I know that many of you are religious, but I am not. I grew up in a household where we did not talk about God. It was implied that God existed, but we never really discussed it or went to church or even prayed.
As an adult, I feel oddly out of the loop on the topic of religion. I have absolutely no knowledge of biblical stories. I don't fully understand the difference between Catholics and Baptists and Protestants. It is not that I don't believe in God, I am just not sure what I believe. When times are really tough, I do find myself praying to God. But I find this disturbing, because I never pray when times are good.
My husband, on the other hand, was raised Catholic. All of his years in Catholic school have taught him to despise religion. He is self-described atheist. He is skeptical of all religions, and believes the bible was created to control people.
Despite all of this, I am drawn to a religious preschool in our area. It is within walking distance of our house. Porgie would be attending school with other kids in our community. And I have heard nothing but positive things from other parents. When I told John that I was thinking about enrolling her in a religious preschool, I expected him to be strongly against the idea. But to my surprise, he seemed indifferent on the subject.
So, yesterday I scheduled an appointment to meet with a teacher at the preschool. Today, I am feeling oddly nervous about the upcoming meet and greet. I feel like I need to study up on the Methodist religion, which is strange because I have no intentions of joining their church. I am also nervous about Porgie learning bible stories. Will it bother her that we don't talk about religion at home?
This is all very confusing.
19 comments:
I think it is a wonderful idea!
i think it is a great idea. i was raised like you. i don't know a lot about religion. After meeting my husband I have decided that I believe in God. My thoughts are this. I think that Brandon and I will probably learn religion together. My mom always let me make my own choices about it and I choose to do the same with my kids.
So I see no harm in letting her learn the bible stories. She can come home and talk to you about them and you can learn together. I think after you both learn then you can make informed decisions about what each of you want to believe. Even if she does decide to believe in God I don't see the harm in it, I think it is good for kids to have something to believe, or something that makes them feel safe. She can always change her mind later right?
Plus, as you might know from reading my blog finding quality schools is hard. Who cares if they read some "books" as long as it is a good school and your child is well cared for, shit that is all I would care about!
I went to a religious pre-school and I wasn't even that religion (I think it was Presbyterian). I was a fabulous pre-school and I still have fond memories of it to this day. I don't think you have to be versed in the religion to attend. I recommend it.
Sorry for my rediculous grammatical errors on my post above. Ooops!
It sounds great to me! I think it's good to introduce the children to different options and let them decide what they want to do with it.
Remember that it IS just pre-school. She'll learn bible stories - but you can always just talk to her about them as life lessons (being kind to each other, etc.) That's the way that they're presented to kids - so it's not like your 3 year old will come home with high level theological questions for you.
Kate is right, it's just pre-school -- and if you don't know the Bible stories, I think that's OK, so long as she feels it's OK to talk to you about them, right? Just like anything else.
We aren't particularly religious, either -- I don't remember anything about Catholicism, wasn't raised in a particularly organized-religion type family... My mother believes strongly, but we never went to church every Sunday.
Anyway, I've been struggling with finding my religious identity, and have to pick a preschool for Boopie in the fall, possibly. The religious preschools are often cheaper, so I've been looking into them.. and having the same dilemma.
I think it's a great idea. Religion should be more personal, I think, intead of institional. I was raised Baptist...hated it with the fire of a thousand suns...became aethiest/agnostic (I can't never remember the difference) and then I studied Catholicism and became Catholic. My beliefs are so different from a traditional Catholic. I just feel your relationship with God is just that...YOURS. Not a church's, not a congregations, etc. Man stuck his hand in religion and made rules and destroyed the sanctity of it all.
So anyway... if you like the school, go for it. Methodists are pretty laid back so don't be too stressed. :)
As you know I am a big-time rational atheist, but I don't think religious preschool will mess up your kid.
You should read this:
http://frogs-n-snails.blogspot.com/2009/02/me-against-christian-education.html
My family is not religious either. As a kid, my parents encouraged me to attend church with my friends and to decide for myself what I believed. My cousins went to Christian preschool as well and their parents are as close to atheist as you can get. Didn't mess them up, and they were well cared for.
As a recent convert to Catholicism, I'm happy to hear that you're thinking about the religious route. Don't worry, I won't come knocking on your door some Saturday evening around dinnertime to discuss the Lord's Plan for you. I think that faith os good for you. What the heck, couldn't hurt, right?
I'm also going to Open House Night tonight to look into getting Will into their Pre-K 3 class for September. It will be HALF the cost of my daycare. HALF!!
Maybe the religion will get him to stop being such a grab-ass too huh??
A good school that is close by is great ~ i hope your visit goes well.
Let us know how it goes!
It will be nice and don't worry we were raised Catholic and my sister's kids go to a protestant preschool (no clue what the difference between Catholics and Protestants is). They don't give you a quiz or anything (I would probably fail).
Around here most of the preschools are religious and many of the children that go to them are not of that religion. The children will learn a lot of things in preschool including religion, but IMO, I think learning about a wide range of things helps create open-minded adults.
Is the preschool methodist? If it is they are pretty liberal and there shouldn't be an issue. I don't mean that in a bad way either lol... my best friend was methodist. They may do Bible stories, they may not... But they won't be pushy about it (not that most other denoms would either).
I'm sorry you're going through this btw...
And don't worry, while I could go into a lengthy comment on the differences between everyone, I won't ;-) (religion happens to be a big interest of mine.. both mine and others lol)
Just a blog stalker, here. I happened upon your blog from the Big Piece of Cake. I just wanted to help ease your mind a bit, as one who has been there...sort of. I am a life-long Mormon. I sent my oldest two boys to a Baptist preschool and I loved it! Because it was a Christian preschool, they not only taught the ABCs and 123s, but they also taught values. They teach the children to "be good". To be kind, to love others, to forgive, etc. Religious or not, that's something we all need to learn. I can also tell you that my oldest two boys are now 10 and 8and have very little memory of that time. So don't worry about it. I think you'll find that you'll be really happy with it. Hope you don't mind my "invasion"! And good luck!
i don't have an answer - i just want you to know i get it.
why does everything seem so confusing?
don't ask me...Eliza isn't even baptized. Religion isn't my thing...although i do find it fascinating. I went to Catholic K because it was the only full day availabe.
If it's a good school, who cares what the religion is? Also, knowing Bible stories is beneficial for education. Many stories are based on biblical stories or refer to them, so having that background will help in whatever reading or learning comes later.
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