religion

Hi,

my partner and I are humanists, we do not believe in the supernaural world,

we have 2 boys age 5&6, both diagnosed with ASD,

they both attend a public infant school.

they both have very limited understanding of the real world,

and take everything they are taught literally,

we do not want our children brainwashed into believing in religion

we believe that our children should be allowed to make their own choices on religion,

when they are adults, and that religion should not be forced upon them at an early age.

I have asked the school to remove them from all reigious education and worship,

they have told us that we cannot refuse regious education, and that we can only refuse to take part in worship or visiting places of worship,

looking on the internet I see many people saying that you can actually refuse,

how do we go about making the school accept our non religious beliefs,

and allow us to remove our children from all religious education classes?

thanks

Parents
  • Even if you get the school to exclude your children from all religious education, what effect will their peer's comments about what happens in religious education classes have on your children?

    Granted, children on the spectrum are less able to interchange with their peers, so the ommission might be less of a problem. There are parallels with banning television at home - some people feel television is harmful - but what this does is remove the kids without television from a vast area of peer exchange.

    Being different aint fun. OK having aautism is a very no fun way of being different, but is it wise to create more problems of difference?

    I guess it is a decision you need to make with all the right information. I would wonder though whether not receiving the religious indoctrination might create complications with what they get from other kids.

    In which case maybe the safest option is to chose a school where there isn't any religious education.

Reply
  • Even if you get the school to exclude your children from all religious education, what effect will their peer's comments about what happens in religious education classes have on your children?

    Granted, children on the spectrum are less able to interchange with their peers, so the ommission might be less of a problem. There are parallels with banning television at home - some people feel television is harmful - but what this does is remove the kids without television from a vast area of peer exchange.

    Being different aint fun. OK having aautism is a very no fun way of being different, but is it wise to create more problems of difference?

    I guess it is a decision you need to make with all the right information. I would wonder though whether not receiving the religious indoctrination might create complications with what they get from other kids.

    In which case maybe the safest option is to chose a school where there isn't any religious education.

Children
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