What is Lent?

[JebusKryst]

When I got home last night, my 8 year old son Louis had a funny story to tell me….
 
In class, they were asked if they knew what Lent meant. Only a few kids raised their hands and Louis was asked to answer.
 
“It’s when “Jesus” spent 30 days and 30 nights in the desert Mrs” he answered.
 
“Why did you use your fingers to imply quotation marks when you mentioned Jesus?” asked his teacher
 
“Because I don’t believe anyone can survive 30 days and nights in the desert without dying Mrs, even if they are supposed to be “the son of god” ” He answered
 
Shocked, the teacher took him to Mr Williams, the Headmaster (who’s a bible thumping Christian) and told him what Louis had said.
 
“Have you not learnt anything from our daily assemblies?” asked Mr Williams.
 
“No” Replied Louis, “I find them boring and it annoys me that we spend each morning talking about the bible and singing hymns when we could be learning real stuff like evolution and science.”
 
“Ok, back to class” mumbled Mr Williams

I've never felt so proud! Just thought I'd share that story with you.

[MikeyV]

That's awesome! Good thing it happened in the UK, though.

Had it happened in the American south, he would have been shot or sent to the re-education camps. (OK, I'm kidding....sorta)

[tacoma_kyle]

Cool!

Thats certainly  somethin to be proud of.

[Mister Joy]

Good on him! I think it's about time our Government did something about the education system regarding those dreary morning assemblies in both primary and secondary schools. They're a total waste of time and taxes & even when they aren't hammering home the Christian message they're still focussed on banal intellectual nannying of some form or another.

The big thing at the moment is university. They're going to be bashing that into kid's skulls in primary schools too soon, or so I've heard. I was a prefect in sixth form, so I'd have to help out with assemblies and other such 'communal' stuff. Much of it consisted of going to the year sevens and informing them that "if you don't get into Oxford or Cambridge when you're older, then you are a failure in life and might as well just give up all together you worthless little turds." It's all total crap. Going to university should be a free choice depending on the particular ambitions/interests/talents of the individual not a conditioned ultimatum between success and suicide. Kids can actually believe the rubbish they're told though and end up being total nervous wrecks about the whole thing. Not everyone wants to be a doctor or a solicitor or a scientist, but our Government would have the youth of today (as well as their parents) believe that if you're not part of this collective then you've somehow stepped off the imaginary conveyor belt of academia and into an endless pit of oblivion where your doom is assured. When my careers advisor pestered me about my own ambitions I told her I wanted to own a pub somewhere in the Midlands and become a published writer. She wasn't best pleased and decided to write a concerned letter to my parents telling them that I wasn't 'acknowledging my potential' or 'aiming high enough', as if there's some vertically represented spectrum somewhere that gets used universally to measure the ultimate worth of all human beings on the planet. We go to school to learn about what we're interested in - same reason we go to university. The pieces of paper with letters written on them that we get at the end are a bonus but they are far from the be all and end all. They are not the blood coursing through our veins or the food that we eat to sustain ourselves, despite what they preach in school assemblies. People can, and will, do whatever they want.

Anyway that's my random tangential rant over and done with. Sorry about that.

[JebusKryst]

Heh. Dont apologise Mister Joy - I enjoyed reading your rant and even agree with what you said.

The good thing about my sons experience is that it reinforces what I've always taught my two kids...QUESTION EVERTYTHING. The remarks my son made to his teachers could not be argued without abandoning common sense and reasoning, which is why I imagine the head teacher didnt progress the matter further.

I'm just glad my kids are turning out more like Lisa Simpson than Rod and Todd Flanders...

[SteveS]

  Sweet story!  I love it.

[Mister Joy]

The good thing about my sons experience is that it reinforces what I've always taught my two kids...QUESTION EVERTYTHING. The remarks my son made to his teachers could not be argued without abandoning common sense and reasoning, which is why I imagine the head teacher didnt progress the matter further.

I'm just glad my kids are turning out more like Lisa Simpson than Rod and Todd Flanders...

[JebusKryst]

It's very impressive and refreshing to hear that an 8 year old can be brave and intelligent enough to a) express an earnest opinion without being intimidated by a looming authority figure and b) rationally justify his case with such efficiency. And I'll second everyone else, once again: if I were in your shoes I'd be swelling with pride.

Thanks and yes, I'm ever so proud of him. He's mutant clever and has already moved up a year and yet he's still top of the year in standardized testing. They wont put him up another year because he's not physically mature enough.
We often discuss life, religion, god, evolution, the current movements in science etc for hours at bed time and I'm just glad its sinking in.

But I'm most proud of the way he stood up to his head teacher. That really bought a tear my eye.

[josh]

Sounds like a smart kid.  Congratulations.  You know the acorn does not fall far from the tree !

[Edizzle]

That's awesome, great kid. You know, I think my dad is and has been an atheist (or at least agnostic) for a long time, but just never has said it because my mom is Catholic. My Uncle is an atheist, and I used to think he was a nutjob, but now we're on the same page!

Interesting how different your outlook is without religion in the way. Good thing your kid didn't have to go through that religious phase most atheists go through before leaving "god".