Know God by all means, but not in my classroom

I cut half of this post out because I didn't agree with it anymore, or find it necessary to make sense of the following anecdote. It's my blog, I can do that.

Meanwhile, in the real world, I observed a class of French 8 and 9-year-olds today while they were learning about the rise of Christianity in France. It was an amazing lesson; history, religious studies, economics, citizenship and maths all in one. I took some badly-written notes, which, translated and edited for clarity and length only, I'm going to post. I was so touched by their enthusiasm and their humanity and, I don't know, it seems relevant. Maybe if all those twittering god-no-godders today had been in this class when they were nine, they wouldn't be making such a big deal out of it now.

Teacher: Ok, look at the map of Europe and the timelines. Look at the numbers. Who can tell me something about the different numbers of Christians in France in 400AD and 500AD?

Kids: [after some amusing comments] There are more! Loads more!

T: Yes, well done! So why do we think this might be?

Kid: Miss, did they see it on TV? *laughing*

T: [laughs] No, they didn't have TV. First, think about how people used to move things around back when there were no TVs or cars or aeroplanes.

Kid: Did they use a postman?

T: No, they didn't have postmen either. But you're right, in a way. It was someone who travelled. Who would have moved around a lot, a long long time ago, before postmen?

Ks: Everybody! Nobles! Train drivers! Important people! [...they continue guessing.]

Ace Kid: Miss I heard that some people from France used to go all the way to China to fetch the rice. They would travel and travel and they would come back from China with rice all the way back to France, and they would carry things and bring messages and things.

T: Yes. Exactly right! Well done. So look on your map and see how people travelled all the way from the East, through the Middle East, and towards Europe. The caravans from Asia brought spices and all sorts of other things, and they helped to spread ideas about Christianity as on the way the travelling people preached. So this was the diffusion of Christianity, facilitated by commerce. Also at this time Rome was taken over by people who 'officialised' Christianity and made it the one proper religion of the Empire, so old Roman culture was outlawed and everybody was told to change, even in France.

Kids: Everyone?! Waoh etc. Why? Why did it take over?

T: There have always been people who believed - sorry, who believe - in things. People like to believe in things, children. Life is sometimes very hard and it's reassuring to believe in something. The people of the caravans were sometimes travelling for weeks and months at a time, it was very uncomfortable and dangerous back then. So you see why it was good to think somebody was looking after them. We are very lucky in France because we have the "liberté de culture," we have the freedom to make a religious choice (because it is a choice), and part of this liberté is that my religious freedom stops where another person's starts. [makes arm gestures] I can believe whatever I want, and so can they, but to each other we have to be - what do we have to be, children?

Kids: Respectful!

T: Yes, we have to respect other people's religious beliefs. Otherwise you get religious wars between two kinds of believers that can cause enormous deaths. What do you think? Would you kill the person sitting next to you because you were a different religion? Would it make you feel better to kill your neighbour?

Kids: [all look round, start laughing] Mais non! Because I like him.

Ace Kid: Good, because otherwise I wouldn't have any friends!

T: Yes, good. Shh. [waits for them to be quiet, then speaks slowly and clearly.] But the problem is that in some countries, though, things aren't like that. People who believe something often don't understand why others don't believe exactly like they do. C'est illogique mais ça existe. It's unbelievable to the people who are fighting these wars that they could be wrong. They're convinced it's right, but is it really?

Kids: Nooooooooon!

T: Non. Non. [She looks very serious.] Il faut lutter contre ça. [We must struggle against that.]


Now, without going into France's shady past in that area, or the race riots of the banlieux, or the fact that I'm in a great school in a chic suburb where the teacher has time and resources and energy to actually teach, unlike many – and above all, without getting onto the no-god-know-god seesaw – I think that's a pretty positive start to a nine-year-old's religious education.