Religious education

Started by The Void May 5th, 2014 3:13 AM
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Religious indoctrination is arguably wrong and definitely wrong if it takes place in public schools. Teaching people about various religions, what they believe and their history, that's not wrong at all.
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Sopheria

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Is religious education wrong? Why or why not?
I think you need to go into more detail. Are you asking is it wrong to teach religion in general? Or are you talking specifically about teaching religion in schools? Do you mean in public schools, or school in general? And do you mean objective, comparative religious education, or indoctrination into a particular religion? Whether it's right or wrong is heavily dependent on these questions.

For example, I don't think there's anything wrong with religious education as long as it takes place in church, or in a private school that's specifically labeled as being a religious school. I think it's wrong to put it in public school though, unless it's a neutral analysis of all religions, with no particular bias towards one or the other--comparative religion class is what it's usually called.

But to teach in a public school that Jesus is the only way to salvation and all other religions are false is wrong. In the states the Constitution doesn't allow it, but I think that no matter where you live, religious indoctrination doesn't belong in a place of learning.
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I believe that everyone should have the right to choose their own beliefs, not be forced to learn the ways of their parents or anything else. To do this, people would need to have a basic understanding of the major religions and other belief systems. I believe that their should be classes on religion that you can choose to participate or not participate in for public schools, because if someone can't afford private school but they still want the religious education, they can still get it but they have a choice, they're not forced in either direction. This would allow people to choose their own beliefs, rather than being forced to believe whatever their parents teach them.
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I think that it's important to note that, as a graduate of a Catholic high school, the reasons religious schools are often seen as superior are more than just "public school + religion". When I transferred from public school to Catholic school, it was after my freshman year in high school - there were multiple fires set throughout the year, once a flaming trashcan was thrown down a hallway, we had to evacuate due to the fumes of a soap dispenser being caught on fire, it was common practice for the kids in the back of the class to light matches until the teacher noticed the smell, and we had to evacuate once due to a bomb threat. None of that was a factor in my private school, and the teachers were far superior. I was challenged there in a way I never would have been at my local public school. The religion was irrelevant to my experience of the school; the only way it mattered was ensuring that the school still had funding because Catholicism is rich.

Until we fix problems with public schools, make low-income public schools attractive places for good teachers and reduce crime and danger, private schools will never disappear. As long as privately-funded schools exist, the ultra-wealthy religions will sponsor schools. Removing religious schools is like cutting a branch off of the tree you're trying to remove; you have to get at the root as to why these schools exist an are attractive to people. I can guarantee most kids in my school were not actively Catholic.


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TRIFORCE89

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I went to Catholic school for both elementary and high school. As far as I could tell, it was identical to public school except for a mandatory religion class, prayer in the morning, and masses tied to main holy days. Everything was the same. A good percentage of the students weren't Catholic, and it was fine. Some openly gay. We had world religion and philosophy classes. Sex ed followed Provincial curriculum (as did everything else). Still had to follow standardized testing. We had nude models for art class. And, I think I read that on average Ontario's Catholic schools perform better than the true public schools do.

I say "true", because the way our system works here is that the Catholic schools are still public. They're separate yet the same and are publicly funded because of something with our constitution to appease the French population at the time. You indicate which system you want your taxes to go toward. Because it's public is probably why it was so liberal. Which I think was just fine. No nuns hitting you with a ruler or what not.

A problem I do have with our setup is that it isn't equal. Other religious schools don't get public funding or have to be held to public standards. I think the latter aspect of that is the more important. And having two systems leads to duplication of administrative function. Bloated, bureaucratic overhead that drives me up the wall. Do we need to school boards? Two locations for those school board main offices? Duplicate staff? Double unions when workers of both boards are doing the same thing? Have one school board with one department for Catholic matters; bloat gone.
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In middle and elementary school, I went to a Christian school. Not for high school (but that's not relevant). I think religious education is a great thing. I think it's very good, and better than public school. Again, im biased towards Christianity. Public schools defenitely need classes with different religions, but they would be to no avail. Most religions I think believe a god or gods created the world. When the students are taught that isn't true (which it is), their faith may be destroyed or not even considered. In smart enough now to think logically and defend my faith as a Christian.
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In middle and elementary school, I went to a Christian school. Not for high school (but that's not relevant). I think religious education is a great thing. I think it's very good, and better than public school. Again, im biased towards Christianity. Public schools defenitely need classes with different religions, but they would be to no avail. Most religions I think believe a god or gods created the world. When the students are taught that isn't true (which it is), their faith may be destroyed or not even considered. In smart enough now to think logically and defend my faith as a Christian.
There are many benefits to learning about religions whether or not you believe in them. You understand people of that religion better, you are more capable of understanding the nuances of the world better, history is often built on the backs of religious beliefs, etc. That's not even getting into the philosophical arguments over religion by some of the best minds of all time. The point of having a class on religion isn't to convince the student to convert, it's to make the student aware of the different religions and cultures in the world.


