Children: too young for faith

We seem to have a confused attitude about religion and children.

In the UK, parents have stopped a school trip to a mosque, saying their 10 year-old children were too young to learn about other faiths.

Errr …

• if 10-year-olds are too young to learn about ‘other’ faiths, doesn’t this imply that each child aleady ‘has’ a faith? How did that happen? Did these 10-year-olds really choose a faith so young?
• Or did their parents choose for them? If so, aren’t they also too young to have their parents’ ‘faith’ imposed on them?
• can you ever be too young to learn to respect otherness? shouldn’t it start at birth?
• did anyone actually ask the kids what they wanted?
• …