Christian assemblies in schools could face axe over claims they infringe children's human rights

trigger-happy · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:21

Christians go to Christian schools, Muslims go to Muslim schools and Jews go to Jewish schools (they don't have to but its up to their parents). The school has a requirements list of what pupils can enter, they must meets the requirements to be entered in. One of the main requirements is to have the same faith corresponding to the school they have applied to. It will be plain stupid to enter an atheist into a school which is deeply religious, the kid will out of place and his education will be affected.

The complaining parents are the ones to be criticised, they should know if the school is appropriate for their child. Its bad parenting imo.

I went to a normal multi-faith school, we had no Christian assemblies, it was just some ****ty music while entering into the assembly and listening to a teacher talking about values and norms which we use in society to day.

Castiel · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:21

rypt said:
I didn't give a monkeys about RE, used to **** about in the lessons with my mates and was generally failing the subject (not due to not knowing it, but due to not caring)

Our report cards had Alpha - Beta - Gamma for the grade, and then 1,2,3 for effort (1 being the most, 3 being the least effort put in)
My RE grades were ALWAYS Gamma 3

... until in the last year that I had to take RE, my parents were called in a few days before the end of year exam saying basically that if I didn't pass the exam they'd not let me move up to the next year (despite all the other grades for all the important subjects being top 5 in the year group).

Guess what? I bothered to actually do the exam properly and got the BEST mark in the whole year (~100 kids), 95% or something it was and was about 5-10% clear of the guy who got the 2nd best mark.

My final report card grade? Alpha 3 ... the first time ever such a grade was given according to the headmaster

You kinda missed the point if what I was saying...

rypt · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:22

Nitefly said:
Wheatley park, right?

Nope

And can't remember what the hell the guys name was

Castiel said:
You kinda missed the point if what I was saying...

Nah, I just wanted to tell a cool tale

Nitefly · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:24

rypt said:
Nope

And can't remember what the hell the guys name was

Booo, thought you might have gone there because it says you're from Oxford

The Halk · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:27

I don't see the problem. Ban schools from forcing kids to practice a religion and what's the downside?

Give me one single good reason why kids are better off having Jesus shoved down their throats at school and I'll be stunned.

MeEsH BaKkA · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:27

Dont know what the fuss is about, I went to a CofE school and am athiest.

Im all for religeous schools, if we ban them then it is one more thing which we have had "our" choice taken out of the equation. Providing they can give a good standard of education and are safe then it should be the choice of the parents to decide which school their child attends.

rypt · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:29

Booo yourself, got a few friends who did go there
Plus I find myself with my Uni lectures being on the campus next to that chav-hole

Now I need to stop spamming OcUK and finish my CV!

Nitefly · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:34

rypt said:
Booo yourself, got a few friends who did go there
Plus I find myself with my Uni lectures being on the campus next to that chav-hole

Now I need to stop spamming OcUK and finish my CV!

Woah woah woah, let's not be calling the mighty wheatley park a chav hole when you clearly currently attend Oxford Brookes

rypt · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:38

Nitefly said:
Woah woah woah, let's not be calling the mighty wheatley park a chav hole when you clearly currently attend Oxford Brookes

Brookes is a chav hole too in part, I'll be the first to admit it
At the same time there are are enough non-chavs at Brookes (thank god)

Wheatley Park though has progressively god worse and worse as far as the chav population goes...
Then again, this year's freshers are Brookes are the most chavvy ones I've met to date, thank god I'm graduating in the Summer.

I will tell you one thing though, I prefer how my course is run at Brookes to how the course I was on was run at Oxford, it just shows you that a course in a teaching department (as engineering is at Brookes) is better to be on than a course at a research department (as biochem is at Oxford)
And don't get me started on the college system, it sucks.

Castiel · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:42

rypt said:
Brookes is a chav hole too in part, I'll be the first to admit it
At the same time there are are enough non-chavs at Brookes (thank god)

Wheatley Park though has progressively god worse and worse as far as the chav population goes...
Then again, this year's freshers are Brookes are the most chavvy ones I've met to date, thank god I'm graduating in the Summer.

I will tell you one thing though, I prefer how my course is run at Brookes to how the course I was on was run at Oxford, it just shows you that a course in a teaching department (as engineering is at Brookes) is better to be on than a course at a research department (as biochem is at Oxford)
And don't get me started on the college system, it sucks.

You quit an Oxford College to go to Oxford Brookes on purpose? :confused:

Sinny · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:46

I see no reason to ban it, it should be however up to the parents to decide whether they want their kid to go to assemblies, It didn't change me as a person as I disregarded Christianity as my religion when I was about 12 and become Agnostic.

Complete tosh banning it imo.

steve-h · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:46

Castiel said:
Point is actually that no-one is being forced to do anything, Parents have the option to opt their children out of religious assemblies. The argument put forward against them is indoctrination of children, yet there is not one case of a child who has graduated from a UK school in the last 30 years that has been indoctrinated, in fact quite the opposite the overall feeling is moving away from organised religion, now if all the children were indoctrinated how is this the case?

