{"id":1971,"date":"2019-07-07T12:54:37","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T12:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/?p=1971"},"modified":"2019-07-07T12:54:37","modified_gmt":"2019-07-07T12:54:37","slug":"obsolete-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/?p=1971","title":{"rendered":"Obsolete law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A lot has changed in the 75 years since Christian collective worship was made compulsory in schools. East London Humanists call for reform in the <em>Spiritual Life<\/em> column of the <em>Ilford Recorder<\/em> 11 July 2019<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-blue-color\">This\nyear marks the 75<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of the 1944 Education Act\nrequirement for state schools to hold a \u2018<em>daily act of collective worship<\/em>\n<em>wholly or mainly of a Christian character.\u2019 <\/em>A lot has changed in 75\nyears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-blue-color\">According\nto the latest statistics the non-religious are the largest growing group in\nEngland &#8211; a staggering 46% increase in seven years, and over half the\npopulation. There are also now of course many other beliefs and faiths to be\nfound in Redbridge and elsewhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-blue-color\">Polls\nshow most parents oppose the requirement. Opt-outs\nare available, and in practice many schools ignore it with impunity. A positive\ndevelopment is the surge of interest in inviting Humanists to speak at school\nassemblies about their ethical non-religious perspective. Humanist speakers\nmeet the twin obligations of promoting the spiritual, moral and cultural\ndevelopment of children and promoting social cohesion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-blue-color\">But many schools do still apply the law. Their assemblies divide children based on their parents\u2019 religion and which pupils take part. They put religious belief on a pedestal, while sidelining those of us who are non-religious, or of a different religion, as if our views on leading a good life count for less. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-blue-color\">The law is redundant and does not reflect the diversity of cultures and beliefs in schools today. Christian worship has no relevance for the majority of children. A new duty is needed to ensure assemblies are respectful to, and inclusive of, all pupils, regardless of religious or non-religious belief.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Paul Kaufman<br>Chair East London Humanists<\/strong><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lot has changed in the 75 years since Christian collective worship was made compulsory in schools. East London Humanists call for reform in the Spiritual Life column of the Ilford Recorder 11 July 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9c4oP-vN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1972,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971\/revisions\/1972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}