...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?

Actually I have the opposite experience. I didn't learn much about other religions when I was at school and as an adult thought all religions were basically "good" and tolerant of other faiths and cultures. Since I've had kids doing RE at secondary school I've tested them on their knowledge/read up on it and I'm now seeing how ridiculous most of the stuff they have to learn is, all these nonsense rituals and rules.
As for hatred, I'm pretty sure atheists don't hate others as much as those who are religious hate others who aren't of the same religion.

I think it’s important to learn about different beliefs and cultures but if my child HAD to take this subject as a gcse then I must admit I would be wanting them to focus more on the core subjects. My child struggles a bit which is why otherwise I’d be encouraging them to focus on it the same as other subjects.

I agree to an extent, it’s important to learn about other religions and cultural traditions, but I believe it should be taught as part of a broader subject that incorporates other global issues. Children shouldn’t have to take a GCSE in RE, this should be optional, and enforced worship should not be part of it.

This is the problem - everyone (ie parents) think everything should be about getting a grade and certificate/qualification in everything.
It shouldn't.
School should be a mix of subjects that lead to exams and subjects that are just for the knowledge and experience.
PE
PHSE
Sex Education
Ethics (which probably comes under PHSE)
Religious Studies
These should be compulsory - but not necessarily tested in.

But what is it that you actually teach to justify the "it's compulsory because it's an RC school" position? Are half the modules Catholic focused? How many other world religions or other Xian denominations do you cover during the GCSE course? Because there is your common or garden "RE doesn't matter" attitude which you get everywhere, whether the subject is examined or rolled up in PSHE, and then there is "this RS is too Catholic focused" kind of objection.

My ds is also doing the RE exam tomorrow, it is compulsory for everyone. His school is a non religious state school. I think the school thought that as they have to study RE they might as well get a GCSE in it.
Tbh my son is revising the subject but it isn't as much of priority to him as other subjects.

3) These families chose a Catholic school. What were they expecting???

Maybe Catholic acts of daily collective worship, and a Catholicism-influenced ethos, but no difference in curriculum?

A brief understanding of the different religions of the world is helpful information. A survey course should be sufficient, they don’t need to be covered at gcse level.

I went to RC secondary so had to take it for GCSE. I didn't see it as important however the curriculum of it was almost entirely Christian based from what I remember. We did very little on other religions. I find world culture (and therefore to some extent religion) very interesting so would have put much more work into it if it had been more wide viewing. However this was 20 years ago so not sure what the curriculum is like now.

@DataColour unfortunately I read of lot of comments on things like Facebook groups that show an awful lot of basic ignorance about different religions.
When did you go to school? I am almost 50 and we covered all the major religions plus other belief systems (like Indigenous Australian beliefs).

My argument is that parents know we are a Catholic school when they send their children here

Okay, but in our case, the fact that the school was Catholic wasn't ideal, but everything else was good (location, class sizes, ethos, sports facilities, campus in general, type of families/DC at the school, etc). There is a saying too that if you want to raise atheists, send them to a Catholic school

As my kids are both atheists, from my sample size of two, that holds true!

Some young people should just focus on maths and English so they don't lose out on job opportunities.

For most nowadays they are living religious studies as there is a bigger mix of religions within most secondary schools. That's the problem with the government allowing religious schools to be less mixed- it will throw up barriers

I did a Catholic Christianity GCSE as I went to a Catholic School.
I’m not a catholic and to be honest it was a breeze subject because it was so biased towards Catholicism. It didn’t feel like an a academic subject at all.
A much better course would be one that touched on all religions.

Your argument is correct in that parents are choosing to send DC to a Catholic School therefore they need to accept the religion. If they believe that strongly that it is a waste of time, they should be sending their DC elsewhere.

RPE is compulsory at DD's school and the GCSE is this week. She did a 3 hour revision session at the school at the weekend.

We see it as a good backup option, she needs 5 GCSE's to get onto her chosen course and as she enjoys RPE she is hoping to pass it.

