Religion in state schools

I too think that it is fine to learn ABOUT religions and the role that they have played in the development of the human race; but children should not have to join in worship with a specific religious bias. They should not be involved in any sort of worship, exept that which their parents choose for them to be a part of out of school.

Why should a state school that has no religious affiliation insist that the children worship anyone or anything? It makes no sense at all and is totally undemocratic. Where can parents of no religious affiliation or indeed who are atheists send their children to school? - they are paying through their taxes for the child's education and should not have this unwanted "add-on."

Agreeing with you mishap - very important to learn about religion as it has shaped history and continues to shape politics etc
It will be a brave government that repeals the relevant legislation though.

My own children's school high school assembly wasn't religious. It was moralistic. Thou shalt have empathy with thy school mates; thou shalt not bully anyone; thou shalt not drop litter; thou shalt be nice to animals, especially fluffy kittens; thou shalt not be a smug bastard if thou gets thy homework right; etc. Seemed to work.

(They did also have Comparative Religion as a subject.)

I'm unhappy about the increase in faith schools, as it seems to be leading to further separation of children who live in the same area.

This may be viewed as hypocritical, as my children went to state primary and CofE high school. My worry that the high school may be oppressive in regard to faith was totally misplaced. All the pupils studied RE/Comparative Religions at GCSE. Pastoral care was good, the school experience was good. My children enjoyed school, and within their wide friendship groups, the young parents all want their children to go to the same high school that they attended. It fostered positive, caring and committed relationships, which is the route of everything in my view.
There are real difficulties in moving to a non sectarian education system. I can't imagine it happening in the near future, with the increase in Free Schools and Faith Schools. I'd support moves towards removing all faith based schools. I'd like to see comparative religions being taught as an academic subject. The learning from the various faiths can't be underestimated, it forms the bed rock of so much social behaviour.

Yes faith schools have served the community so well in northern ireland haven't they and continue their glorious tradition to this day.

My daughters went to a school belonging to the Church Schools Company (Church of England), but they were never indoctrinated into religion. They learnt about all religions. There was assembly every morning and everyone joined in. There were Jewish girls, Catholic girls, Muslim, Hindu - all religions. They were allowed to miss the assembly if they wanted, but the majority of them attended. It was never hard core religion.

On Founders' Day the entire school went to the local church for a service and of course there was the Christmas Service. I don't think any of the girls missed these services. They all seem to enjoy them.

Neither of my daughters are religious and are, like me, probably non-believers. They both married Catholics. One is definitely against religion after being taught by Jesuits in Ireland. The other is a non practising Catholic. There was a lot of banter between us and he calls me a 'pagan' (not true!)

I don't think assemblies or classes on religion do any harm, provided it is not indoctrination. It's almost like history - the history of religion.

I agree with you wholeheartedly janthea and that is exactly the type of school I taught in. We mainly had Christians, agnostics ,atheists and Jews only because other religions were not obvious in our area in the 60's and early70's.The only thing I was slightly uneasy about was that we did say the Creed but this was pointed out to parents and it was suggested they did not apply if they were unhappy about this so the onus was put squarely on the parents. Sadly most parents were prepared to forgo their religious/anti-religious scruples for the sake of academia.

A particularly interesting psychologist once told me that being brought up in a faith environment was positive, as long as it didn't include oppression or indoctrination. Our discussion was in relation to a proposed adoption placement where the child's mother had expressed a preference for a family who would 'go to church and send her to Sunday school'. The mother hadn't had that experience and felt strongly it would help her child.
My grandson's went to a CofE primary school, it was the closest to their home. The school was over 75% muslim. In one discussion about religion, my 5 year old grandson said he would probably be a pagan, like his mum, when he grew up. Despite my worries about the increase in faith schools causing further separation between communities, I do believe that discussing faith and humanities are essential to children of all ages.

I agree that children need to learn about the different faith groups and also that some people do not have a faith. this is like Geog/history as it teaches about society/ groups etc. This can all be done in non-faith schools.

All primary church schools are expected to have a prayer corner /area and they do teach more about their religion. Islamic, Jewish, Hindu and Sikh schools also exist and it is this segregation that concerns me. Also the percepetion that Church schools are somehow better than non church schools because they can select a %age of students!

We had a very strong sense of moral values a the schools where I worked.
I worked in 2 c/e schools one I believe was a Christian school in that it served its community. The other was less so as it was highly selective in the children it offered places to. The assemblies were awful and the youngest children who sat at the front could not see the Head as he was on a stage and they sat so close all they saw was the wooden panels! I pointed this out to him and he said it was good discipline!