Humanists UK proposes a new alternative for morning daily routines at school, a secular and non-religious approach for all students.
Secular and free of religion
Schools in the UK are used to having morning assemblies that require students to exhibit an act of worship on a broadly Christian approach. In a petition made by Humanists UK, they are offering a program suited for morning assemblies, something secular and involves no religion.
The program is called Assemblies for All. It eliminates the talk about someone’s particular God in schools, instead, it focuses on people and current events that need attention from the public. Since it is not religion-related, there will be no segregation between the pupils.
The program has 30 diverse themes that will serve as a basis for the topics discussed during morning assemblies. According to Humanists UK, they have 200 schools participating in this secular morning assembly.
According to Humanists UK’s chief executive:
Schools are now taking part of the compulsort removal of Christian worship during morning school assemblies. The idea of having a morning assembly where all students can relate and do not feel being offended is better and more acceptable to both parents and students. With the guidelines our group handed out to the teachers, they will find it easier to look for resources to be needed during assemblies.
A particular case about forced religious worship was submitted in July by two parents Lee and Lizanne Harris with children going to Burford primary school. Details of the complaint filed by the parents mentioned about letting their children watch various bible stories and being acted out as part of worship.
We withdrew our children from assembly after discovering that they were made to say prayers and interact with evangelical preachers. It confuses the children and influences their belief without the consent of us parents.
Parents like Harris’s greatly support the concept of Assemblies for All. This gives parents a sense of comfort that their children are not being fed with religious beliefs that may contradict what they are accustomed to.
