Most Secondary schools breaking law by not providing daily group Christian worship in Assmebly
Under the 1944 Education Act, schools must provide “broadly Christian worship” every day. New research has revealed that of the 1700+ parents surveyed by ComRes, some 64% said their children did not attend a daily act of collective worship at school.
Although most primary schools abide by the law, some 80% of secondary schools do not.
Many will view this as further evidence of the march of secularism; however, it should also be noted that 60% of parents want the law abolished.
There’s much talk online of teachers feeling pressured and coerced to perform the daily act of worship; which begs the question as to the quality of worship.
In view of this, I find myself broadly in agreement with Archdruid Eileen:
And I know that some school assemblies are led by dedicated, Christian teachers (or teachers of other faiths) who can give high-grade instruction and inspiration based on their beliefs. But I likewise question whether that is what we should be sending children to school for either? In my opinion it may be time to scrap the whole misguided state-inculcated religion campaign in non-faith schools. It’s unfair to teachers, who could gain an extra fifteen minutes scanning the Guardian job ads and eating biscuits. It merely inoculates children, who come to see low-grade drivel of a broadly deistic nature as what “religion” is all about. And I’m not sure what God gets out of it either.
Tags: Christianity, Education, Religion Society
September 6th, 2011 at 12:31 pm
Good thoughts… I agree with you. Forcing anyone to teach or practice Christian worship isn’t going to help them develop a positive attitude to it. Most of us, when forced to do anything, feel negatively about it. So I think removing it all together could be a positive step for schools.
September 6th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Yes. If you want to reduce the long term influence of religion in society just enforce compulsory religious instruction in schools by unwilling or indifferent teachers – That’ll do it!
September 6th, 2011 at 1:39 pm
True story: when working with a middle-aged, single Afro-Caribbean woman, who had stage IV cervical cancer, I was forced to make contact with her employer because the woman – who worked as a cleaner at an independent Christian Evangelical primary school in north east London – just hadn’t a clue about her sick pay and entitlements. I phoned the school and asked to talk to whomever dealt with human recourse issues. The secretary who answered the phone told me it was the headmistress who did that kind of thing:
‘Can I talk to the head please?’
‘Not at present.’
‘Is she in a meeting? – Can I leave a message?’
‘No, she’ll be out in a minute, she’s on the toilet.’ I then heard the flushing of a toilet and the head came to the phone. Well, British sensibilities aside about mentioning whether someone is on the bog or not, I thought it odd that I was told this.
A few days later I met with the woman’s vicar, who had tried to sort out her finances on his own. He was a lovely man (complete with beefy forearms, a broad Cockney accent and tattoos – just what the church needs in my view!). When I mentioned I’d contacted the school he said: ‘I doubt you’d get any sense out of that place!’
He was of course, correct, it was only through applied pressure from myself and a nephew of the woman, that we got the information we wanted. It wasn’t malice that caused the problems, but just sheer incompetence. Why anyone would trust their children and their children’s education to this well-meaning, but ultimately inept Christian school is beyond me. The vicar(himself an Evangelical) was scathing of the school, its management and educational attainment.
I tell this story just to demonstrate that because a school is ‘Christian’ it doesn’t mean it can come up with the goods of what it is supposed to do. Schools are there to educate and few teachers possess either the skills or knowledge to lead children’s worship. My own recollection of ‘Christian’ assemblies (in the 1970s) was that few, if any of my peers took a blind bit of notice of any Christian message of assembly and in the main it was the time of school announcements, chastisements, some half hearted hymn singing and an excuse to muck about. Scrap it, is what I say!
P.
September 6th, 2011 at 7:05 pm
I love hymns – a love that stems from school. We sang 2 every morning. Singing together is a lovely thing for anyone to do – we don’t do it enough in modern life – and makes a cheerful start to the day.
I would strongly recommend that schools focus on singing rather than speech during morning assembly. The old hymns cover the whole year with all its festivals – and I think it would be great to get urban kids more in tune with annual patterns: singing about the harvest, for example. I fondly remember hymns and carols marking the rhythm of my year.
September 6th, 2011 at 7:34 pm
I like that idea Isobel, Let’s face it, the The old hymns are great theologically and the children would learn more from them, than a tired old speech anyway,
September 6th, 2011 at 10:09 pm
All I remember is being lectured because we didn’t sing loudly enough. It was always Where Have all the Flowers Gone, The Ink is Black, the Paper’s White, or (being Bedforshire) He Who Would Valiant Be. Sometimes we would have to sing them all again.
September 7th, 2011 at 8:56 am
Oh Eileen, you poor thing! No wonder you hated it.
Off the top of my head, favourite and frequent hymns at school were “Glorious things of thee are spoken“, “We plough the fields and scatter” and “God is love, His the care”. All rousing and encouraging, both in terms of words and melody.
I still sing hymns while I’m cooking or cleaning…