At school in West Yorkshire in the 1970s I insisted upon my rights as an atheist not to sing hymns or say the Lord's Prayer, and, after some threats from the deputy head, was excluded from school assembly. I sat in an empty maths class with five Muslim boys, and we were ushered into the back of the hall for the announcements.
We also had Religious Education lessons, but RE teachers were often the most hippyish of the lot, teaching us about every religion but Christianity, out of plain embarrassment I guess. The RE lessons I remember were about the need for nuclear disarmament.
In message <37C6BA4C.95B39565 at mail.ilstu.edu>, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> writes
>I have a query. What is the evidence that schools *used* to
>teach religion and no longer do? From 1935-1947 I attended
>first a rural grade school, then a small town high school. I
>received no "religious" instruction, I never experienced school
>prayer or a moment of silence, and no one ever challenged
>the correctness of evolution. And at a small regional teachers
>college (Western Michigan) in the late '40s among both
>staff and students the assumption tended to be that being
>a Christian was something to be ashamed of. (In polling
>terms a majority of course were Christians, but they still
>felt themselves intellectually isolated; atheists and agnostics
>felt themselves as more central.)
>
>Was my experience all that rare? What is the evidence for
>religion in the schools and colleges 1930-1955? What is
>the evidence that it is more excluded now than then?
>
>Carrol
>
>
-- Jim heartfield