There's a debate going on at the moment about primary schools that have decided not to have a traditional christian nativity play this year. Typically, UK primary schools enact the christian myth using a cast drawn from keen and excited children in their care and on one level it is just a drama event for the kids to get involved in.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4102277.stm
Listening to those who are arguing that it should be kept in schools as a traditional christian event, the purpose is far more than simply giving the kids a play to take part in. It's a positive indoctrination into christian beliefs. Five-year-old children don't have very much in the way of critical faculties and if they're told Jesus was holy and was supposed to be worshipped, that's not simply the plot of a story for a play, that's something they will be disposed to believe. And that's the whole idea.
Many schools have multicultural cachment areas and it has become inappropriate to insist for example that muslim children should be either encouraged to take part, or be excluded. So for purely pragmatic reasons, schools have had to find a more sensible approach and many are opting for some other moral play of a non-religious nature, something that all the kids can get involved in. That sounds like an inclusive, progressive thing to do, illustrating that ethical values and morality do not have any necessary connection to religion.
The church is understandably somewhat taken aback by this practical demonstration of secular ethical teaching - after all, the christian church campaigned against literacy in England to ensure that only the priesthood would be able to interpret the Bible, as only the religiously trained were thought capable of understanding morality and ethics. How wrong they were!
There is a curious multicultural twist to all this though. Divali and Eid are celebrated in many schools and there are arguments from parents saying they want the christmas nativity to be more explicitly religious. Because the muslim festivals are by definition strictly religious, they want some too.
It seems we have to have religious festivals because the politically correct folks don't want to prevent a community celebrating its religion, but on the other hand, they don't want an explicitly religious nativity. Sooner or later someone will have to stand up and argue for religion to be out of schools altogether. Keep the drama, the parties, the cross-cultural cooperation and fun,just ditch the religion - better all round.
And for those who insist that children should learn the truth of the nativity as some theist put it on the radio, I think that would be an excellent idea. Tell them it's a good story, a myth, just like lots of others. Tell them about Aesop's Fables, about the Rig Veda, about the stories in the Mahabharata and Bhagavad Gita. Better still, let them make up their own morality tales - now that would have something to do with education.
