Ian Scott wrote to the rector of Hutchesons’ Grammar School in Glasgow in April, asking to be able to opt out of the weekly assembly which he had been attending since first year. Although he was raised a Christian – his mother is Catholic, his father Protestant – he told the school he was an atheist and felt he was having religion “forced” on him.
However the 16-year-old was told that he must continue to attend. Rector Dr Kenneth Greig cited various reasons, including the need for the whole school to gather as a community.
Scott doesn’t accept this, given that Muslim and Jewish pupils in the school have their own meetings, as an alternative to the Christian gathering. However he does acknowledge that the position at Hutchesons’ is better than in some schools – of two assemblies a week which he is required to attend, one is explicitly secular.
The Herald (thanks, Fosca)
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As a teacher, I think religion should be taught as a subject rather than preached in school therefore no-one is excluded and everyone can take part in all parts of the school day, including assemblies. Religion comes from home not school and it is school’s purpose to educate about relgion.
Faith schools only segregate people more. We need tolerance and education about all faiths in all schools, we do not need teachers to preach any religion, there are enough people doing that already in the world.
Fair play to him to be honest, if children from other religions are allowed to opt out then why cant he? Maybe if they asked the pupils they would be able to find a few more atheists and then they could have their own secular assemblies!
Oh? Is it not normal in schools to be able to opt out of asemblies with religious content? It was certainly the case when *I* was at school. But then, that was a grammar school in the early seventies… (Incidentally, don’t people who say things like “It was certainly the case when *I* was at school.” sound like utter wankers?).
I went to a faith school; we had chapel every day, choir practice saturdays etc etc. I never felt religion was being forced on me. It was just something we did. It never even occurred to me that the place was officially a faith school until it was pointed out to me by my parents. This was age 9-13, before the time I really started questioning moot points.
I’m an atheist, just to make that clear.
So in my opinion, essentially even hardcore faith schools complete with chapels needn’t force beliefs on children. Maybe it was down to the handling of the subject – other than in R.S. lessons the subject wasn’t discussed.
“Supernatural divinities are the primitive’s answer for why the sun goes down at night… ”
And who REALLY believes that an ‘all powerful, all knowing, all whatever’ has a fashion sense? Cares if I eat fish on the ‘wrong day’ or eat bacon every day? Needs a person to point in a certain direction with their arse in the air before they are heard?
In my own opinion George Carlin said it best:
When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time!
But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money!
Full text: http://www.rense.com/general69/obj.htm
I remember very clearly getting in trouble for refusing to participate in prayers at school. Ridiculous
I remember having a special school assembly with the Gideons. They handed out Bibles, and we had a Sikh lad who tried to refuse his on religious grounds. They wouldn’t let him. It was a rough school, so you can imagine what happened to most of the Bibles – it rained Revelations for hours. Because of this, they had a Bible inspection later in the dat and if you had dared to discard yours, you were in trouble. Good times.
So in conclusion, notkeen on religious assemblies, really.
Well, In all honesty, I am atheist and I am applying back for my A levels. I know what its like to have to sit in the assembly and listen to utter nonsense. There should be a way that he can get out, because its not correct that he should have to listen to something he doesn’t have beleif in, if hes forced to stay hes being forced to listen to ‘the word of God’ If muslims and Jews don’t have to, he shouldn’t have to.
If religion is to be taught, all religions should be taught. From the muslim, to the jews, to the christians and to the atheists views. So therefore the kids can decide what they want to belief. Its better to be educated in it all to, because then theres less hate if theres more understanding.
People would probally complain if say, a muslim child was being educated in what the christians beliefs are, but to be honest, if there muslim, and believe, should they not still believe? There not being forced to change and if there faith is strong they won’t. So theres nothing wrong with educating people in it, but its different if its being forced apon.
“I remember very clearly getting in trouble for refusing to participate in prayers at school. Ridiculous”
Same. I was so enraged by being forced to partake in this that I took to whispering the lyrics to songs i’d heard on the radio that morning.
Somewhere up there, the spice girls are shining their blessings down on me.
When I was at school, I had to sit through religious assemblies. It did not offend me or cause me an problems. I just sat there thinking “I wonder why these people believe what they believe?”
I was an atheist then and I am an atheist now. But it does not stop me from attending weddings and funerals etc with religious content. When folks are praying, I bow my head and when folks are singing, I am mostly silent … but this has more to do with my singing voice. I just try to show a little respect for other peoples beliefs.
Attending assembly will not do this boy any harm. In fact it is a good lesson in life that sometimes you just have to put up and shut up! If we all try to get everything we want all of the time, we will soon descend into anarchy!
Agree wholeheartedly with Kay Patterson above. My son attends the local comprehensive and is expected to attend all assemblies some of which have a religious element and are taken by local vicars. Others have speakers from local charities or other organisations (armed forces, youth workers, etc) with the remainder taken by senior teachers. He would love to opt out of the religious element but fears being conspicuous by doing so. He is also extremely annoyed at finding out that Religious Studies is a compulsory “choice” at GCSE in his non religious school. This compulsory “choice” will lead to 2 years of having to study something he has little interest in and cuts down his choice of subjects to study that may lead to future avenues of study or career options.
I was given detention numerous times for refusing to join in with prayers and hymn singing. They also threatened to expel me the year before my A Levels because I refused to attend assemblies and “social studies” which was, to all intents and purposes, a religious studies class.
Fucking nuns.
I didn’t buckle and wasn’t expelled. How? I was certain to pass my exams with good grades when the rest of the year wasn’t. Simples.
Apparently not a ‘public’ school? Transfer to another school with no religious system at all would be a better solution I guess, as long as the other schools do not wish to change their policy.
While I dispise the power Christianity holds over the quality of secondary education available and would rather all schools were secular, I don’t think he should be allowed to opt out of the religious aspects of attenting a religious school. He signed up to a religious education, and although he is in no way obliged to participate, pray or believe anything, the presence of religion is just something he needs to put up with.
I maintain that religious beliefs should be held in no higher regard than any other, and so his views on religion should no more be sufficient to excuse him (the same goes for people of other religions) than political objections or teenage non-conformism.
If you go to a religious school, you get religion shoved down your throat, if that’s too much a problem you can go to a different school. If you chose to remain, that’s your decision and thus shouldn’t expect the school to compromise for you. Simple.