Why do churches control a large number of schools?

Where I live there is no choice in the local area but to use a church school. All of them that are even close to where I live are C of E.
It annoys me immensely when my 8-year-old comes home talking about Jesus and God as though it is fact.
 
As has been said many of these schools will have already existed as Church schools before being incorporated into the state system. I have no problem with it to be honest, modern British Christianity is milquetoast and wet as anything. My kids went to a Christian school for a few years I have no problems with it. They'll make their own minds up as adults just the same way I did.
 
diamount said:
The local Catholic secondary school seem outperform the other state-run schools so they must be doing something right.
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HeadTeacher: "Young Jimmy, if you don't get 100% in your maths exam, God will SMITE YOU, and potentially your family too"

Yep... This happens.... I know it!
 
Rilot said:
Where I live there is no choice in the local area but to use a church school. All of them that are even close to where I live are C of E.
It annoys me immensely when my 8-year-old comes home talking about Jesus and God as though it is fact.
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Have you ever talked about religion from a younger age with them?

I am atheist, my wife says she's christian but not at all practicing apart from wedding and christenings obv.

Our only option for school is CofE too, eldest is starting there in September. My point of view is just to promote their own thinking as much as possible. Happy to mention that some people believe in god, this is what churches are for etc., but will also tell him that I don't believe in god, and the reasons why. But if he wants to then that's fine, so long as he can put up with a bit of scrutiny on the subject.

I went to a Cathedral school, but looking back I don't feel like I was at all indoctrinated. I remember my Maths teacher trotting out Pascal's wager (think this was during AS levels) and we had a good debate when I pointed out the fallacy. But I wouldn't be surprised if half the teachers were atheist too. All schools are different though I suppose. Maybe comes down to whether the headteacher is actually religious or just goes along with it to get the job, and then instill the culture accordingly.
 
dl8860 said:
Have you ever talked about religion from a younger age with them?
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Absolutely. We have discussed it together as a family many times. Things such as how mummy is Catholic and what that means, and how daddy was Jewish but is now an atheist.
I have no issue with religion being taught in schools. It's a very important part of life and necessary to understand what motivates certain people and cultures, I have an issue when something is taught as fact to a young mind.
 
Religions world wide obviously figured out that you need to indoctrinate children in order to get people to stick with a religion long enough for them to have kids and also have those kids join the religion, that's why they're in schools. The religions that aren't in schools died out. It baffles me that so many people haven't figured out religion is just a massive power grab preying on people's fear of death
 
The reason for Catholic schools is that Catholics kids where denied an education by the state and the Church stepped in. The state then took over the running of the schools later on.
 
All our local schools are C of E and our eldest struggles with the constant push of prayer/bible teaching/ceremonies. It's annoying to the point where it is pushing us towards private schooling (not the only reason).

Wouldn't be tolerated for every local school to be Islamic but C of E seems to fly under the radar.

Schooling should be secular not an opportunity to indoctrinate the young.
 
Kids school is C of E but you wouldn't know, the indoctrination is minimal. Plus I have educated them on the complete guffness of religion.
 
Minstadave said:
All our local schools are C of E and our eldest struggles with the constant push of prayer/bible teaching/ceremonies. It's annoying to the point where it is pushing us towards private schooling (not the only reason).

Wouldn't be tolerated for every local school to be Islamic but C of E seems to fly under the radar.

Schooling should be secular not an opportunity to indoctrinate the young.
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You know you can withdraw them from collective worship and/or RE if you want?

The school has to allow this and has to provide alternative activies during the time..
 
What is the difference between a religious school and a regular one teaching RE (religious education)?

When I was at school mainly in the 80s and 90s, RE was about Christianity. We was taught about the Bible. Also the assembly's usually involved singing Christian songs.
 
BowdonUK said:
What is the difference between a religious school and a regular one teaching RE (religious education)?

When I was at school mainly in the 80s and 90s, RE was about Christianity. We was taught about the Bible. Also the assembly's usually involved singing Christian songs.
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A regular school is potentially more balanced in their teaching and not subject to external influence.

Our C of E school is regularly inspected and judged on its teaching of Christian values, and a significant amount of funding from the Church is attached to that.
 
BowdonUK said:
What is the difference between a religious school and a regular one teaching RE (religious education)?

When I was at school mainly in the 80s and 90s, RE was about Christianity. We was taught about the Bible. Also the assembly's usually involved singing Christian songs.
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Yes it's much better now, they are taught about all sorts of religions and cultures.
 
More to the point, why do churches (or more to the point, diocese), still have such a controlling influence in the house of lords and where is the reform that has been talked about for so long?
 
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