Faith schools?

Greatnan lighten up! My forum name is 'whatisamashedupphrase' but most people who come on here regularly know I'm still 'jingl'.

It just came about with wandering off and then having to practically bash the door down to get back in. Try it.

Look, I didn't bring this thread round to me again!

Did you have a nice holiday Glass? Nice to see another sane person you back on.

Thank you, whatshername, I feel quite light enough! I was just curious as to the mechanism of getting multiple identities on a forum - I don't give a toss what you want to call yourself.

What a nice lady.

Thank you - my friends think so.

You are all lovely! Now let's get back to the serious business of being scatty old dears

A second identity needs a second email address, otherwise they notice.

Not a scatty old dear jeni and clearly neither are you.
Alluring notion of having multiple identities and having debates with oneself...

No! I'm just 7ft tall, blue, and flying around.

Thank you for all your comments.
What we all need most is faith in ourselves, not in some external being. Then we shall truly start to take responsibility for ourselves by being answerable to noone but ourselves for our own lives. I respect all faiths and the great teachers they have produced but I do not look for or expect help or forgiveness from anywhere but inside myself.
This is not something I've come up with recently. It struck me as a fundamental truth when I was 15.

God is not an external being.

What a sensible and interesting post, Baba.

I could be janglyjinglejinglwhatisamashedupphrase, if that helps at all.

It wouldn't, would it?

OK!!!

jing

I'm a bit disturbed that what I intended to be a serious debate turned into a facetious sequence of nonsense. I hope, as a new member , that's not what all sincere comments on important topics degenerate into.

My last post on here was definitely facetious nonsense. All my other posts on here have been honestly meant.

Sorry if I'm being defensive.

To go back to your question Baba. I agree with you. I think schools should be secular and faith is for parents and families. Here in France state schools are completely free from any religious influence. There are private faith schools, but they do not take the majority of children.

baba - you are not alone in taking all discussions about religion very seriously indeed and I am sorry this thread did not meet your justified expectations.
I have just read that schools spend about £1 per child per year on RE lessons and many will be surprised to learn that I find this deplorable. Most schools teach about religions, and do not indoctrinate. The more children understand about the beliefs of others the less prejudice they will feel.

I do not have a problem with faith schools...as long as their curriculum includes plenty of education on and respect for other religions. Growing up in a blinkered environment is certainly wrong - but then children can get that from parents not just from schools.

Where I live there are a number of faith schools (primary) of varying religions eg: C of E, Catholic and jewish and all of them promote tolerance and respect for other cultures and religions and ensure they integrate their religious practice with schools with other beliefs (for example the Catholic school and the Jewish school get together to celebrate their respective harvest festivals)

Religion or no religion, we live in a multi cultural society where is it is essential that we learn to understand and respect one another. This begins at home and must be continued in schools whatever their beliefs

baba we think alike

I don't see how anyone who genuinely believes that a specific faith is the only true faith can respect other faiths which, by definition, he/she will regard as false and wrong. Such a suggestion is simply lip service and political correctness. Whatever a faith school discusses in terms of religious education and lother religions, inevitably the conclusion is that these other religions are wrong – by implication if not in so many words.

Where I taught, we had a significant proportion of Muslim children. What we meant by 'respect' was quite simple and in a primary school did not involve theological debate about who was right and who was wrong. It meant being supportive of those children fasting during Ramadan, behaving appropriately when we visited the mosque, asking and answering questions in a polite and controlled way etc. It meant learning about and discussing some of the main tenets of different faiths so that we could understand the customs of others. It did not involve indoctrination or evangelising. I did not ever feel it was just political correctness but was a valuable way to encourage tolerance in society.

em As you rightly say, that sort of behaviour and approach was about politeness and tolerance. I don't think it's about respect.