I was brought up to go to Church and Sunday School although am not religious now. DD has been to Church with her school, as they always go down for Havest Festival and Christmas, and also with Scouts and Brownies etc.

RPE is about so much, different faiths and cultures, and also moral issues etc.

Your school has shot you in the foot by making RS compulsory even though it’s not a core subject. The subjects parents and kids will see as important are a) the core subjects like English and Maths and b) the subjects that relate to their child’s future plans and/or they have flair or passion for. So I don’t think you can reasonably expect people to take your non-core subject seriously when it’s just been arbitrarily assigned to them at the expense of some other non-core subject they’d rather be doing.

If they choose it as a GCSE option, of course I’d expect them to take it seriously, and I think you’d have a much more engaged and interested class of pupils.

It isn’t your fault, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable of parents to want their kids to focus on the subjects they chose or which will have more of a bearing on their A-level choices.

Everyone at my school had to do a technology subject at GSCE whether we wanted to or not, and the only people who took them seriously were the (very few) pupils who wanted to pursue a career in design or engineering. Another ‘soft’ subject like Media Studies or Photography would have been genuinely useful for me in terms of my career plans and appropriate for my strengths, and I would have taken them perfectly seriously for that reason.

Forcing them to take it is your issue. My daughter loved RS (despite being an atheist) and she went on to take it at A level. (she got A*) She even considered philosophy at degree level briefly. My son, however found it excruciating, essay subjects are not his forte and had he been forced to take it I would absolutely have advised him to not focus on it but instead work on the subjects he needed/stood more chance of getting good grades in) to get to college to study the subjects he wanted to.

Both my DC did RE at GCSE at a catholic secondary. They had no interest whatsoever but played the game and came out with another great grade to add to the list.
Left the school and never gave any of it another thought.
Worth sacrificing an alternative subject for to get into the school which is the best performing secondary in the area by miles.

For those asking, the GCSE course is Catholic focused with their second religion being Judaism.

Honestly as a parent I couldn’t care less if my child fails RE as I don’t see it as particularly important and believe religion causes more harm than good with all the hatred and wars started in the name of religion. But then I wouldn’t send my child to a catholic school either.

I think to make children use up a GCSE choice for RE is wrong. Religious school or not.

However everyone deserves to be treated with respect at work including you OP.

They had to take it at my dcs' non faith school too. I'd never tell my dc to not bother with any gcses. They all have to be added when applying to UCAS.

I went to a Catholic school and had to take RS GCSE. I enjoyed the ethical part of the course but found the religion half pretty dry - we only learned about Christianity (in fact, it was an in-depth study of St Mark's Gospel); had we also studied another world religion, it might have been more interesting.

I also found it frustrating that the ethics component was taught through an explicitly Catholic lens, so abortion, homosexuality etc were all presented as immoral. It led to some good debates (arguments) with the teacher, at least, and I got an A* so it wasn't a waste of time.

That said, I wouldn't want my child to be forced to take it at the expense of a subject they had greater interest in. It wasn't such an issue at my school as it was pretty crap and there was a limited range of options anyway.

I have to say I wouldn't value that as highly as what I consider "proper" RE, either, because I value RE as 1) a humanity and 2) a toolkit for living in the UK in the C21st. They need to know about more than two world religions.

Catholics have a very structured system for gaining their childhood instruction in their religion. This seems like a weird duplication.

Telling kids not to bother is the bad advice regardless of anyone’s feelings about the subject because not being arsed gives off vibes that you won’t put effort in to other aspects of work where you can’t be bothered either. It’s creating a poor work ethic.
Yes you don’t like it, but suck it up, try your best and it’ll be over soon. Teachers don’t really like listening to students moan and complain all day but it’s part of the job they have to tolerate.

My son is doing RE for GCSE, his choice to do it. He really likes the moral and ethical debates that are part of the subject and is certainly taking it seriously. He’s hopefully going on to do history and politics and I think a good knowledge of RE will help him.