Baptism and schools called after saints

jane82

Im not really bothered with the whole god thing. If the local school wants to teach the kids it fair enough. I never bothered baptising the kids because Ive no belief in it and if its avoidable itd save the hassle.
I think its grand to use it in education abd for kids to believe in a baby jesus and all that just like they believe in santy etc.
Im not here to debate my beliefs Im just wondering will the local schools give me hassle about this? Sure with all the different nationalities about they cant say Christian baptised only , or can they?

January

Moved to Primary & Pre School from Parenting.

January

They can have a baptised children first policy.

jane82

Oh dear bit religious persecutiony but Im not the caring type will a priest throw a bit of water on their heads if I swing by the church or will I have to go to them meetings where I pretend to be religious?
I christened the eldest fella and it was like I had to pass the priests test to get it done.

poolsandles

They can say "baptised only" if they are over subscribed as a criteria to determine what children they will enrol.

Find out if your school is oversubscribed. If not there will be no issue in your child enrolling there.

jane82

poolsandles wrote: »

They can say "baptised only" if they are over subscribed as a criteria to determine what children they will enrol.

Find out if your school is oversubscribed. If not there will be no issue in your child enrolling there.

But is this not like what they do in Africa where they offer food for baptism. They are basically saying baptise your kids or your at the end of the que. I know there are educate together schools but arnt always local. The problem is Im stuck having to move house and with rental the way it is now Ive no idea where Ill be going so cant put my name on a list yet. Arrgh stressful.

Chattastrophe!

jane82 wrote: »

Oh dear bit religious persecutiony but Im not the caring type will a priest throw a bit of water on their heads if I swing by the church or will I have to go to them meetings where I pretend to be religious?
I christened the eldest fella and it was like I had to pass the priests test to get it done.

The more people like you that there are out there, the longer it'll take for the status quo to change. It's sad.

I don't know how you could stand up on an alter and make promises to a god that you don't believe in. I really don't think it's a good example to be setting to your children.

I'm not religious, and no child of mine will be baptised unless by their own choice when they're old enough to decide. Education is a massive priority for me; I'll make sure they don't suffer in that regard. But they won't be signed up to Catholicism (or any religion) for the sake of their education, it would just be wrong and immoral, in my view.

jane82

Ye dont wanna get into it really. I view it as a bit of silly dress up sort of stuff. Im not trying to abolish them or anything. Ive no problem nodding my head to get the kids in the school. Its not like gods gonna strike me down for saying I believe in him to a man in a funny dress.

certifiedcrepe

Hey there! My cousin didn't baptise their 3 sons and they didn't have many problems (afaik) when all three started primary. However, the oldest is now in 6th class and had been turned down by all secondary schools in the area and has to repeat 6th class because his parents don't have enough money to go private. I've been told that the parents wrote letters to most of the schools explaining that if their son goes to the school they do not want him in a religion class and they don't want him attending any religious events and I guess the schools just thought he was too much hassle.

I think Ireland is quite backwards in that way. It's unfair to deprive a child of education due to it's parents religious views. And I also think that the church is too involved in education. But I do realise that extremist views are not taken too kindly by schools (unless those views are for Catholicism, of course).

jane82

Yeah I dont have extreme views Im just not arsed with it. They can do religion class I just wont have a baptismal cert.

certifiedcrepe

jane82 wrote: »

Yeah I dont have extreme views Im just not arsed with it. They can do religion class I just wont have a baptismal cert.

All you can do is try anyway. It's a shame that schools require that, I always wonder what the point of that is since there are kids from all over the world with different religions in those schools too, which shows that you don't have to be catholic to attend.

Moonbeam

Ask for a copy of the schools enrolment policy or send them to a multi denominational school .

Big Bag of Chips

certifiedcrepe wrote: »

It's a shame that schools require that, I always wonder what the point of that is since there are kids from all over the world with different religions in those schools too, which shows that you don't have to be catholic to attend.

Schools don't "require" a baptismal cert. But the enrolment policy in a school with a Catholic ethos will most likely have Catholic children as the first preference.

Our school is a Catholic rural school. They are not over subscribed. When enrolling our children we were asked to provide a baptismal certificate if we wanted our children to partake in the sacraments. If they didn't have a baptismal cert it made no difference to them being enrolled in the school.

As Moonbeam says, go to your school of choice and ask what the enrollment policy is.

Edit: And you've just contradicted your opening statement above, by following it up with.. "since there are kids from all over the world with different religions in those schools too, which shows that you don't have to be catholic to attend"... so a baptismal cert obviously isn't required by those schools!