Is it true, as I have often heard that many RE teachers in Britain are atheists or agnostics?
Jim Farmelant
On Sat, 28 Aug 1999 09:50:56 +0100 Jim heartfield
<jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk> writes:
>
>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
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