we have a right to be free from religion schools cater to all, the non religious and religious why should the non religious be forced to sit through people having chats to their imaginary friend?

Surely it's a basic human right, regardless of what you believe.

Heck no, that's like removing God from the Creation. We should always be in indebted with our thanks and gratitude for what He's done for us. The most supreme thing He ever did for me and mankind is send His Son, Christ, to atone for OUR WRONGDOING, so we have the opportunity to go back to His presence. Boggles my mind and yet so many are blind to it. All I can say is time WILL tell. Edited 06-Sep-22 20:11pm

Prayers should NEVER be in public schools. Not ever. Church and state should ALWAYS be separate. If you want your kids to be subjected to religion they can do it outside the school system and not waste actual useful education time. What prayers do you suggest ? Baha'i, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism, Satanism? oh did you mean Christian prayers only ?

Yes. Not all of us want our children to be brainwashed.

I think it is positive. Prayer does not teach young ones to be decent human beings. We do that by example.

I never had to pray in school. We only learned about cultures as we live in a multicultural society - Auckland NZ. I do wonder if kids are forced to follow a particular religion if they are told to pray and if that's the case then that's not good because wouldn't it alienate some kids? That's not a good start. I'd prefer religion to be taught by parents rather than school purely for this reason. That way kids can go to school and focus on learning the basics/education to set them up for the next stage of education without having to worry about any additional pressure.Edited 05-Sep-22 13:07pm

I can see your point, give them a base point. But you need to be careful with young minds. You don't want to force religious views on them. If their parents want to teach them how to pray, great, but do it in their own home, with their own children. Young children should be brought up as freethinkers (yes, one word). Develop their minds so they can form opinions and ideas on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority or established belief. We do afterall, live in a free society.

Yes! Turned me into a born-again-atheist (HAHA) and I do not follow religious norms :-))!

My husband works at a government school and has to deal with different form of religions but he has mention its not the children but the parents. Some parents come to school with their children and demand to follow their beliefs. So the school start the day showing respect to the older of the Aboriginal people.

no it has not

I can't remember them ever in school, remember having to sing the anthem, remember getting hit if I used my left hand to write or draw, can't think of any prayer time ever maybe throughout my schoolingEdited 05-Sep-22 10:05am

Way tooooooo Technical to answer.

I was brought up Catholic, went to Catholic schools and during holidays stayed with the nuns. Once I hit 16 I happily left. I have two sons' who have no interest in religion, both work full time and have turned out fine without it.

Thank goodness it has stopped

what did they have from praying, false hope,

It is a bit like teaching sport or dance - you get the basics and what you do with it later on is up to the individual.