THEOLIVERS

I dont think its forcing faith on children, as a catholic, youngest of 6 (go on do the joke) i think my parents guided me in faith ,its like teaching a child anything from crossing the road to spelling, you do what you think is best and right for your kids, the same way i have done fo mine.
If when they are older and decide its not for them they CAN be whatever they want to be.

JAJ

Easy to say that they 'can' decide, but how many Catholic schools encourage this kind of decision process and especially give children information on the most likely alternatives - Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian etc as well as adopting a non-religious outlook on life.


Jeremy

spalen

And you'd better hope they dont chose to get Gay......

hevs

I couldn't agree more

What is this percieve brilliance about catholic schools anyway

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117...7-2862,00.html

A school is only as good as its staff.

hevs

Could you please explain this in a bit more detail Jaj?
I agree absolutly. As i have said it makes me fell very uncomfortable, brrrr for all the reasons you pointed out here ......

Larissa

No. Please substitute and for plus to make my meaning clearer.

brisnick

i guess i was lucky at school. i was taught about most of the mainstream religions (christianity, islam, hinduism, sikhism, buddism, etc). i'd like to emphasise 'taught about', i.e. we were not force fed christian rhetoric. we were taught that hindus believe in many gods, sikhs don't believe in cutting their hair, and catholic priests molest young boys (sorry, couldn't resist a bit of a wind up). my point is we weren't taught to be christian, but to know what it is to be a christian (muslim/sikh/hindu......).

hevs

I believe the bible was to us what the dream time is to the indigenous Australians. A load of old crap made up to explain things before we understood science.

As for the question "do i believe in god and heaven??" i always reply "only cos I'm to scared not to" And thats so true its not funny

fraser

I retracted that later if you read on, so

Mercedes

A colleague of mine has sent her daughter to a Steiner school,http://directory.google.com/Top/Refe...ols/Australia/

as she was finding her daughter was being bullied etc, but the one thing she did like was their curriculum and their outlook on life. I think a parent has to visit a school and see which ones comes up to their morals and beliefs and they are happy but more importantly the child is, whether you're religious or not.

Larissa

Sorry I went through the thread too quickly
Ta anyway

fraser

Me too, that's how it happened

CPW

But it is all a matter of degree. There would be many Christian parents, I imagine, who would prefer that their children were exposed to Christian influences during their education than that they weren't, even if the influence was from a denomination that they didn't themselves belong to. As I say, it's all a matter of degree and of what one considers to be fundamental to Christianity. The Roman Catholic Church and some of the 'lower' Protestant churches have traditionally been more exercised by differences in denominational practice and belief than some of the more 'central' Protestant churches and mainstream Anglicanism has been.

And in the so-called post-Christian era in the West, many of the sectarian divisions are becoming more blurred than they have been - for example, I know an Anglican person (a trainee clergyman, no less) who is the head of religious studies at a Roman Catholic school - and he's not even what I would class as a 'high-church' Anglican, much less an Anglo-Catholic. This sort of thing would have been, I imagine, pretty much unthinkable only 20 or 30 years ago.

Mercedes

Well lets face it its only been the last 100 years or so, if not less, that everyone can read and write. It was written by Man and his viewpoints based on little knowledge of the world. How long ago was it when they realised the world was round? Since religion seemed always to try and put the fear into everyone, I think it was invented to keep the peasants in line.....backed up by nasty things the church did to people...

I was sent to a religious school and it put me off for life, quite sad really because before that when I was a toddler I said my prayers etc, but then again I used to believe in Santa Claus as well until I realised it was my Dad dressed up....

janeyray

Hi Mrs J,

We looked at a few schools and chose a Catholic School in Ellenbrook. Our daughter loved the school and although the religous side was pushed it was a good school. I'm not Catholic but hubby is.
Our daughter did moan sometimes and come home saying all they had done all day was talk about jesus ( ) but out of all the schools in the area we thought it was the best.