My son talks about death more often that I’d like him, too. In the past, he was scared of dying because it meant that he wouldn’t be able to do anything. Now, he tells me that he’s scared of dying because he might go to hell (as most bad boys do according to his teacher). I’ve no qualms about my son learning about organized religion and all that spiritual stuff because I’m Christian. I was born into a Catholic family, educated in a Catholic school and grew up fearing God and hell.
What I frown upon is that they tell kids that when they die, they go to heaven or hell. Well, of course, we were all taught about purgatory or limbo, as others call it; but I reckon 8 year olds are too young to understand such things. My dilemma is that I don’t believe in heaven and hell; there’s only one place for me – EARTH. I had a discussion about death with my boss, and he just confirmed what I thought to be true. When we die, we become nothing.
FYI, he’s Jehovah’s Witness, a Christian like me; and he has studied the bible in depth. He gave me verses from their bible (I don’t know which version), and asked me to look through passages from a bible in our house. But then, the bible is another creation of man – they are supposed to be messages from God. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that any organization will do anything to tarnish their reputation, thus some omitted and added text or words. We interpret the bible stories (which is what they are, stories from men) how see understand them; and there are different variations as to how we comprehend such tales.
I’m not sure what they’re teaching now to children, and honestly I’d like to get an in depth look. What’s written in my son’s religion book discusses saints, martyrs and angels; beings that are human and spiritual in nature. There are prayers and bible stories that I also learned way back in grade school. These are fine, especially if these topics are helping my son understand values that he will need when he grows up.
If values are to be learned, it should be taught at home. Although we say that teachers are more practical life coaches, they cannot see the bigger piece of the pie because they have to handle more than 20 kids at one time. Mothers on the other hand have a one on one relationship with their kids, enabling them to discuss matters that are of extreme importance with regards to the development of their children. We cannot tell our children to share until they have nothing (Remember that story about the women who gave all of her pennies, and the rich man who gave a big amount? Apparently, some teachers take it literally!) because we work hard to keep them satisfied and healthy. We do not slave all day to feed half of our kid’s class, nor do we give out expensive toys to children who bully our children.
We teach our children about the facts of life, things they’ll have to understand as early as now; so that people do not take advantage of them. We define the limitations of values so that our kids do not grow up pushovers or bullies.
I understand that we live in a Catholic country and my son studies in a religious school; that’s why I respect the subjects being tackled. I just hope that as responsible educators, they understand that some of the things they say in class have a huge impact on the children – who probably believe everything they say because they are learned men and women. However, I’m a responsible mother and I would like to say that kids should not be exposed to such devious schemes; such as ingraining in them that there is only one place they’ll go to if they lie; to enforce obedience. Kids are kids, they don’t fully understand life, and their grasp of what’s right and wrong is still a matter to be discussed amongst family members.
