A First Grade Discussion

The saga continues in my son's first grade classroom. He came home yesterday and told me that the kids in his class "told" on him. Of course, I asked why and he went on to explain that they were talking about god again.

It seems as though the other kids were trying to convince him that god exists. When he asked questions about why they thought this, many of them couldn't answer to his satisfaction. He wanted to know where god came from, if he supposedly made all of us. They answered that nobody made god..he's just there. That just didn't make sense to him and he told them so. So, the kids' response was to tell the teacher.

At this point, I eagerly listened trying not to seem too hard-core :) I didn't want to assume that the teacher would answer a certain way and be surprised by what he said. I really wanted to see what his reaction was to the whole thing. She told the students that it is his choice what he believes....10 points for the teacher! I was very happy to hear this because that is exactly what we have told him...he needs to decide for himself.

This whole situation does concern me a bit, though. I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall to see exactly what is being said. We're talking about 6 year olds here :) It seems that kids can have disagreements, get over it and be friends again on the playground. I'm really more concerned about parents' reactions. Personally, I think it is great that he is already learning to use his own brain to think things through and decide if what he's being told makes sense. But, I know that many parents don't really want their kids to question them...especially their core beliefs.

So, what is little Johnny's mom or dad going to do when they come home and tell them that a little boy at school doesn't think there is a good reason to believe in god. I hope that it opens up some conversation, but I really think that Johnny's parents are going to FREAK out!! Now, I'm basing this solely on my past experience as a fundy Christian...I think of how my mom or other parents in our church would have reacted.

I'm just trying to take these situations one at a time and hope I do the right thing as a mom. I reiterated to him last night that it is GREAT to have these conversations because we can learn so much simply by asking questions. But, if people start to get angry, it might be best to stop the conversation so that everybody can stay friends. I also reinforced that everybody believes different things and he should never be mean to someone simply because they believe differently.