It is harmless, and is just an age old way of teaching moral values to children. Humans are not born moral after all, it is a nurture not nature response.

Faith schools consistently perform better than secular ones, belief has nothing to do with it.

Let's face it... nobody is going to make their kid the odd one out and have him sit out of an assembly. Not every school has kids of other faith either, so chances are if you request that, your kid will be sitting on his own.

It only took our RE teacher to mention that the Science teacher wasn't a Christian to have a few people saying "so why are they here if they don't believe in God?". Kids love an excuse to 'out' somebody.

You're only indoctrinated until you aren't (no ****, eh?

), which surely means... kids are being indoctrinated at a young age, before they know any better?

And exactly, a belief has nothing to do with it, I didn't know anyone who from my school who went to church, we were all there because it was a nice school.

rypt · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:48

Castiel said:
You quit an Oxford College to go to Oxford Brookes on purpose?

Yes.

Never been happier in my life by the way ... graduating in the summer with either a distinction or merit in my MEng.

I did 1st year Biochemistry at Oxford (was at St Hugh's if anyone cares), really did not like it (the course/subject, how it was taught, etc).

I was contemplating doing Engineering ... but the only thing Oxford offers is Engineering Science, which forces you to do large parts of structural engineering and other things, and I had no interest in that.

So I flipped through UCAS course thing, looking at different engineering things, and saw Motorsport Engineering, which had all the bits that I wanted in it.

Of the places that offer it, or similar courses, Brookes rates pretty high ... and with me being local has also made it much cheaper.

The Halk · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:50

Sinny said:
I see no reason to ban it, it should be however up to the parents to decide whether they want their kid to go to assemblies, It didn't change me as a person as I disregarded Christianity as my religion when I was about 12 and become Agnostic.

Complete tosh banning it imo.

Why not have the kids told ghost stories at assembly then and parents can opt out?

It serves no purpose, and it's ridiculous to allow kids to have it shoved down their throats just to avoid offending the morons who still believe in invisible friends.

Castiel · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:53

steve-h said:
Let's face it... nobody is going to make their kid the odd one out and have him sit out of an assembly. Not every school has kids of other faith either, so chances are if you request that, your kid will be sitting on his own.

It only took our RE teacher to mention that the Science teacher wasn't a Christian to have a few people saying "so why are they here if they don't believe in God?". Kids love an excuse to 'out' somebody.

You're only indoctrinated until you aren't (no ****, eh? ), which surely means... kids are being indoctrinated at a young age, before they know any better?

And exactly, a belief has nothing to do with it, I didn't know anyone who from my school who went to church, we were all there because it was a nice school.

My sons school has around 15% of his year group who do not attend assembly, so that argument is moot.

Nitefly · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:54

rypt said:
So I flipped through UCAS course thing, looking at different engineering things, and saw Motorsport Engineering, which had all the bits that I wanted in it.

Of the places that offer it, or similar courses, Brookes rates pretty high ... and with me being local has also made it much cheaper.

Say hello to Laura Shelley for me, stayed on her sofa last night

rypt · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:55

Castiel said:
My sons school has around 15% of his year group who do not attend assembly, so that argument is moot.

I missed most of my assemblies in the final 3 years of school (including the last 2 years of 6th form) ... by being late

Ours was only twice a week though anyway, but I tended to get to school before the 1st lesson starts, rather than on time in the morning

rypt · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:56

Nitefly said:
Say hello to Laura Shelley for me, stayed on her sofa last night

EDIT: oh, year below me I think ... only have 1 lecture with them lot this year
And I skip it most of the time anyway, as it doesn't really count towards my grade and is pretty easy and 100% coursework

Nitefly · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:58

rypt said:

Just the name of someone on your course, thought you might know them.

Castiel · 28 Dec 2010 at 16:58

rypt said:
Yes.

Never been happier in my life by the way ... graduating in the summer with either a distinction or merit in my MEng.

I did 1st year Biochemistry at Oxford (was at St Hugh's if anyone cares), really did not like it (the course/subject, how it was taught, etc).

I was contemplating doing Engineering ... but the only thing Oxford offers is Engineering Science, which forces you to do large parts of structural engineering and other things, and I had no interest in that.

So I flipped through UCAS course thing, looking at different engineering things, and saw Motorsport Engineering, which had all the bits that I wanted in it.

Of the places that offer it, or similar courses, Brookes rates pretty high ... and with me being local has also made it much cheaper.

Whatever you want to do is great. You'll regret not having that MEng (oxon) during your career I suspect, especially as you could have specialised in any number of options.

Quitting one of the top universities in the world for a polytechnic seems nuts to me, but each to their own.

EDIT: as motorsport engineering is 12 month masters course, I assume you have an undergrad degree already? did you do that at Oxford?