...to expect students and parents to take my subject seriously?

[TeacherAnonymous123]

Issue coming from another thread I posted, so thought I would ask for people's opinions.

I teach Religious Studies at a Catholic Secondary School. As it is my subject, I am clearly biased, but I believe that students learning about other religions and cultures is extremely important for their development and attitude towards the world and other people.

As it is a Catholic school, students must take RS at GCSE. Their first exam in it is tomorrow morning and some of them are still apathetic, telling me that parents have said not to bother trying as it isn't an important subject and it doesn't matter if they fail.

Obviously this leads to a battle in lesson which I cannot win as I do not have support from parents.

So parents - do you think RS is an important and relevant subject? If not, why not?

No. I am anti religion so I would not want my child to be taught in any detail about religion given the option. I would want them to be taught enough to know why religious people do the stuff they do so they can be tolerant of them. But imo this could be taught in PSE or today’s equivalent. Ridiculous that we spend more time teaching about religion than about relationships, money, budgeting, DIY, interview skills etc etc.

@SoupChicken by that theory most GCSEs that teens are required to do they shouldn't have to.
When I was at school I had zero interest in science and french. Was a bit "meh" about PE. Thought I liked English Literature but actually I was irritated by it.
50% of my GCSEs I wasn't interested in but they were compulsory.

@ttcat37 relationships, money, interview skills etc usually come under PHSE.
Schools already do that.

OP, you are doing a great job. Wonderful.

I am a scientist. I have worked with vaccines for years. Some people learned "Vaccines stop the disease", so when it is not that simple they got upset at science.

You are teaching RE at a Catholic school, so they they will learn evoloution and big bang, but because a few parents learned "Daddy in the sky" they will think there is nothing more to it.

You are in the right.

YANU

Yes, I’m aware. More time should be spent on those subjects than religion. Just as money or relationships might have a small chunk of a PSE lesson, religion should have the same. Then the space left by religion in the timetable could be used for much more valuable life skills. 10 or 15 minutes on religion in PSE, spend the new free hour on the aforementioned subjects

I 100% agree with you that RE is an important subject but the curriculum needs a complete overhaul.

I don’t agree that you need a formal qualification in it.

@Needmorelego If RE actually taught ANY of the things you mention I wouldn’t see it as pointless. But at my catholic school it incited more hatred by teaching Christianity as the ‘right’ religion.

Because many parents don’t have much choice, my kids go to a C of E school despite it being C of E, not because of it. Similarly I went to a Catholic sixth form because that was what was available unless you wanted to go to a vocational college in the next town over.

But that view is ridiculous. Learning about religion can help with understanding about why the world is as it is. Shall we not teach wars or communism or colonialism? Lots of people are anti all those but we still teach them as it explains a lot of how we got to where we are now. It's like people refusing to engage with science as they don't want to know and end up being fearful of medicines or 5G.

I didn’t go to a religious school but everyone had to take GCSE RE. I don’t think it’s important (sorry), also had no interest in it but I did end up with a good grade as I didn’t want to end up getting a lower grade in one subject.

The only subjects that really matter are maths, English and science IMO. If you pass these you can take any subject/ course at sixth form or college regardless of whether you took it at GCSE.

i can understand OP. The two Catholic schools near me and the two Church of England schools are highly sought after due to being high performing and successful which parents are appealing for their kids to get in but to then say don’t bother with RE?

Yes, if you attend a catholic school, it should be expected that RE at GCSE is compulsory. I attended a RC school and took GCSE RE. It certainly wasn't considered a 'less than' subject.
BTW, there is a strict criteria for admission to catholic schools. I know this from my own experience and that of my son and grandchildren.
That's why I struggle to understand why the parents don't consider RE to be significant/important

Our school doesn't have RE as a compulsory GCSE and they therefore have to do RE as a non examination subject. I think its a waste of time as they aren't learning basics of all major religions or how to not offend others or what is the same across the religions, which I would see as valuable. They are learning more of an indoctrination In my opinion.
That said, the GCSE looks quite interesting as there is some philosophy and ethics in there which is interesting and worthwhile.

I'd question why parents chose a CATHOLIC school for their children if they don't think RE is important as a subject though. Perhaps your school could sit that GCSE in year 10 instead of 11.

@ But at my catholic school it incited more hatred by teaching Christianity as the ‘right’ religion."

That's not what GCSE does.

@DevastatedParent I can't speak for the current curriculum but back in my day (1980s/early 90s) in my RE lessons we learned about all the major religions.
So we were taught the difference between a Sikh Temple and an Islamic Mosque 😂
That's just one example of what I would consider a basic piece of knowledge - but there seems to be so much ignorance in the UK about simple facts like that.
And ignorance frequently leads to hatred unfortunately.

My children all took it a year early and passed with a good grade which was a relief as I thought one down. We are Catholic but I liked learning about Islam. I do always say same story different actors...
I remember learning RE and it was tedious and boring but I think its alot better now.

Same here. And I’m a Christian and an HE humanities lecturer.

I doubt DS has done any RS revision, although he quite enjoys it. He’s focusing on biology in preparation for Friday.

It's compulsory at my DCs non church school. They take the GCSE in Y10 and it is suggested that it is good practise for Y11. I have been helping my DC revise and have found it quite interesting.

I'm not remotely religious at all but I enjoyed RE at high school and got my best gcse grade from it over 20 years ago. I do think it offers value in many different areas of life as an adult.

@Needmorelego I’m guessing that wasn’t at a religious school. The OP has already stated that the GCSE teaches Christianity and Judaism. So not all major religions.

@DevastatedParent that's just the GCSE curriculum.
The children will have had 10 earlier years of school.
I would hope they learned about other religions and beliefs during those 10 years.
If they didn't then that is bad.

Sorry OP, you teach a largely pointless subject, so for most people it will not be a priority. It certainly wouldn't be for me.

Basic economics would be a far better use of students' time.

My children are at a RC school and I was very shocked at how heavily the RE syllabus was skewed to Catholicism. We are practising catholics and I had been happy for them to go to a school with compulsory RE GCSE as I thought it would give them a broad world view of religion and of religious philosophy. When I finally saw the whole syllabus when my eldest was in year 11 revising I must say I was not impressed. It wasn’t given to us earlier as it wasn’t an optional choice. My children will be encouraged by me to do their school work and study for it as it’s a GCSE but it’s the lowest on our list in term of importance. They have had plenty of Catholic education without a whole GCSE on it.

I take pp's points that some catholic schools might be the only school in the area so parents have no choice, but I'm assuming op's school is like the catholic school in our town - the best school in the area which people travel to from miles around and you have to prove your religion/church attendance to get a place. If they don't like religion they should do what the rest of us do and go to a different school.