School assemblies

NotSpaghetti

I would NOT like to hear our National Anthem to be sung on the USA level!
😱

Completely agree!

We had Christian assembly with prayers and hymns in secondary school (1950s) and I used to enjoy them. I had a good singing voice and was soon picked out for the solo and duets we had in the music festival. We had 4 competing houses in these events. There were a few Catholic children who did not come in to assembly. There must have been some reason why their parents chose not to send them to the local Catholic school which was just across the road.

I honestly can't say I ever loved assemblies. I endured them, but that was all.

Paperbackwriter

NotSpaghetti

I would NOT like to hear our National Anthem to be sung on the USA level!
😱

Completely agree!

I’m another in agreement with this!

My grandchildren attend a C of E school and although no daily assembly, they do have RE. I attended a RC school in the 70s, primary had a lot of morning prayers, lunch prayers, home time prayers, masses and priest visits. Secondary school, assembly once a week, a school priest, less prayers and compulsory RE lessons.
I think embracing other religions and beliefs can only be a good thing, we do live in a multi cultural society.

I think assemblies are very valuable. At my primary school we had daily classroom assemblies with a short ( not necessarily religious or spiritual) reading giving some food for thought. To this day I can remember at least three:
“I complained that I had no shoes until I met a man with no feet”
The parable of the long chopsticks ( or spoons)where there was plenty of food for all but it was impossible to feed oneself. You could only feed each other and so you learnt the lesson of cooperation while feeding each other.
Then there was the one about the old lady of eighty(heaven forbid!) who had seen eighty years of good and bad weather but was grateful for this sunny one.

As a retired teacher this stopped many many years ago, in Scotland anyway.

At Primary school from '61 on we had assembly every day. The only child who was allowed to stay out was a Jehovah's Witness. We used to have a film once a week about the Holy Land and Bible featuring a husband and wife travelling around. In Grammar school we still had assembly every day, but Grammar school was only a fraction the size of secondaries and comps.

Annewilko

My grandchildren attend a C of E school and although no daily assembly, they do have RE. I attended a RC school in the 70s, primary had a lot of morning prayers, lunch prayers, home time prayers, masses and priest visits. Secondary school, assembly once a week, a school priest, less prayers and compulsory RE lessons.
I think embracing other religions and beliefs can only be a good thing, we do live in a multi cultural society.

My children attended C of E primary schools (not by choice). They attended different ones - one was almost secular. The other one was quite religious. There was a cross in the main entrance and traditional daily assemblies with visits to church at Easter, Christmas and other times of the year. I could have withdrawn my children from the assemblies and the church visits, but I didn't want them to appear like outsiders.

So many people don't follow any religion and many weddings now take place outside churches which is fine of course.
What I never understood is the number of parents who continue to have their children Christened. With no faith why would they do this?

Franski

I've been to a few funerals recently. Very few people (young or old) seem to know the hymns- the sort of hymns we used to sing at school. But the families of the deceased obviously think these songs have meaning.
Seems like this UK is now a secular country with a sentimental attitude towards Christian tradition. So not many folk seem to want children in schools to learn the songs and prayers, but on the other hand there is nothing to replace them. Churches are still popular for weddings and funerals. Why is this? And what can or should replace prayers amd hymns?

What do GNetters think?

"Churches are still popular for weddings and funerals" I really don't agree

I clearly have heathern friends. I don't think I've been to church wedding for 15 years, and have only been to 3 church funerals ever, all for people 1 or 2 generations older than me. (I appreciate I don't go to as many weddings nowadays as I did when I was younger)

Personally I wouldn't want a church funeral, because as I don't go to church, I think it would be hypocritical.

It's a good thing they stopped. We were brainwashed because it's all we were told. It's a better thing that young ones nowadays are able to see the science

I do believe in what Sarnia has said!

