Mandatory Prayer Has No Place In Our Schools!

  As an atheist and a parent, I have to make certain decisions regarding my children on the subject of religion. For example when my child asks, "Daddy, what happens when you die?" What do I say? Do I say "Oh, sweetie don't worry about it, when you die you go to heaven, and heaven is such a wonderful place." I couldn't in all good conscience tell her that. It would make me a hypocrite. But I also can't say "Well, darling, when you die you're nothing but worm food, dust in the ground." This would not go down too well, and many sleepless, worry filled nights would ensue. So, instead of committing to answer A or answer B, I opt for the politicians response, "Well, sweetie, some people believe that when you die, you go to heaven, and some people believe that there is no afterlife, but nobody really knows. The important thing to do is make the most of your life while you're living it." This answer, I know, is still not perfect, and it smacks of fence-sitting (as a highly opinionated person, this is not a position I am generally comfortable with), but if the choice is lie to my child or scare her to death, I'll opt for fence-sitting any day of the week. I use the same diplomatic response for all the other tricky question they throw at me, namely "Is God real?" and "Are there such things as ghosts?". Eventually, if I have done my job right, they will grow up and learn to think about these questions critically and, hopefully, they will arrive at the logical conclusions themselves.
  But there is a problem. They go to school (a UK school). And for the most part this a wonderful thing for them. School is the most important time of their lives. But while I'm at home being the diplomat, their teachers are bombarding them with religion while they're at school. And this isn't a faith school I'm sending them to. It has no attachment to any religious organisation, yet it observes christian prayer. Why does it observe christian prayer? I'll tell you why. Because it's the law!
  The School Standards And Framework Act 1998 (See Chapter VI - Religious Education & Worship) states that all pupils in state schools must take part in a daily act of collective worship, unless their parents request that they be excused from attending.
  The fact that my kids school is making my children pray is bad enough, but to find out that the law makes religious proselytising an obligation of the school was just infuriating to me. "But, hold on a minute," I hear the religious apologist say, "they've given you a get out clause, you can ask the school to excuse your children from the prayer, you atheists, you're always bloody moaning!" Yes, I could exclude my children from school prayer, but the question is why should I? It's not my children that shouldn't be in the school's assembly, it's the prayer! Why should I make an example of my children and have them ostracised and laughed at when they are asked to leave the room. We all know how kids can be, and this would not go unnoticed. No, I shouldn't need to embarrass my children in such a way. 
  Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not some whack job anti-religious parent that wants their child to know absolutely nothing about religion, I have already explained how I answer their queries on religious matters by explaining that different people believe different things, and that it's important for them to make up their own minds. I, for one (I know some will disagree with me), am not against religious education in schools. Religion, for better or worse (worse in my opinion), is a cultural phenomenon, it is practised the world over. It is therefore quite unavoidable. Teaching children what different cultures believe and the religious practises they observe is not necessarily a bad thing. As long as the person teaching them about these things is responsible and makes no attempt to indoctrinate the children, I don't believe there is anything wrong with them learning about it. After all, besides my love of science, the fact that I know so much about religion is one of the main reasons I am an atheist. 
  Prayer, is not religious education, it is religious observance, it is the indoctrination of our children. We send our children to school to learn, if we wanted them to observe prayer we would take them to church. How dare the government even think they have a right to tell our children what to believe. In my opinion, parents don't even have this right. It's down to the child and the child alone, when they are old enough to comprehend such matters, to make up their own minds.

  I am happy to report that work is being done. The National Secular Society has been working tirelessly to get this archaic law removed. In 2011 they released a "Collective Worship Briefing". This is essential reading for anyone seeking a basic overview of these issues. It outlines why collective worship is wrong, outdated, why it is a violation of our kids' basic human rights and what we can do to help. They have had a certain amount of success:

   

  In 2006, the NSS won a hard fought campaign to ensure that sixth-form pupils at main stream schools and maintained special schools were able withdraw themselves from collective worship, without the need for a parent's permission. Our lobbying resulted in an amendment to Section 55 of the Education and Inspections Act which now states:

"If a sixth-form pupil requests that he may be wholly or partly excused from attendance

at religious worship at a community, foundation or voluntary school, the pupil shall be

so excused."

   A story published on the 20th February of this year, reported the story of Veronica Wikman and her petition to rid Scotland's state schools of religious observation:

Veronica Wikman

Ms Wikman, who lives in south-west Edinburgh, said religious observation had nothing to do with education but everything to do with “religious indoctrination”.
 “The Church of Scotland has not owned our schools since 1872,” she said. “It should retain no privileged access to the education of my child or any other.
“As a parent, I’m forced to give the Church of Scotland joint custody in exchange for receiving state education for my child. That is outrageous.”


  Her petition, requests that the city council conducts a vote among councillors to remove religious observance  from non-denominational state schools, both primary and secondary. The petition required 500 signatures for the vote to be considered, and at the time of writing this it had received 961 signatures. This is clear evidence that there is genuine concern among the general public regarding this matter, but things seem to be moving so slowly.
  All atheists/secularists/humanists who are parents surely have an opinion on this subject. We have a duty to ensure that our children receive an education free from religious indoctrination. This is not what our schools are for. We need to set up our own petitions (mine is currently pending approval) and we need to write to our MP's telling them what an affront to our children's liberty this really is, which I will be doing myself shortly. Let's give the clergy at least one less place to spout their fairy stories.