWIW, I don't think Jesus is a myth - he was clearly a historical figure. (In fact, one of the things DS is getting upset with me about is that I innocently told him that Jesus was a carpenter - he has picked up the idea from school that Jesus was a king.)

PW: I think this level of difficulty in state schools is a recent-ish thing: when we were kids it was sort of there but not bothered about, but in the last few years a superstition-mad government has kind of encouraged all this 'respect for faith' crap which leads to people feeling entitled to peddle bullshit to other people's kids and then start screaming about discrimination when they are called on it.

policywonk on Tue 06-Jan-09 21:44:55
"cory - for me, the crux of the matter is that they are teaching something that has, frankly, no basis in fact. I just don't think that's the role of a school. It really is akin to teaching children to believe in the Tooth Fairy (sorry, I know that this will probably cause offence to some believers, but as an atheist that's my position)."

I do actually totally agree that schools should not be teaching Christianity or any other religion other than as "this is what some people believe". Not their remit IMO.

But I also do not believe that it is my remit to tell my children that you must believe x, y or z. If they chose to be atheists- their choice. If they chose to be buddhists- their choice. If they chose to be Christians- their choice. I am trying to provide them with a balanced view and I would like the school to do the same. This involves pointing out that any religious faith deals with those areas of life that are not capable of scientific proof; for the areas that can be proved, we have science.

Can I also point out that for the vast majority of Christians there is no conflict between believing in evolution and being a Christian? The creationism lot are a small vocal minority; they are very far from representing all practising Christians.

I would be fuming if the school did not give a proper grounding in science- and that to me, means dinosaurs and Darwin.

Dinosaurs and Darwin - I love it . Headteacher herself spoke to me yesterday and we agreed that DS would stay in assembly in order not to be singled out with other children who don;t stay - and so that he can experience the assembly. She reckons they don't do prayer hands/kneeling or other prone like positions and that it is OK if DS simply bows his head and thinks about something else while the others get on with it. The thing that gets me is that they don't explain that to the kids, and I wish they would and as far as I am aware they don't do the "some people believe" either.
I may have said this already but I don't want him to not be in assembly in the same way that if we were having dinner at someone's house and they were saying "grace" I would not leave the table or refuse to eat with them! Or refuse to go to a church wedding. I prefer the in it but not of it approach personally.