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In middle and elementary school, I went to a Christian school. Not for high school (but that's not relevant). I think religious education is a great thing. I think it's very good, and better than public school. Again, im biased towards Christianity. Public schools defenitely need classes with different religions, but they would be to no avail. Most religions I think believe a god or gods created the world. When the students are taught that isn't true (which it is), their faith may be destroyed or not even considered. In smart enough now to think logically and defend my faith as a Christian.
I agree that religion education courses would be cool to have in public school, but they wouldn't necessarily have to teach that it's not true. They could just teach it from the perspective that "some people believe this", and it'd basically be something of a lesson on various cultures.
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I agree that religion education courses would be cool to have in public school, but they wouldn't necessarily have to teach that it's not true. They could just teach it from the perspective that "some people believe this", and it'd basically be something of a lesson on various cultures.
Exactly, so you could still learn about your chosen religion without paying the outrageous fees for private schools. If someone wants to learn, let them learn, if they don't, don't force them too.
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Religious education should only be taught as an elective. There are people who want absolutely nothing to do with religion and will just upset the class if they're forcedly made to sit through it (uhh.. me). I'm not against religion as a subject, but the way it's taught is invariably biased 100% towards one specific religion and gives absolutely no credit to any other. All of which have just as much right to be taught and learned than any of the more popular faiths.

I think the only way to have it taught in an unbiased fashion is to make the subject personal study and dedicate the class to religion as a whole with students independently focussing on their chosen religion. Of course I understand children will segregate each other based on their choices but that's just how religion affects humanity.
There are a lot of overlaps in various religions which is where you can start teaching, try and teach students an understanding of each other religion and maybe we wouldn't have any major wars anymore.

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Religious education should only be taught as an elective. There are people who want absolutely nothing to do with religion and will just upset the class if they're forcedly made to sit through it (uhh.. me). I'm not against religion as a subject, but the way it's taught is invariably biased 100% towards one specific religion and gives absolutely no credit to any other. All of which have just as much right to be taught and learned than any of the more popular faiths.

I think the only way to have it taught in an unbiased fashion is to make the subject personal study and dedicate the class to religion as a whole with students independently focussing on their chosen religion. Of course I understand children will segregate each other based on their choices but that's just how religion affects humanity.
There are a lot of overlaps in various religions which is where you can start teaching, try and teach students an understanding of each other religion and maybe we wouldn't have any major wars anymore.
You're not really correct in claiming that all religious education is "invariably biased 100% towards one specific religion". Religious education, if it ever came to public schools, could easily be expanded to other religions and cultures, and is certainly not always taught as if one way is the one true way. Like I said before, I went to Catholic school but a great deal of the students there weren't Catholic. The school dealt with this by having the religion classes be more general; although you did only learn about Catholicism, you learned about it in a way that did not push it as the one true way, just facts about the doctrine and history.

The easiest way to make it unbiased is simply to make sure the person teaching the religion is not of that religion. This would be easy for some of the more obscure religions and less easy for religions such as Christianity, but often those that have enough experience in various religions to teach it don't subscribe to a particular religion anyway. Even then, it's not the only way; if your worry is really that they will only teach one religion, all they would have to do is put at least 4 required religions on the curriculum. Then, it's required.


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Alright I'll rephrase; It has been my experience that each independent religion has been invariably biased towards each their respective religion and therefore a class about religion in general will naturally gravitate towards the religion of the teacher.
I maintain that a teacher with any (or no) faith is going to influence their students whether they intend to or not, subconsciously and psychologically. Especially if it's something they don't believe in.
I'm not worried, the degree to which the next generation understands potentially supernatural deities effects me very little. I'm concerned that to accommodate such a broad subject fairly you'd have to start with sprinkles of ALL religion and have children choose an elective for detailed further study.
Any degree of limiting one religion relative to another is the definition of bias and for a child to be properly educated about this very sensitive subject it's important bias not exist.