h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I went to a Church of England school from Infants through Junior school (which for the non-UK based out there, is from Age 4-7 and 7-11 respectively). That experience has put me off organised religion for life.

Every day we had a religious assembley and were required to walk _In_Silence_ from classrooms to the school hall. Anyone caught talking on the way would be pulled out of the group, and hauled up on stage to be shouted at by the headmaster, as though talking was some form of blasphemy. Madness.

If that wasn't bad enough, there was also 'Hymn practice', where the whole school would stay for half an hour after assembley to practice singing the next week's hymns incase any visitors happened to be in the area the following week. Nobody was permitted to leave, and the whole school would effectively stop any sort of useful activity (such as teaching) until we had performed to the headmaster's liking. I recall having once to stay there until lunchtime.

I would like to publicly thank the headmaster of Archdeacon Cambridge CofE primary school, Twickenham, from 1975 to 1979 for making those years an absolute living hell for most of the pupils at the school, and hope that if he hasn't already, he will meet his maker soon.

I had a chance to visit the school recently, and while still a church (+grant maintained) school, I would describe it as far more open minded today than it was then. However, nothing will convince me to take up christianity again.

On a lighter note, if you have not already read Brad Whittington's guide to dealing with unwanted religious intrusion into your life, please do so. You can find several copies out there on the net. Here's one over here

Ok, so what the ? went wrong with the GuideML in that?

It doesn't work in the forums

I went to a C of E school in Nottinghamshire for a time. I don't recall that religion played any roll at all there. It didn't leave much of an impression if it did. Our headmaster was a bit of a nutter, though. Well, maybe that's a little unjust... but he did go on Mendelssohn binges, when we would have to listen to the Hebrides Overture over and over again. I still get claustrophobic when I hear it.

JTG

> It doesn't work in the forums..

Hmm. Strange; the hyperlink still seems to work though.

The

Hmmmmm... That entry wasn't really meant to be submitted. Anyhow, the links works in the forums without the tags. That's basically what I wanted to say.