religion and the (home)school

It’s almost August. I plan to spend the month of August preparing for our first ever school year – Chloe’s PreSchool/Kindergarten year.

In most areas, I’m pretty firm on what I want to teach, how I want to teach it, and what I’d like to accomplish by the end of the year.

However, I struggle with the idea of teaching religion.

As a parent, it makes sense to me, on one level, to bring my children up to believe what I believe. Not because I believe I am right and that my beliefs are the be-all-end-all of the truth about Divinity and the origins of the universe, but because my beliefs bring me comfort during hardship, joy during happy times, and guidance when I really do seem to need it. Ethics and morals seem to be more effective when taught in the context of spirituality, not only the "what" we should do, but the "why" as well. It would be easy for me to work "Circle Time" into our daily schooling, and to pair our nature/science activities with stories and mythos of the gods and goddesses. And, I think Chloe would enjoy it tremendously.

But still, I struggle.

I remember being a child forced to participate in a religion that I had no belief in. Being present for many of the standard Christian rituals made me extremely uncomfortable. Witnessing several people at a church camp (children included) speaking in "tongues" stands out in my mind as one of those defining moments. I never could reconcile what the Christian church taught with the things I knew in my heart, and that led to several difficult years of soul searching and questioning myself. It was also a source of anger. Anger at my parents for forcing me to participate, anger at the institution itself for consistently proselytizing and making me feel like an outcast because I didn’t believe. Even anger at myself because I couldn’t force myself to believe the way so many of my peers seemed to.

Finding Wicca was a defining point in my life, and I draw an immense amount of comfort from my faith, even if I don’t outwardly practice it all the time.

I know, 100%, that I would rather injure myself than to force my children along the same path I had to follow. It was painful, and unnecessary.

So, I don’t know how to reconcile these two sides of myself: the parent, who wants to share in the joy of her beliefs, and the former child, who can’t forget what it felt like to be a fraud sitting in a church pew.

And none of this is even taking Aaron’s perspective into account. I haven’t spoken with him about it yet. I still have plenty of time before it needs worrying about. But I still do worry, because I’m "Mom" and that’s my job.

As always, opinions are welcome. 🙂

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Step-a-bit

July 28, 2010

Why not introduce her to religion through contrast and comparison? Share stories of gods and goddesses and how they compare to stories of the bible. teach her the difference in your beliefs to the beliefs of other religions and how/why they differ. make it a lesson in diversity not a lesson in contrition.

the Karyn

Why not teach it to her as something you believe rather than something that is? Something like, “What I believe is… and some others believe… and yet others believe…” and then ask what she thinks/feels, too. Give her the religion foundation, show her that there could be other truths, and teach her to think about it for herself. It was always the “believe this because Isay so” aspect of church that bothered me. Maybe if she were given the option to believe what she wishes, it wouldn’t feel as bad or forced for her as it did for you (and me) as a kid.

Second Impression

I’m an athiest and would certainly like to believe I have a strong moral and ethical base and have definitely BTDT with well-meaning religious folk. I think teaching those two topics in the context of compassion and community would be more helpful. Depending on Chloe’s maturity, superficial aspects of religion like traditions and rituals will likely suffice for now, theology can wait.

Morrigu

I’ll have to find the book we bought to teach Tess and Garret – it’s awesome and I am finding I need to scan/print pages so they both have a copy of what we’re working on… this looks pretty cool though: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Pagan-Homeschooling/Kristin-Madden/e/9781892718426/?itm=7&USRI=Pagan+Parenting