I remember clearly – as if it was yesterday – that first term at school. Our infant school was an annex of the main primary school, located, appropriately enough, in School Lane. We only went there for the first term or possibly two depending on when we started before moving up the road to the main building. There were only the two classrooms and they accommodated the new year’s intake. As I was five during the previous May, my first term was the autumn term 1963. It is significant because this was when I was first introduced to the Christmas story. Places and times conspire to keep memories alive and this one is very much alive. I recall clearly our teacher telling us about the angel visiting Mary, the ride to Bethlehem, the baby in the manger and the subsequent slaughter of newborn boys and the flight to Egypt. Wait, hold on there a moment, roll back a bit… What was that about angels and god having a son?
I was five years old and without realising it, I was an atheist. No one taught me this. Indeed later, when we had formal religious education, no one taught me about the lack of belief – because, well, what’s to teach? Any lesson about atheism is going to be remarkably brief. By that time, I was attending church and trying very hard to believe as this fitted in with my contemporaries, but deep down, my reaction was still the same as when I heard about angels and immaculate conception for the first time; “you’re having me on, right?” Angels? Gods? Pull the other one.
As Leg Iron points out, teaching atheism is silly. And teaching it at four years old is deeply so. Indeed, it smacks of the kind of indoctrination atheists rail against and isn’t so far removed from the kind of indoctrination I have railed against only a couple of days ago.
What happened to allowing children to have a childhood? What is wrong with allowing a little fantasy in their lives? I was taught about Christianity. I didn’t believe it. It didn’t do me any harm and these days I tend to look upon religious leaders as – for the most part – daft but harmless. The Religion of peace being another matter, of course…
Education bosses in Blackburn with Darwen, Lancashire, have radically restructured the RE syllabus to accommodate non-religious beliefs.
Except that atheism isn’t a belief – it is an absence of belief. It is the default position. I’m really not sure how you can teach this beyond a one-liner that says; some people don’t believe this. There you are, that’s that covered, then. 👿
Which was pretty much my reaction when I read this yesterday, as like yourself, Ive been an athiest pretty much since I can remember. I does make you wonder as to the IQ levels of those that make these decisions though.
That said, both my daughters go to a religious school (as its one of the better schools in the area) and my eldest (14) takes great delight in tying her RE teacher up in knots with awkward questions (as she too is an athiest), then proceeding to score at or near the top of the class when it comes to the exams.
The best incident was when asked whether the resurrection had any scientific basis, where she ended up basically saying the technically, Jesus was a zombie… Funnily enough, that comment was ignored and she scored highly again.
And quite scarily, she told me her science teacher had no idea about theories regarding the extinction of the dinosaurs – during a lesson on biology where they were discussing extinction events, starting with dinosaurs.
The education system really is in need of a massive overhaul. Im lucky that my kids show a very healthy curiosity about many things, and will actively go research stuff themselves.
What is best of all, is to teach “comparitive religion”.
Once you’ve seen all the competing fairy-stories…….