Apparently im hurting my son

[Dogs Of War]

Well thats what the school said i was doing when i told them i dont want him to take part in any religious education classes.

I said i wanted him to conentrate on the 3 r's seeing as hes quite a way behind his peers on these subjects and i feel hell get more out of those subjects.

They said i was "being a little biggoted" and they arent sure if they "can accomodate my request" as it would mean finding another class for him to sit in and also supervise it.

I pointed out it wasnt a request. Thats when it got really tricky.

Schools eh!!

Dont you just love em.

 

Im with you 100%.

 

NO child should be force fed Religious claptrap of any religion. RE should not even be taught in schools .

 

Lets be honest , what purpose does religion serve in life ..........NONE.

 

Stand your ground ,and take your child out of school for that lesson .

[js2012]

How do you think he learns about religions ? Do you think he does that without reading or writing ?

 

I'm not remotely religious, but I have no objections to my kids learning about the worlds religions. He's not being taught to "be" any particular religion.

 

Are there any other lessons you want him removed from to prioritise the particular needs he has?

 

No just that one.

[Tomataheeed]

I don't see it as imporant. If I am not religious then I shouldn't have to sit in that class and listen to things I don't believe in.

 

You should have a choice of whether you want to study R.E. It hasn't changed my life or my way of thinking.

 

I accept people are religious but it doesn't interest me.

 

Kids do have choices about subjects they study when they get to GCSE. Until then, they do the subjects the school chooses.

 

you're not a footballer either, do you want that stopped as well ?

[Greavsy]

Kids do have choices about subjects they study when they get to GCSE. Until then, they do the subjects the school chooses.

 

you're not a footballer either, do you want that stopped as well ?

 

They still have to do R.E in year 10 and year 11. Well at our school we did.

 

That is just stupid.

 

I think P.E is necessary because most children don't get physical exercise, they just watch TV and play on a console.

 

They do all different kinds of things in P.E and if you didn't want to do one of them then you didn't have to.

[mj.scuba]

Mind if i ask how long ago that was - mine was 20 yearsish ago and the only religion that was mentioned was Christianity - in fact not really even that, it was pretty much CoE exclusive.

 

About 15 years ago. RE touched on all the main religions. I think that is all that's needed. It shouldn't be preachy, but we do live in a global society where at least having a slight grasp on some of the concepts of all the main religions is necessary to understand others.

[neeeeeeeeeek]

didnt bother to read where i said he has his own mentor then eh?

 

That post not been written when I started my reply.

 

So this mentor, is he employed soley for the benefit of your child? Does he have access to him 24/7 or does this mentor perhaps have other things to do as well as being available to assist your child? Is there not the slightest chance that this person actually has other duties and other kids to help and might even be doing something else (god forbid) at the same time as the RE classes?

 

It's a shame that schools don't have unlimited resources but until they do why not try helping him yourself. As mentioned earlier, you can't expect the school to pull him from one lesson because you don't like it. I am sure that there are people who think Geography or Maths is a waste of time, are you suggesting that the school should let them opt out and do extra science instead?

[Ms Macbeth]

Mind if i ask how long ago that was - mine was 20 yearsish ago and the only religion that was mentioned was Christianity - in fact not really even that, it was pretty much CoE exclusive.

 

Mine was even further back and it was the same - Christianity. Nowadays it more of a historical and geographical look at religions. I think I'd have found that much more interesting.

 

I'm all for widening children's understanding of society, and if that includes learning about different cultures and religions, then I see it as a positive. Once they get to an age when they can make decisions themselves, if they want to become a Mormon, or a Buddhist, it would be fine with me. My grand daughter starts school next year, and although none of us are involved in any religion, we'd never consider pulling her out of this type of lesson. If it was teaching dogma, then we certainly would.

[boyfriday]

In my school at least RE wasn't trying to teach you Christianity, or convert you, it focused on learning about other religions and even social issues such as sex and drugs. I'm not religious in any way but surely it is important to have some sort of understanding about other people's views seeing as so many people are religious?

 

Totally agree with that dell, RE should be one of the compulsory core subjects in my opinion, most of the difficulties in the world are based on ignorance of what other people believe and why it's important to them.

 

So in state schools, none of them should escape it..Muslim, Jew, Christian or atheist!

[Suffragette1]

Im with you 100%.

 

NO child should be force fed Religious claptrap of any religion. RE should not even be taught in schools .

 

Lets be honest , what purpose does religion serve in life ..........NONE.

 

Stand your ground ,and take your child out of school for that lesson .

 

I used to hold the view that religion should be removed from the school curriculum and have since changed my mind. We were only taught about Christianity at school, which I think is wrong and blinkered; the history of all religions should be explored in addition to non-religious beliefs such as humanism, agnosticism and atheism.

 

Religion has had such a huge influence, in most cases actually shaped, on historical events, art and literature and I do not think that these subjects can be taught in any meaningful way in a vacuum, like it or not. Aside from the fact that knowledge of religious movements does, in my view, contextualise other subjects such as history in particular and literature, some understanding of the epoch during which various texts were written will enhance understanding. Art and literature are full of biblical references and whilst these will be discussed when studying to text, having some background knowledge in the first place would be advantageous.

 

It is more important now than ever before, given our multicultural society, to teach the history of religion and the basic tenets than underpin the major faiths, it should (in theory at least) foster tolerance and understanding.

 

I also feel philosophy should that be introduced into the curriculum as it promotes critical thinking. It should, in my view, be taught with religion (and therefore, come under a general subject discipline of 'Ethics, Philosophy and Religion' as that way, religion is not accorded some special kind of status.

[Tomataheeed]

They still have to do R.E in year 10 and year 11. Well at our school we did.

 

That is just stupid.

 

I think P.E is necessary because most children don't get physical exercise, they just watch TV and play on a console.

 

 

 

Exactly !

 

Kids get a lot more out of a learning experience than just the detail of the subject matter. RE widens the knowledge about religion, history, culture etc...

 

It might be an interesting subject, particularly in the context of current politics.