What happened to all the hymns?

[Notlaughingalot]

I clearly remember a lot of the hymn we used to sing in assembly.

How great thou art
For those in peril on the sea
Lord of the dance
Morning has broken
Love divine all loves excelling

And for the leavers
One more step along the world I go

For coming in to assembly and for leaving (in silent, orderly rows of course!) the music teacher played classical piano tunes from Chopin, Mendelssohn (Songs without words) and Beethoven.

I do think that today's children are missing out. Or is it just me, and really, today's schools are much better than in the past?

I have googled and I think it was when is he coming, the redeemer?

I'm 55 and never sung any hymns once I got to upper school.

I still like when I needed a neighbour, thanks merryhouse. I actually didn't mind going to church as a kid, I even used to close my eyes and really try to feel gods presence or whatever they were talking about haha. Sadly never happened so I wandered off.

I felt a bit claustrophobic by the fact that God had put a circle around me. It was up and down and all around me and I had to thank him for it. Keep your circle to yourself mate.

Bugger off with your nosy spotlight eh

Or is it just me, and really, today's schools are much better than in the past?

What is good or bad about schools now compared with in the past has got nothing to do with hymns!

I remember the hymn-singing quite fondly too fwiw. But equally I'm an atheist and teach in a very multicultural school, and I'm glad it's not a churchy school.

You've obviously given it a lot of thought.

Taylor Swift may indeed manage powerful imagery, poetic brilliance, lyrical beauty and rich theology all in one song (maybe not the theology bit) but
personally, hearing children singing '...weird but fucking beautiful...' etc wouldn't improve my day. Or theirs.

@Lifeinlists Sure. You’ve taken what was obviously a tongue in cheek comment and searched for the one Taylor swift song with swearing in it and used it to chortle about how it’s better to swear your allegiance to a mythical being than sing Swift.

Although on balance, I’d rather my child sang about ‘weird but fucking beautiful’ snow on the beach than about fetishising sacrificing themselves to a man’s blood who’s been murdered on a cross. Because that’s just fucking weird.

I didn't do any searching@Streamorwatchlive My tastes are catholic, which helps when trying to illustrate a point.
And I can't see any fetishising happening in that hymn as I don't think he was being literal.

@Lifeinlists I think you’re wasting your time on this thread. Sooner or later someone’s going to object to your using the term ‘catholic’ to describe your cultural preferences. Because, religion. 😉

Excuse me if I leave the thread.

I don't know, I'd take the message of that hymn to be that being prideful boastful and vain, is not aligned to being a compassionate good person. Agree tbh, whether you are doing it because of religion or whatever.

I'd say beautiful but weird, probably encapsulates those values.

Colours of day was my favourite hymn at mass as a child! (Didn't go to Catholic school though). Not religious now as an adult but still like that hymn and Bind us Together and sometimes found myself singing them to my baby (unexpectedly - it's funny how tunes from your childhood can pop into your mind!)

I'm not religious, and I have never believed in any god, but I agree. Christianity has produced some of the most beautiful music ever composed. Sneering about "fictional beings" is missing the point quite wildly.

And I think this attitude that other cultural traditions are valuable, enriching and to be preserved (which is true, of course) but that ours can be tossed out like trash is incredibly sad and indicative of a deeper malaise. The desire to feel connected to our ancestors is common to all humans.

We never ever sang any songs my Secondary school - assembly or in any lesson.
At primary we did though - Morning has broken, One more step, Hes got the whole world in his hands. Lots more.........
There was one I loved about the milkman delivering the milk and the smell of bacon! That was "a bit" of a diversion from the regular songs in Come and Praise!
Edit to add - I was at secondary from 1988-92.

My favourite is "His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form, and dark is his path on the wings of the storm." Amazing images. I remember loving the sound of them long before I fully understood the words.

I remember singing Yellow Submarine and some other Beatkes songs at my late '70s/early '80s junior school. Also some other '60s stuff. I think I was educated by hippies... also stuff from the Sound of Music.

We did also sing hymns, including at secondary, although there was a range there of about 3 hymns - To Be a Pilgrim, O Still Small Voice of Calm and When a Knight Won His Spurs - possibly because there were enough typedsheets to put one on every seat. Occasional seasonal stuff like We Plough the Fields and Scatter and Christmas carols. Had a much wider range at juniors, where the words on acetate sheets went up on an OHP, and someone in the 4th year was tasked with moving the verses along.

I do think communal singing is something everyone should experience, even though i know some hate it. Doesn't have to be religious, though.

Thank you, that is the funniest thing I've read this weekend!

Well, for one, these ideas and images form and integral part of more than a millennium of European history, culture, art, literature, philosophy, law and politics, which your children probably need to have some awareness of, if only to pass school exams in most of the academic fields of the arts, humanities and social sciences with a modicum of understanding and appreciation.

Whereas, much as I like Taylor Swift, she does undoubtedly make anodyne (if pleasant) bland and disposable commercial pop music with very little depth or ideas, which isn’t exactly an introduction to some of our culture’s history, art and politics.

A GCSE student trying to understand what the hell is going on in Shakespeare would probably be far better off knowing that hymn above than Taylor Swift’s Love Story, no?

It's a pity that all of the enumerated fruits and veggies might as well be unicorns for all the relevance they have to the lives of many children.

@Blanketsburg I agree.

Moving to the US, I found several familiar hymns had slightly different words - the most shocking of which was Away in a Manger - and the hymns my DCs learned differed from those I had sung as a child in primary school. They learned hymns in the parish children's choir - they never had school assemblies and didn't do any hymn singing in their (RC) school apart from carols for the annual Christmas concert. In high school (public) the admin used to play classical music on the PA system during passing periods.

In primary school we had assembly every morning, where we sang an opening hymn, said a few prayers, maybe heard a few announcements, and sang another hymn before trooping off to class. We also had a class called 'Singing' in which we learned and sang oodles of songs of various genres up to about 1950, most notably old music hall numbers. Singing class involved a singing exam where everyone was called upon in turn and had to stand up and sing in front of the entire class. We also did elocution and deportment, learned prose and poetry, and recoted it in front of the class. My DCs did show and tell in school... My secondary school was 'inter denominational' and never had assemblies or prayers or hymn singing, but we had a cracking choir.

I love the fruit and veg song for infant aged kids but it's true that most children in the UK won't be eating much of that list.

Songs in assemblies in primary schools are dumbed down. Due to lack of funding there are not man decent and experienced music teachers in primaries. The fear of anything classical or churchy has led to a loss of culture. And while learning to rap is interesting, avoiding classical including church music deprives children of a more in depth musical education and of our heritage.

It isn't 'sneering about 'fictional beings'' - it's pointing out how apparently beautiful words are essentially being used as a form of control.
There is a place for conserving hymns, but schools are not that place.

I do feel slightly sad about it tbh. Im not religious but we all loved to belt out I vow to thee my country, and did those feet in ancient times when i was in secondary in school in the eighties.
Assembelies with hymns and lords prayer were part of my primary and secondary school in the 80s.
My DC went to a cofe village primary and didnt do the lords prayer ( which i can still recite) and rarely did hymns.
I think was a part of british culture, identity and history that weve lost and i do feel a but sad about that - even though im not religious!

There are .any beautiful hymn tunes and some beautiful words, but those aren't the ones that were most regularly sung in school assemblies. "Jet planes meeting in the air to be refuelled", anyone?

If you do want your children to sing hymns you could take them to church.