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Religion/spirituality

Out of the mouths of babes ........

(80 Posts)
Luckygirl3 Fri 24-Mar-23 19:33:03

Driving my GD home from primary school, she asked me if I had any clay, and I explained that I did not. I asked her what she wanted to make and she said "A dead body." I did a bit of a double-take and asked her what for. She said it is for school - I have to make one for the Easter Garden.

Is it just me who thinks this is inappropriate and utterly grim? And, as far as I can remember, the tomb was a said to be empty - rather misses the point of the story.

Incidentally the same child is talking with parents about secondary school in the future and she asked whether the options were church schools as she did not want that - she said she had had enough of it all at the village CofE aligned primary school.

Something is going wrong somewhere. No-one has put that idea in her head.

LauraNorderr Sat 25-Mar-23 17:04:45

Juliet27

^Joseph went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus^
I know I should take it seriously but I couldn’t help thinking that I went to Pilates hoping for the body of Jane Fonda.

Priceless

Fleurpepper Sat 25-Mar-23 17:11:35

Oreo

Fleurpepper

In which case, could you kindly give me your justification for a village school, the only village school, attended by the children of those of many faiths or none, all local tax payers, should teach one Faith, as if it is the only and correct faith?

How can you justify it?

Which school? Where, here in UK?
I won’t bother to give a justification, kindly or otherwise, as you have made your mind up already.
Most villages in England don’t have tons of kids of ‘many faiths’ that’s more for the cities.

Well of course in UK. Where else?

Not sure where you live, but villages all around Leicestershire do have children from all faiths and none. Many Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, and many from families with no faith who'd rather their kids were not endoctrinated, be told their parents beliefs are not the correct ones, and discriminate against the children who do not go to the village Church with their parents.

All the next few villages had CofE Schools too. There was only one school in the area that wasn't. Why should we have had to drive them there, to be other children than the friends who lived around them.

Oreo Sat 25-Mar-23 17:46:08

Why should you have to drive them there?
Obvious innit?
If you feel so strongly about something then you go the extra mile.Literally.
I’m nowhere near Leicester.
You have to accept this is still a Christian country which is why there are lots of C of E village schools.

Smileless2012 Sat 25-Mar-23 17:52:17

Presumably at Christmas the story of the birth of Jesus is told so is makes sense that the story of his death and resurrection is told at Easter, or is the only focus to be Easter eggs and the Easter bunny.

Fleurpepper Sat 25-Mar-23 18:02:45

Oreo

Why should you have to drive them there?
Obvious innit?
If you feel so strongly about something then you go the extra mile.Literally.
I’m nowhere near Leicester.
You have to accept this is still a Christian country which is why there are lots of C of E village schools.

How else would have they got there? Angel wings?

It is still a Christian country. although figures show that there is a huge decline in numbers attending Church and with real religious beliefs, rather than 'cultural' Christians. CofE village schools belong to the past, as the vast majortiy attending them are not Christians, not CofE, and of other Christian denominations, other faiths and mostly, none.

Just like it is a total nonsense that CofE should be the only religious people in the Lords.

Education is for all, and religion should have no part in it- unless, as Lucky says, it is to get a better understanding of other Faiths (and the alternatives, Humanism, Atheism- and their own moral framework).

Luckygirl3 Sat 25-Mar-23 18:18:18

*Joseph went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus^
I know I should take it seriously but I couldn’t help thinking that I went to Pilates hoping for the body of Jane Fonda.* grin

Luckygirl3 Sat 25-Mar-23 18:22:41

Smileless2012

Presumably at Christmas the story of the birth of Jesus is told so is makes sense that the story of his death and resurrection is told at Easter, or is the only focus to be Easter eggs and the Easter bunny.

Both Christmas and Easter as festivals predate Christianity. Easter eggs are about new life, which is interpreted in different ways by Christian believers and other people. Some focus on the joy of spring and new life; Christians focus on the resurrection that they believe in. But essentially they have the same message - new life - and both are equally valid. All that happened is that Christianity nicked the festival for their own - and sometimes look down on others who stay true to its original meaning.

Luckygirl3 Sat 25-Mar-23 18:29:26

this is still a Christian country

Less than half the respondents in the last census ticked the Christian box, closely followed by no religion.

This alone is a good enough reason to stop state funding for Cof E schools.