My thinking about this is that state run schools should take into account that the children attending them are not all from Christian homes. There will be Muslim, Jewish, atheist, agnostic humanist, perhaps Buddhist and Hindu homes represented amongst the children, as well as any denomination of Christianity you can think of.

This being so, morning assemblies should either be abolished, purely secular - a means of strengthening the school as a community by begining the day together, or if they are to have any form of prayers, these should be strictly rotated amongst the faiths the pupils and staff belong to.

Parents who wish their children to receive instruction in their own religion should either send their children to a private school, lobby their MPs to provide state run schools that are divided along doctinal lines, (not that I think this would be a particularly good idea, as it would undoubtedly lead to narrow-minded sectarianism) or schedule religious instruction for their children as after-school activities.

If you, as I, feel it sad that so many children grow up without any idea of what the religion they nominally belong to has to offer, then we - by which I mean all adult believers, should be doing what we can to encourage whichever religion we belong to, to do more to attract the curious.

In other words, get off our backsides and run Sunday schools, Thursday evening classes in the synagogue, groups in the mosque etc. Or go out into the streets, as various groups did formerly and engage the interested in a discussion.

When did you last see the Salvation Army singing hymns in the local square, or a Franciscan or Dominican friar preaching at a street corner? Or even a nun, monk, priest, parson or Lutheren deaconess in a habit in public? Or a Jew wearing his kippah?

When we relegate religion strictly to the private sphere, we can hardly wonder it declines.

Chardy

Franski

I've been to a few funerals recently. Very few people (young or old) seem to know the hymns- the sort of hymns we used to sing at school. But the families of the deceased obviously think these songs have meaning.
Seems like this UK is now a secular country with a sentimental attitude towards Christian tradition. So not many folk seem to want children in schools to learn the songs and prayers, but on the other hand there is nothing to replace them. Churches are still popular for weddings and funerals. Why is this? And what can or should replace prayers amd hymns?

What do GNetters think?

"Churches are still popular for weddings and funerals" I really don't agree

I clearly have heathern friends. I don't think I've been to church wedding for 15 years, and have only been to 3 church funerals ever, all for people 1 or 2 generations older than me. (I appreciate I don't go to as many weddings nowadays as I did when I was younger)

Personally I wouldn't want a church funeral, because as I don't go to church, I think it would be hypocritical.

The only church funeral I've ever been to was a baptist funeral. Like you, I haven't been to a church wedding for years (about 30, I think).

Nanny27

So many people don't follow any religion and many weddings now take place outside churches which is fine of course.
What I never understood is the number of parents who continue to have their children Christened. With no faith why would they do this?

Apparently I was christened because my grandmother insisted and my parents saw it as an excuse for a party. Obviously, I don't remember anything about it, although I've been told that my parents and my godparents turned up at the church without me. Somehow or other, each thought somebody else was going to bring me, so they had to rush back to get me from the garden, where I was sleeping in the sun.

Interesting thoughts, AuntieE. I agree we need to engage people, especially children, more in all religions.

Most private schools do not really instruct children in one religion only, although parents could, of course, look around for a specialist setting that does. Many private schools have a Christian culture and heritage, but even these schools celebrate and respect the range of religious traditions represented in society.

More importantly, Fundamental British Values, such as respect, fairness, and responsibility, should be central to the school’s ethos. Though some might disagree with that too.

Nanny27

So many people don't follow any religion and many weddings now take place outside churches which is fine of course.
What I never understood is the number of parents who continue to have their children Christened. With no faith why would they do this?

I cross-questioned a friend of mine about this. She had no particular belief and never went to church, but she had her children christened. In the end she said “Just in case there’s something in it”.

I wasn’t christened, and neither was my husband. We were both born in 1940, and it was very unusual then. I also refused to be a godmother to the “just in case there’s something in it” child, which upset my friend very much - but how could I be so involved in something I didn’t believe in?

