Well, Slag, I like the straw man, nice try. There should be a competition for it. Youy rather ignore the possibility that there might be other things than the self for atheists- like humanity, the world as an interactive system, society etc. etc. And that the postulated higher thing being of the religious might not actually exist.

Well, no, actually you don't make that latter mistake. Religious folk are perfectly happy for all gods OTHER than their own selection not to exist.

So, no, we are not religious and we are not selfish.

Secondly, as for the right to teach beliefs to their "OWN people"(*)- if you followed the thread you'd see that these are not faith schools in the elective sense. They are state- funded schools that are often (usually) the only one in the district, but which for historical reasons happen to be controlled by a religious organisation, the Church of England.

In terms of the song, yes, is maudlin, sentimental, simplistic, and as such differs little from many other songs that get sung by utopians (religious or not). The point is whether a state- funded school in a pluralist community should feel it has the right to impose a narrow, sectarian, religious point of view.

(*) People haven't "owned" other people in England since 1772, and n the USA since 1865.