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Collective worship in schools
In England & Wales (not sure about Scotland + NI) there is an obligation on all state maintained schools to have a daily sessions of collective worship that is generally Christian in viewpoint. The sessions can draw on other faiths and in areas where a school is made up mainly of pupils from a different faith the school can get permission to not follow the 'generally Christian' part of the obligation.
Lots of schools, particularly large secondary schools which don't have space to have an assembly every day, tacitly ignore the obligation without much complaint. Parents have the right to withdraw their children from collective worship. So the poll that's behind the cut is about what you would do for your children.
[Poll #905480]
FWIW I don't know what I would do. I would want any children I have to grow up to make their own choices about religion and I don't see participating in compulsory worship for one faith is particularly conducive to enabling that. But, very few parents exercise their right to withdraw their children from collective worship and I wouldn't want children of mine to feel isolated and be bullied by their peers because they get out of going to assembly (generally universally acknowledged as boring by all kids, in my day) and the others don't. I can also see the benefits of assembly as a bonding experience for school communities, and I wouldn't want to deprive my child of that experience. Once my child reached an age where I thought s/he understood matters well enough to make a decision, I would probably accede to his/her wishes.
My principle would be that unless you have a single faith group, an act of *worship* is pretty meaningless but that there are other things that would suffice for a similar purpose in the context of a school assembly ie. a moment's silence to allow people to pause and pray/think quietly, a reading (from a variety of faith traditions - I think it's possible to appreciate the points made/philosophy behind particular statements from faiths other than your own.
My other principle is that it's inherently wrong to force anyone into participating in worship they don't want to join in, with the exception of parents directly bringing their young children up in the context of their own faith. I think there's a qualitative distinction between 'I'm Jewish and I want to bring my child up as a good Jew and keep kosher and the Sabbath' and 'Just because I've sent my child to a state school she should participate in collective worship'. You can't do the former by apathy or mistake or misunderstanding. In the context of believing it bad to force people into participating in worship, I think collective worship in non-faith based schools is wrong. [I think faith based schools are wrong for different reasons, that aren't really relevant here].
Lots of schools, particularly large secondary schools which don't have space to have an assembly every day, tacitly ignore the obligation without much complaint. Parents have the right to withdraw their children from collective worship. So the poll that's behind the cut is about what you would do for your children.
[Poll #905480]
FWIW I don't know what I would do. I would want any children I have to grow up to make their own choices about religion and I don't see participating in compulsory worship for one faith is particularly conducive to enabling that. But, very few parents exercise their right to withdraw their children from collective worship and I wouldn't want children of mine to feel isolated and be bullied by their peers because they get out of going to assembly (generally universally acknowledged as boring by all kids, in my day) and the others don't. I can also see the benefits of assembly as a bonding experience for school communities, and I wouldn't want to deprive my child of that experience. Once my child reached an age where I thought s/he understood matters well enough to make a decision, I would probably accede to his/her wishes.
My principle would be that unless you have a single faith group, an act of *worship* is pretty meaningless but that there are other things that would suffice for a similar purpose in the context of a school assembly ie. a moment's silence to allow people to pause and pray/think quietly, a reading (from a variety of faith traditions - I think it's possible to appreciate the points made/philosophy behind particular statements from faiths other than your own.
My other principle is that it's inherently wrong to force anyone into participating in worship they don't want to join in, with the exception of parents directly bringing their young children up in the context of their own faith. I think there's a qualitative distinction between 'I'm Jewish and I want to bring my child up as a good Jew and keep kosher and the Sabbath' and 'Just because I've sent my child to a state school she should participate in collective worship'. You can't do the former by apathy or mistake or misunderstanding. In the context of believing it bad to force people into participating in worship, I think collective worship in non-faith based schools is wrong. [I think faith based schools are wrong for different reasons, that aren't really relevant here].