Secularism in School

[Bob Kelso]

Do you support it? Why or why not?

I, of course, support it and find any lapse in enforcement of secularism in public school to be abhorrent. That being said I would really like to know your opinions (yes, even you, theists ) and why you hold them.

My reasoning:
Firstly, as an atheist, I don't pay my taxes so that teachers or administrators can push their dogma onto my child and get paid for it to boot. Secondly, I don't believe that religion, outside of historical or artistic reference, or an objective optional class on world religion, has relevance to education.

[My imaginary friend is GOD]

Hmm...

I definitely support girls in Catholic schoolgirl uniforms. Especially if said girls are lesbians.

[Mothonis]

Hmm...

I definitely support girls in Catholic schoolgirl uniforms. Especially if said girls are lesbians.

you and losty in uniforms now!

[zebo-the-fat]

I visit a lot of schools as part of my job, there is one i can think of where there is not a classroom or corridor without some religious text or picture, they even have electronic scrolling message boards with bible verses!
Catch 'em young before they learn to think for themselves seems to be the message.

[NoraBrimstone]

I went to a CofE Primary School and a Catholic Secondary School. The Primary was actually very open to everything. We had to learn about religion (I believe even non-religious schools have to teach RE) but if we learned about a lot of different religions, and went on school trips to temples and things as well as Churches, but I never really felt like I was being told to believe any of them. I even remember being taught things that I'm sure the Church itself probably wouldn't be OK with. However, I have a (Muslim) colleague whose two youngest kids go to that same school, and she tells me that her kids come home from school and want to say grace before they eat because their teachers told them to, so it would seem that the school has changed radically in the last 16 years. Poo.

My Catholic Secondary school had very few Catholics considering it was a Catholic school, there were more Muslims than Catholics due to the fact that it was located very close to what must be the most Islamic place outside of Mecca; Edgware Road. But the RE classes there were almost all about Catholicism, with a short paragraph here and there about what other sects of Christianity believe. Certainly never a word about any other religion at all. Ever. When I was 15 they even sent me and a few others on a Catholic Retreat to a place called Kintbury in West Berkshire. I actually had quite a nice time and never felt like any of the religious activities were forced on me. I had to go to an evening Prayer thing in the attic every evening, but actually praying was voluntary, I was quite content to sit and daydream instead. Whatever happened there, sending me was undoubtedly an attempt by my school to convert me. It didn't work, but some of my best memories are of the time I spent there, so I'm glad they made me go.

One time, my school had a non-uniform day in aid of Comic Relief. We could wear our own clothes instead of uniform as long as we were something red and donated at least £1 to Comic Relief. Now, Cormac Murphy-O'connor, then Archbishop of Westminster, head of the Catholic Church in England (and later a Cardinal) was a frequent visitor to our school; and when he found out about this he went mental and my headteacher got into a lot of trouble. Why? Because one of the things Comic Relief does is provide condoms to people at high risk of HIV and AIDS in Africa. We still had our non-uniform day, but all the money went to CAFOD instead. Cunts.

So I think it's very important for schools to be secular. If I wasn't such a strong-willed, free-thinking person, that secondary school experience could have left me a total bigoted cunt. If it were still possible for a religious school to be how my primary was when I was there, that would be fine, but I think that's all in the past now and it's high time we took religion out of schools entirely. Especially in the UK, where secular schools are fairly rare. Within a 15 minute walk of my house there are three CofE Primary schools, four Catholic Primary schools and one Secular Primary School. Wth is that about?

[Lek]

I agree that publicly funded schools should be secular. I wouldn't want my kids being taught to follow Islam or Wican or whatever in school. Of course, parents should always be allowed the option to send their kids to a privately funded private or parochial school as long as it meets the same educational requirements as the public schools. Here in the US they normlly exceed those requirements.

[Rev. Rye]

Hmm...

I definitely support girls in Catholic schoolgirl uniforms. Especially if said girls are lesbians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0RnFk-nYFg

I would have posted the scene from the episode of Only Fools and Horses where the Trotters are in a fallout shelter and Rodney starts drooling about the possibility of "A thousand nubile girls - in a shelter...in school uniform" surviving a possible nuclear holocaust, but I couldn't find it.

In all seriousness, in America, there exists a thing called "separation of church and state." Those words aren't in the constitution, but if you look closely at the First Amendment, the basic idea is. In essence, in a public school, funded by taxpayer dollars of people of all religious stripes, promotion of any particular religion is a violation of that principle. Fortunately, outside of talking about religion in either a strictly objective historical context or a strictly objective world religions class, there is really no need to talk about religion in school.

Granted, I went to a Christian grade school and high school, but that was mainly because my mother was convinced they would be better for a kid on the autism spectrum than the public schools; to hear her describe the conditions in public schools, one would have guessed she was talking about the Killing Fields of Cambodia.

[Chad32]

Sure I do. Separation of church and state and all that. It's sad that states will just ignore this, and try to stick their god into everything, but that's what the bible teaches. I've heard people say that every little thing you do should glorify Jesus. If it isn't, than you shouldn't do it.

[Senshi]

Do you support it? Why or why not?

I, of course, support it and find any lapse in enforcement of secularism in public school to be abhorrent. That being said I would really like to know your opinions (yes, even you, theists ) and why you hold them.

My reasoning:
Firstly, as an atheist, I don't pay my taxes so that teachers or administrators can push their dogma onto my child and get paid for it to boot. Secondly, I don't believe that religion, outside of historical or artistic reference, or an objective optional class on world religion, has relevance to education.

Secular schooling is vital to a productive nation. We need the young to lead, innovate and take control. They cannot do that with the mentality of god's will is above us all. Like Neil Degrasse said " The moment you accept things for what they are and stop looking for ways to better nature for our benefit, you become useless to society." In addition, there is no time for religion in school. If we're going to teach religion we might as well drop the christian ego-centrism and teach them all. But fairy tales and all that is without evidence does not belong on any curriculum set for the developing minds.

[Minimalist]

Good work by Tennessee atheists, here.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/03/29/te...-students/

Tennessee atheists win right to distribute literature after schools give Bibles to students