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caregiver said:I am strictly against teaching any specific religion in schools or preschools. My reasoning is simple: kids haven't even hit puberty yet, so they aren't capable of processing concepts like God, faith, or the Church with any kind of healthy, rational logic. A child can't truly grasp the essence of faith; they just learn the motions or the vocabulary associated with it. Regardless, I feel that religious education belongs at home or within the church, not in our public classrooms and daycares.
I recently dug through my old archives and found my childhood prayer book from elementary school. Reading it again after 15 years was honestly quite a shocker.
Right at the beginning, under a section titled MY GOOD RESOLUTIONS—which, interestingly, ranked higher than the instruction to listen to parents in all good things (I was actually surprised it didn't say "listen to parents unconditionally")—the following were listed:
never skip a day of prayer
never miss Sunday Mass or a holy day
go to confession as often as possible
never skip religion class.
It’s actually pretty terrifying when you realize this is what children are reading.
The very last item mentioned was to "listen to one's conscience" (which, in my opinion, should have been number one!), but nestled among all those other resolutions was this one:
THINK UPON DEATH AND GOD'S JUDGMENT.
Why on earth should a child be contemplating death (or any heavy existential dread) at such a young age?
According to the next part of the prayer book, a child is expected to:
IN THE MORNING—say morning prayers, the Angelus, and pray before and after breakfast.
IN THE AFTERNOON—say the Angelus, and pray before and after lunch.
IN THE EVENING—say the Angelus, pray before and after dinner, and say evening prayers before bed...
AND AS NEEDED—when facing temptation, if you've sinned, during a moment of mortal sin, or even just when you hear someone swear. There are even "arrow prayers" that we supposedly "shoot toward heaven like little arrows of love."
And we haven't even counted the Rosaries, the Masses, the Stations of the Cross, confessions, devotions to Mother Mary or the Sacred Heart, or all those prayers said while staring at various religious icons...
Not to mention some of the commentary inside, like PRAYERS FOR THE DEPARTED (which feels totally pointless), or constant reminders that your parents are merely "earthly parents" and that you must never forget your supreme obedience to your heavenly ones....
Is any of this really necessary?
And one more thing. Is it really part of the faith to differentiate between friends in preschool? I remember back during Christmas time in daycare, they used to make cards for the kids. Most got cards with a Christmas tree, but one little girl whose parents were Jehovah's Witnesses received a card with a little house in the snow instead. Honestly, it's just silly because people are so uninformed! The decorated tree is a relatively modern tradition and isn't even tied to religious doctrine—it's just a seasonal custom. Kids didn't necessarily understand the theology, but they definitely noticed they were being treated differently. It's just like how kids in school can see who attends religion class and who doesn't.
Is all of this really required???