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Saturday, June 02, 2007

How do you introduce Humanism to very young children?

from BHA site:

"The only way to bring up children is by example. Humanism has been introduced gradually, like most education – for example, by firstly explaining at infant school age, when they first come across the concept of god, that we choose not to believe but other people do and we should all respect each other’s beliefs.”

"It depends upon age but as they learn about the world, whether on the news
or from local events or personal events, these can be put in a context - we
do it this way because we are humanists, we may not believe in a god but we
believe in people and in particular, the Golden Rule.”


“I would merely hope my own behaviour would serve as a positive role model for young children. Humanism as a conceptual word probably is meaningless until late primary or early secondary school years.”

“I didn't , but I did pass on ‘humanist’ values – do as you would be done by, put yourselves in other people's shoes etc… I think that teaching children to be good and why is all you need to do when they are very young. Eventually this evolves into Humanism. We felt no need to mention God, or our disbelief in God (why raise something you don’t believe in?) until it came up at school.”

“I don't . I just let them see, through our example, the way to live a good life. So far it is working – they are lovely, sensitive but down-to-earth children. I don't happen to believe that my children are humanists by default. Being a humanist required positive effort and maturity. When they grow up, I hope that they will be humanists.”

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