Religion is something I grew up with at home, in my community, and at school from preschool through college. I attended Catholic schools my whole life and was freely able to express my thoughts, beliefs, ideas, and values. Now, teaching in a more diverse public school than I ever attended as child, religion can certainly be a touchy subject. When I was attending Catholic schools 95% of the other students were also Catholic so we all had similar beliefs and our daily religion classes focused in on those beliefs. Now, as a teacher in a public school there are several children with different religions or those who do not have a religion. When religion, God, Christ, Jesus, etc. is brought up I put the focus on that child's beliefs and I'll ask the question back to them. For example, I had a child say do you know Jesus dies for our sins. I asked him to explain how he knows that. I allow them to explain what they know and to teach other children or teachers who are interested. I never say what I think is "right" or "wrong" and instead encourage all children to be accepting of all the differing religions!
While teaching in a different district I had a student from being a toddler on who knew he wanted to be a priest. Each day he brought his rosary and bible to school. He typically would keep his bible in his cubby but would ask to get it out during free reading parts of the day. When children asked what he was reading I encouraged him to explain to his friends what he was reading and why. Through this the topic church came up often. I allowed the children to talk and I simply added comments when necessary. Children talked about if they did or did not go to church, where they went to church, and then we would discuss it's ok if you do or don't go to church and it's ok if you go to different churches. I had a few co-workers who told me that I shouldn't "allow" him to bring his bible to school. I strongly disagreed as he (nor I) were preaching or forcing the word of the bible. I never read the bible to other children, I encouraged other children to bring artifacts of their religion to school to teach us, and I always emphasized the importance of accepting all people and being open to differing religions. I often said as you get older you may not agree with someone else's religion, beliefs, or thoughts but we all need to respect others and say its good to be different! Being in a preschool setting children are so open to differences and it's something we can talk about very openly.
While teaching in a different district I had a student from being a toddler on who knew he wanted to be a priest. Each day he brought his rosary and bible to school. He typically would keep his bible in his cubby but would ask to get it out during free reading parts of the day. When children asked what he was reading I encouraged him to explain to his friends what he was reading and why. Through this the topic church came up often. I allowed the children to talk and I simply added comments when necessary. Children talked about if they did or did not go to church, where they went to church, and then we would discuss it's ok if you do or don't go to church and it's ok if you go to different churches. I had a few co-workers who told me that I shouldn't "allow" him to bring his bible to school. I strongly disagreed as he (nor I) were preaching or forcing the word of the bible. I never read the bible to other children, I encouraged other children to bring artifacts of their religion to school to teach us, and I always emphasized the importance of accepting all people and being open to differing religions. I often said as you get older you may not agree with someone else's religion, beliefs, or thoughts but we all need to respect others and say its good to be different! Being in a preschool setting children are so open to differences and it's something we can talk about very openly.