Weaver wrote:It will be much easier for her and for you if you pull her out of it early.

Yes, she will face discrimination - but that's no reason to expose her to the babble in the first place.

My granddaughter was told that leprechauns had created a mess in her classroom - and they were led to find "evidence" in the form of little toy green footprints the teachers had planted. Since the teachers told her of these "facts" she is now completely adamant that leprechauns exist, and will NOT accept my wife or I telling her that it was just "pretend".

Exposure from trusted authority figures is very hard to combat, even when present with valid contrary evidence, when the kids are that young.

Weaver wrote:My granddaughter was told that leprechauns had created a mess in her classroom - and they were led to find "evidence" in the form of little toy green footprints the teachers had planted. Since the teachers told her of these "facts" she is now completely adamant that leprechauns exist, and will NOT accept my wife or I telling her that it was just "pretend".

Warren Dew wrote:Paula, remind me why your 3 year old is going to a religious school? I'm not familiar with how the Scottish educational system works.

Weaver wrote:My granddaughter was told that leprechauns had created a mess in her classroom - and they were led to find "evidence" in the form of little toy green footprints the teachers had planted. Since the teachers told her of these "facts" she is now completely adamant that leprechauns exist, and will NOT accept my wife or I telling her that it was just "pretend".

Have you contacted the school? Those teachers should really be tasked with explaining that it was 'just pretend'.

Scotland is a nation whose people hold a wide range of beliefs from the many branches of the Christian faith represented throughout the land to the world’s other major religions and to beliefs which lie outwith religious traditions. Such diversity enriches the Scottish nation and serves as an inspiring and thought-provoking background for our children and young people to develop their own beliefs and values.

Religious and moral education enables children and young people to explore the world’s major religions and views which are independent of religious belief and to consider the challenges posed by these beliefs and values. It supports them in developing and reflecting upon their values and their capacity for moral judgement. Through developing awareness and appreciation of the value of each individual in a diverse society, religious and moral education engenders responsible attitudes to other people. This awareness and appreciation will assist in counteracting prejudice and intolerance as children and young people consider issues such as sectarianism and discrimination more broadly.

'Religious and moral education is a process where children and young people engage in a search for meaning, value and purpose in life. This involves both the exploration of beliefs and values and the study of how such beliefs and values are expressed.'

Bolero wrote:OP:
Should you withdraw your child from religious worship? Hell yeah. If more non-theist parents did that, it would send a clear message to the schools that it is a waste of school time, and parents don't want it there.

The_Metatron wrote:The problem is, a three year old kid will simply accept what they are told as fact. They have no functioning bullshit filters yet. An impenetrable bullshit filter is the most valuable thing a person can have. It takes purposeful effort to develop and hone it. Typically, this isn't something schools are terribly interested in doing.

The only question you need to answer is, How well can you can deprogram them when they are given riligious horseshit as fact (and they will be)?

I would keep in mind that the school has your kids for more time than you do, and they're well trained in putting ideas into kids' heads. Since you can't control what ideas they try to put into your kids heads, I'd bloody well control when my kid is there.

Religion indeed does poison everything, not sparing young minds, either.

hackenslash wrote:

The_Metatron wrote:The problem is, a three year old kid will simply accept what they are told as fact. They have no functioning bullshit filters yet. An impenetrable bullshit filter is the most valuable thing a person can have. It takes purposeful effort to develop and hone it. Typically, this isn't something schools are terribly interested in doing.

The only question you need to answer is, How well can you can deprogram them when they are given riligious horseshit as fact (and they will be)?

I would keep in mind that the school has your kids for more time than you do, and they're well trained in putting ideas into kids' heads. Since you can't control what ideas they try to put into your kids heads, I'd bloody well control when my kid is there.

Religion indeed does poison everything, not sparing young minds, either.

This.

It's a balancing act. You also have to consider which is the greater evil. Is it worse to have to deprogram, which may not be that easy, or that the child feels a bit singled out? I know which I'd prefer. Ultimately, you know that, though it may sting a bit now, it's for her own growth and she'll thank you for it later. It's a matter of weighing the short-term costs against the long-term benefits.

virphen wrote:I would be interested to know what a withdrawn child does while the bulk (I presume it's the bulk) engage in the bullshit rituals.

Weaver wrote:I think one of your keys to success is to prep your kid with a few answers to likely questions.

When I was young, and other kids would ask what religion we were, my parents coached us that we COULD answer "Unitarian" because they used to attend a Unitarian church as a social outlet (before we were born). They didn't tell us to lie, but they cautioned us that outright saying we didn't believe in a god could upset some people - and that if we didn't care to engage in fruitless arguments on the schoolyard, this was an acceptable alternative.

I'd suggest you should think of a couple "reasons" - not untrue, but not necessarialy the whole truth - that your kid can use to respond to questions like "why don't you attend RE stuff" and "what religion are you" - answers she can understand for her age level, and for which she will become more enlightned as she gets older and more able to understand.

Paula1 wrote:
It's a mainstream school, its not a faith school but our school curriculum is similar to the rest of the UK in that it must contain christian based worship of some vague kind, its very loosely governed so some schools adhere more closely to it than others. It'll vary from daily prayers and hymn singing to very loosely christian based assemblies once a fortnight. You have the right to withdraw your child from religious worship but this could mean affecting their taking part in school assemblies, which I think is an important part of a school

Religious education is also provided, again based on christianity but including the world religions. Something particular about Scotland is that they still lump it together as Religious and MORAL education ( )