My son, however had no such reservations - he cheerfully accepted being godfather to a friend’s child. He didn’t believe any of it, and moreover neither did the child’s father. It was just an automatic formality and an excuse for a party!

I think you’re right Grandma 70s that people see christening as a bit of an excuse for a party but I find it incredible that anyone would stand in church and make outright lies over the head of their child. Just wow!

I've no problems with assemblies, it's a good opportunity to build a cohesive value driven school community but it shouldn't be based on Christianity. We're a multi faith/no faith society and we should be secular. It's a parent's responsibility to give their children religious guidance (should they wish) not the state. I wasn't christened, my children weren't christened and my grandchildren are not christened. I certainly didn't want or need the school to instill religion into any of my children and I know my children feel the same.

“I get all my religious education off the daily news. All Arabs want to wipe all Jews off the face of the earth a la Ayatollahs and similarly all Jews want to wipe all Arabs off the face of the earth a la Netenyahu and each reavows their intentions on daily basis. We are a Christian nation but we've allowed others to obliterate that fact. Prior to the 1st Gulf War British service men and women stationed in Saudi Arabia were not allowed Christian services prior to the liberation of Kuwait from Saddam Hussein s invasion”

Orly

In the main I find your comment above rather ignorant and very divisive.

Nanny27

I think you’re right Grandma 70s that people see christening as a bit of an excuse for a party but I find it incredible that anyone would stand in church and make outright lies over the head of their child. Just wow!

Which is why none of our children were christened, I expect my dear CoE mother and my catholic MiL were horrified, but we feel/felt it’s not right to “impose” this onto our children though they were taken into churches for events like church parade and there’s a bible in our home.

Nowadays the majority of people do not have any religious beliefs, nor do most chilren. They are completely ignorant of what religion is, have never been in a church, temple, mosue or synagogue. To expect them therefore to latch onto the idea, the hymns, prayers and readings they would get in a school assembly, is unrealistic - and what about the schools where te majority of children may be being brought up in a rligion, but not christianity?

I think schools do need to have assembies to build up a sense of unity, but if it is to be more than just a reading out of notices, then whatever is done should be non-religious. I am sure there are many themes an assembly could be built round, with poetry, readings and music that are not religious.

M0nica

Nowadays the majority of people do not have any religious beliefs, nor do most chilren. They are completely ignorant of what religion is, have never been in a church, temple, mosue or synagogue. To expect them therefore to latch onto the idea, the hymns, prayers and readings they would get in a school assembly, is unrealistic - and what about the schools where te majority of children may be being brought up in a rligion, but not christianity?

I think schools do need to have assembies to build up a sense of unity, but if it is to be more than just a reading out of notices, then whatever is done should be non-religious. I am sure there are many themes an assembly could be built round, with poetry, readings and music that are not religious.

My kids are in their thirties. I think their secondary schools (we'd moved counties by the time 2nd child was 11) took them to the different religious buildings available in the area. Certainly both schools' RE and PSHE lessons taught them about world religions.

And I repeat what's been said before, secondary schools do not have the space or the time to get 1000 pupils into one place

Cossy

Nanny27

I think you’re right Grandma 70s that people see christening as a bit of an excuse for a party but I find it incredible that anyone would stand in church and make outright lies over the head of their child. Just wow!

Which is why none of our children were christened, I expect my dear CoE mother and my catholic MiL were horrified, but we feel/felt it’s not right to “impose” this onto our children though they were taken into churches for events like church parade and there’s a bible in our home.

My father caused a bit of a stooshie in our family when I was born. His mother went to church (Church of Scotland) every Sunday and his brother was a minister, so when he point blank refused to allow me to be christened, they weren't happy, to put it mildly.
His reasoning that once I was old enough to understand about religion, I could choose for myself - so his one concession was to allow my granny to take me to Sunday School. That only lasted until I got into trouble for asking too many awkward questions - and not getting any answers, just being told to 'believe'. Neither of my children were christened.