Baptising children

I don't necessarily 'believe' in non-baptism, if people want to baptise their children that is their business. But baptism is an 'opt in' thing, not 'opt out'. The norm should be that religion is separate from state business, including schools, and if people want religious education they are the ones that should go looking for it.

Just suppose that we had a completely multicultural society, would you want your children spending their school days learning - for the purpose of practising as against academic knowledge - Protestant and Catholic Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and so on and on? They would spend all their days learning prayers and rituals. Ok that's an extreme example but it is basically what you are suggesting. Far more reasonable to give children a good secular education and let individuals' religious education be the responsibility of the various religious institutions, and homes.

Amazing the ignorance here. Yes the state pays the lions share of an underfunded system.

You'd think to take you seriously that there was a parish priest on every board. There ain't what planet do you live on. The church has minimal influence day to day. Loads of legislation protecting kids who don't want to do Catholic religion in school.

Ok, let me explain to you very simply. At the moment in Catholic primary schools, children are being taught Catholicism as fact. Not as something some people believe. Now imagine if you were sending your children to a school and the teacher was teaching them that there was definitely no God. Do you see the issue here? Would you be happy in the second case?

My little boy will be starting primary in a CoI school in September and will have two assemblies a week with the reverend. I’m sure it’s harmless enough but there are no options where we live for families like ours

What, precisely, did you find ignorant in my post?

As I said earlier, it doesn't matter whether a school is RCC, CoI or ET patronage, the state funding is exactly the same.

The church might have minimal influence day-to-day but it has enough to ensure that religious instruction is delivered according to the syllabus it sets out and they have diocesan inspectors to enforce this. As employers the school boards of managaement are exempt from religious discrimination legislation.

The constitution has lofty words about the rights of parents to protect their children from religious instruction in school, but these words are empty words. Many schools still try to discourage parents from opting-out their kids and it's a farce anyway when they're in the same room colouring in while their peers are singing hymns or being preached at. Then there's the class masses, priest visits etc. often with little or no notice and never any alternative supervision, so unless parents can call around at the drop of a hat to remove their kids they have to participate in religious worship.

I tend to agree with you. Sacraments should be taken out of schools. However i have seen a huge amount of bad parenting out there. Also it seems parents can't teach their kids the facts of life or how to eat healthy according to constant stream of directives we get.

It beggars belief

Far too much unnecessary thinking. Baptism and Catholicism and the church isn’t what it used to be. No harm whatsoever in having your kids baptised. You can have your children baptised and still keep your distance from the church.

State finding for secondary schools varies greatly depending on its model.

Nobody was talking about secondary schools though, as you were no doubt well aware.

My children are baptised. And I don’t attend church at all. Only for certain occasions. I don’t see it as at all a waste of time. I just did it to go along with the general and normal sense in thus country. Children in Ireland are generally baptised. People need to stop overreacting, over-thinking and trying too hard to find problems, and problems that stemmed from the past mostly.

Church bashing is just another recent fad that folks have jumped on. People pretending to be bothered by the church.

all the more pathetic that in a marriage and two people conflicted and arguing over whether their children should be baptised. Get over it, and baptise them and live.

Im not absolutely certain funding for all primary schools is the same. I know fee paying private primary schools don't receive state funding.

It might vary further. I don't any of you sit on a BOM

Look I give up. Kids get all the sacraments and come out atheists. Thus calling it indoctrination is silly.

It serves as a counter point in terms of value to the gross materialism and narcissistic culture we are in. Kids might not believe in God after it but they might absorb some non head up me hole values.

There are opt outs for religion. It's up to you to look them up.