...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?

Some parents are absolute hypocrites. They will temporarily rent a house in a faith school's catchment area, or become regular churchgoers for a year and then when their child gets into the associated school drop it like a hot potato.
'We want our child to go to a religious school because the teaching is better...the children are better behaved...the facilities are better. But don't you dare mention religion.'

@ttcat37 well I was happy to spend 40 minutes a week learning about religion and cultures.
We did practical skills too - in other lessons.
I went to a comprehensive school - so received a comprehensive education. Which is what school should be really.

There should be no such thing as state supported faith schools. While there are, parents are entitled to do what they can to get their child into a faith school if it would be better for their child.

It is important to learn about other cultures and religions, but I disagree that RE lessons improve acceptance of others. I've learnt more about different religions from friends and colleagues, and find their experience of how and why they celebrate far more interesting.

I've always been an atheist, with no interest in religion and found RE the most boring lesson; it was just not what I believed in, I didn't care how others celebrated as I have never judged anyone on their religion. I am happy that it brings joy, solace and a sense of unity for those that choose to follow whichever faith they wish.

I did not (and still do not) see it as a useful lesson compared to history, geography, or art even, I could see the point in why I had to do those subjects.

My child's school is very multicultural, they do some form of RE but it's also combined with PHSE or wellbeing days. They learn about a major celebration in one of the big religions. It's done of a fun way and they all take part in preparing for the celebration and how to support their friends.

I think there are two debates here. One is the issue of state funded faith school which are obviously unacceptable. The other is a requirement to study comparative religion, ethics and philosophy, which is a universal good.

There is a third issue relating to the RS curriculum. In this school, it appears to major heavily on Roman Catholicism with a bit of Judaism thrown in, but certainly not what I would describe as "comparative religion, ethics and philosophy". I'm all in favour of kids learning about all faiths and none, but it doesn't seem like the other faiths are getting equal treatment here.

I went to a catholic secondary school, compulsory RS GCSE. The upside is that I found it very easy to get an A*. The downside is it was boring as fuck (dry is an understatement) and focussed almost entirely on Catholicism (fine, but let’s not pretend it taught me an understanding of other faiths).

As an atheist, I agree that a basic understanding of other people’s beliefs is useful. But RS GCSE doesn’t achieve that and isn’t necessary to achieve that.

I switched schools at A Level partly to escape compulsory RS (not as an A Level, but you still had to attend classes).

Some parents may well be hypocrites, but others might not have any choice about sending their kids to a faith school. At one point, dd's options for secondary looked like a Catholic school or going private as she didn't get a place at any of our preferred choices. Fortunately, she subsequently got into the school that we wanted from the waiting list, but I know others who were left without a choice.

For me it depends on the content taught. I think it's important to know about others religions but GCSE RE at my school was just learning about The Gospel According to St Mark for 2 long years which I found totally boring and pointless. It didn't exactly broaden my understanding of other religions. I learnt more about religion and religious practices from hanging about with my mates at lunch than I ever did in an RE lesson.

@Medschoolmum "There is a third issue relating to the RS curriculum. In this school, it appears to major heavily on Roman Catholicism with a bit of Judaism thrown in,"

Agreed. I must have missed that-I thought we were talking about the GCSE curriculum. My mistake.

You're right that it's the GCSE course, but the OP has said "the GCSE course is Catholic focused with their second religion being Judaism."

I had assumed before reading this thread that a GCSE course would give equal treatment to a wide range of belief systems, but it would appear not.

@Medschoolmum both of my children did, and enjoyed RE. I can't imagine they would have gone for a Christian focus. Maybe different boards handle it differently? I'll ask them next time I see them. It led my dd at least to a First in Theology, so it didn't
do her any harm!

Then surely the point you made just shows that RE makes no difference?

Everyone that went to school in the UK had to do RE, yet there is still so much ignorance, racism and xenophobia.

I would never dream of insulting someone about how they worship by making silly comments about their gods/shrines/prayers, just because I don't believe. I happily accept that religion makes others happy and they celebrate in different ways. That is just common sense that others are different and not a personal threat to you because they wear a turban, burqa or a cross around their neck. RE does not teach children and therefore adults how to be decent human bbeings.

My personal view is that religion is the root cause of most political conflicts and wars. I am an atheist, I do not believe one religion is above or better than another.

At school I was happy to learn about philosophy ethics etc but studying the bible was a step too far - despite going to a Catholic school by the age of 16 the religion held no appeal - in fact I had grown to utterly despise it. I went to the Head of RE and told her I did not want to study the bible and she needed to move me to a less bible focused RE class and if she didn’t I would become increasingly disruptive - my parents were not involved or informed. I was moved without much fuss.

