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The e-mail I sent the British radio presenter

Dec 31, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
I am often astonished at life’s coincidences. I have just read the letter from S.N. Singh of Florida about the “composition of a national prayer for all school children”. Religion in schools seems to be a ‘hot topic’ in different parts of the world at the moment.
A few nights ago, I was listening to a radio discussion about the teaching of religion in British schools and what form this should take, in the light of the fact that Britain is now a multi-racial, multi-cultural society.
The presenter invited listeners’ views. I remembered my own primary school days in Guyana, and sent the following email to him. It crossed with an email poster, sent by a friend in Guyana, of the most beautifully-illustrated pictures and words of the “The Lord’s Prayer”, I have ever seen. I immediately forwarded a copy of this religious poster email to the radio presenter, as an endorsement of what I had just written. For me, three coincidences close together.
This is the email I sent to the UK radio chat show presenter; ”Religion in schools. I am a very senior citizen and attended a Church of England primary school in the Caribbean. We were not taught religion as such, but we were required to say prayers three times a day, before starting classes in the morning, before breaking for lunch at midday, and at the close of the school day in the afternoon.
We all said the same Christian prayers (the Lord’s prayer was essential) plus others, as we progressed to the ‘big’ school. We observed that some Roman Catholic children remained silent – but never knew why.
Saying prayers and ‘teaching religion’ are two different things. I have found that young children soon get bored with ‘preaching’. In one year, out the other. Instead teach good manners and how to be fair to one another. I would love to know whether other faith schools allow Christianity to be taught in their schools.
I remember that when my son was at primary school in the 1970s, all the children looked forward to the Nativity Play in December. Do they still have this play at Christmastime in the ‘normal’ British school, I often wonder?”
Incidentally, my son was always given the part of ’Joseph’ in the Nativity Plays, and on the second occasion, after donning the long white kaftan, and the white headgear with the black band around the forehead, he announced that he looked rather like ”Lawrence of Arabia”.
Geralda Dennison

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