WK is correct.

In the UK 1880's in the Welsh valleys, if you didn't go to chapel on a Sunday, you were literally kicked out of your village. Elsewhere in Victorian England, if you didn't get seen at Church you were ostracised by society. In the early 1950's I was nearly chucked out of my local Wolf Cub pack because we were affiliated to a local church, and I didn't go to their Sunday School. In the mid 1950's every school had Religious Instruction lessons (RI), that got changed to Religious Education (RE) because it seemed too dictatorial. You had no choice, you had to go to those lessons, both C of E, and Catholics alike. That was how it was back then, you just accepted it as the way it was. These days the school would get sued!

My local College where I taught had a staff calendar listing all the various religious days from every known religion. Virtually every other day there was some celebration or festival somewhere, where the students said they were unable to attend class because of their religious duties. We had to have a special private room where they could face Mecca umpteen times a day. How the hell can you run a teaching establishment on that basis with 10% of your class missing at any one time?

If you are paying big bucks for your child's education, you get to say what they get taught!

Unfortunately this is true.

And damn right too!! Religion has caused more problems and wars in this world than anything else, and is continuing to do so. The last thing we need to do is to indoctrinate our schoolkids.

We had religious education at school, but it was about all religions. It means I'm not scared of Muslims and don't believe all the hysterical crap said about the general Muslim population (of course there are extremists). My kids learnt even more, so if I have any questions about Hindu gods I ask them. Learning about other religions is an excellent way to stop xenophobia. It would also stop tragic incidents such as the ones after 9/11 where Sikhs were attacked and even murdered in "retaliation". Ignorance is never a good thing.

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