I assume that it must be down to different exam boards, or maybe the degree of flexibility allowed by some boards which enables schools to focus primarily on one or two religions. Defeats the object in my opinion.

I think there is certainly value in children learning about a wide range of beliefs and world views. Very little value in focusing in on just one or two particular faiths.

In Scotland the course is split int three clear sections for Nat 5 which is roughly GCSE equivalent: world religion, ethics, philosophy. So for the religion section DS has studied Judaism, the ethics is about medical ethics and things like stem cell research, saviour siblings, and the philosophy bit is miracles - how different religions think about miracles and what a miracle is anyway.

He has not studied christianity in any depth at all apart from in a compare and contrast sense. If he goes on to take Higher RMPS next year (which is the plan) I think they look at two major religions, and neither of them will be christianity eithe.r

I am encouraging DD to work hard at all her subjects, but also to prioritise those she needs (English and Maths) then those she has the best chance of passing, which includes RS.

That leaves Science as a low priority for her - not because I don't value the subject, but as she struggles academically the value for her has been studying it, not the grade she gets at the end.

Both RS and Science subjects have provoked some interesting conversations, but more importantly helped her to understand the world around her, and to ask questions and be curious.

It's an academic subject not a general knowledge primer so they're not going to cover all faiths in the GCSE any more than GCSE history can/should cover all periods of history. You're going to have to specialise to get any depth. But I agree that the choice OP describes is particularly narrow and uninspiring.

@2boyzNosleep that's a very good point.
On a Facebook group for my home town there was recently some of this ignorance/nonsense in the comments of a post about asylum seekers.
Some names of people making those comments I recognised. People that went to the same school as me and did the same RE classes.
I think a lot of what people learn at school is forgotten the moment they leave unless it's used in their daily life.

Mine go/went to a school where RE is a compulsory GCSE and is taken in year 10. The school isn’t religious and neither are we. I think RE is a good subject for kids to learn, the ethics and learning about different religions can’t be a bad thing. I get that some kids may be resentful of being “made” to do a certain subject but both mine seemed to enjoy it.

As it is a Catholic school, students must take RS at GCSE.

I think this is the problem.

I went to a Catholic school (in Scotland), as did many of my friends and I've never heard of such a thing. It definitely wasn't compulsory at my school or any of the other RC schools I knew friends attended. I did RE as a Higher, incidentally, but that was my choice.

So I wouldn't be at all surprised if parents sent their kid's to OP's school without the faintest idea RE would be a compulsory GCSE subject.

RS is not compulsory at my son’s non secular school, but last year 97 out of a cohort of 130 took it at GCSE.

I think the main reason is the great teachers and excellent KS3 curriculum that gets them hooked. They cover biblical literacy (so important for cultural capital), all the main religions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, new religions and philosophy. They do Christianity and Islam as the two religions for GCSE.

So it is possible. I would never have predicted my son would opt for, really enjoy and get a grade 9 in RE before he joined the school. I actually withdrew him from RS lessons in primary to make time for SEN support. It might therefore be worth having a look at what and how you teach the subject. To be fair RS is given equal weight to other option subjects in KS3 and KS4 which I don’t think happens everywhere.

I don't think it's an important GCSE and I would resent being forced to take it as an exam.

My daughter is currently revising.
She is very stressed.
We have told her honestly non of it matters that much (to take the pressure off) but if she was being forced to do RS I would definitely tell her that was the least important.
It's not a core subject, no job or college is going to require it and if she failed she could leave it off her CV.

DS is sitting paper 1 GCSE this morning. He is at state grammar and they all sit RS GCSE. Their syllabus is to study 2 major world religions - he's doing Christianity and Buddhism. Paper 1 is beliefs and practices and paper 2 is the ethics one. He is I have to admit completely tuned out to paper 1 as it's boring and largely rote learning of something he has very little interest in but will probably do ok on paper 2 as it's more interesting. As much as I have tried to instill in him that all his GCSES are important (especially as he wants to study a subject at university where he is likely to be competing with students who have pretty much straight 9s) you can lead a horse to water but....

I personally wouldn't want my child to 'waste' a GCSE on religious studies, however if I chose to send them to a school who did think it was an important subject then I'd encourage them to be respectful in class and work toward passing. I would 'sacrifice' it though if they needed extra study time in maths, science, english, art, in fact pretty much any other subject.