Fleurpepper Sat 25-Mar-23 18:35:48

I did post a thread to this effect after the results of the last census.

Numbers of respondents ticking 'Christian' was very low at last census. And I did ask how many of those who ticked 'Christian', many for cultural reasons, rather than religious ones, would still do so if that meant they would have to pay a Church Tax to support the running of their Church/denomination. I do believe numbers would drop like a stone.

As our local Vicar used to say on Christmas service 'so lovely to see you here today- would be nice to see you some other Sundays!'

Oreo Sat 25-Mar-23 18:48:38

So you don’t want this to be a Christian country hey? Well lucky you live in France then.
If this was a big issue here then things would change.
It isn’t.

Fleurpepper Sat 25-Mar-23 19:04:02

Please Oreo, stop this nonsense. Where on earth did I say this? What I said is that state funded schools should not be religious, and the Curriculum not linked to religion, especially not one, and even more so, one denomination of one which has so many.

Things are changing, and fast.

And no, I don't.

Mollygo Sat 25-Mar-23 20:43:41

The strangest (IMO) aspect of this is that the best high school where DD lives is a church school and the ‘queue’ to get in is amazing. People who don’t attend church, or who chose to send their child to the local state primary rather than the local CofE primary start attending church the year before they fill in the application. Even CEO Christians often make more effort in order to stand more chance of a place.

Oreo Sat 25-Mar-23 20:47:30

They usually have good standards Mollygo and also discipline.

Luckygirl3 Sat 25-Mar-23 21:31:04

Mollygo

The strangest (IMO) aspect of this is that the best high school where DD lives is a church school and the ‘queue’ to get in is amazing. People who don’t attend church, or who chose to send their child to the local state primary rather than the local CofE primary start attending church the year before they fill in the application. Even CEO Christians often make more effort in order to stand more chance of a place.

They get subsidised by the church.

Callistemon21 Sat 25-Mar-23 22:01:37

Oreo

They usually have good standards Mollygo and also discipline.

But not always.

Mollygo Sat 25-Mar-23 22:31:02

Luckygirl3
They get subsidised by the church.

I already pointed that out in an earlier post at 13.05
Some faith schools receive funding from the church as well as from the state.

Oreo Sun 26-Mar-23 09:30:51

Callistemon21

Oreo

They usually have good standards Mollygo and also discipline.

But not always.

That’s why I used the word usually

Joseanne Sun 26-Mar-23 09:36:07

So can a school still heavily promote a Christian ethos .. love your neighbour as yourself without being a church school? Or would that still offend? What would be wrong say with following Christ's values and teachings, (if you get what I mean.)

Oreo Sun 26-Mar-23 09:43:42

Nothing is wrong with that Joseanne and there is no big outcry in this country to change anything. Just the OP and a couple of others on this thread that don’t want any religious themes in schools.

nanna8 Sun 26-Mar-23 09:49:17

The usual Christian bashing. Don’t worry, we expect it and it was all predicted long ago. It makes me sad that people miss the wonderful message and hope for all mankind.

Joseanne Sun 26-Mar-23 09:52:34

But everything is wrapped in religious themes ....
The palatable stuff like family values, love, forgiveness, justice etc
Then the grim stuff that Luckygirl mentioned like murder, war, fighting.
I always find children quite accepting of this.

Oreo Sun 26-Mar-23 09:53:56

I agree Joseanne 👏🏻👏🏻

NotSpaghetti Sun 26-Mar-23 09:55:39

I think you are wrong Fleur about being unable to withdraw children from RE in primary schools.
I understood this to be a "right".
I've just done some googling on this and it seems I'm right.
Here's a straightforward piece:

schoolleaders.thekeysupport.com/curriculum-and-learning/curriculum-guidance-all-phases/structuring-curriculum/requests-withdraw-pupil-re/

Luckygirl3 Sun 26-Mar-23 10:16:36

Not Christian-bashing at all - just concerned about children being given true information, as in "Christians believe that Jesus came back to life", rather than "Jesus came back to life."

And also that the state does not support any particular religion in terms of funding schools. I would be equally concerned if the state were funding schools with a particular political leaning.

volver3 Sun 26-Mar-23 10:19:28

If there's one thing that rattles my cage is the complaint of Christian bashing and the plea that it was all foretold.... "Look at me, I'm a martyr and I pity you 💖 "