...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?

@ttcat37 my school days were mostly pre - national curriculum.
I think my point was (I confess I can't quite remember your original comment) was schools can easily have time for a RE lesson and a "practical" lesson.
Even now with the national curriculum schools will do both and most English secondary schools are still comprehensive schools.

In answer to your original question should children be taught it? yes. Should they have the amount of focus on it that they do currently? No. Should they have to do a GCSE in it? No.

I think folk forget how much of the classics..whether western literature, art, music presupposes a knowledge of Christianity at some level. I'm glad religious studies is now a much broader scope than just Christianity and i reckon kids should study it..up to them and their parents whether they do an exam

@Needmorelego yes I am. Your friend would probably have been talking about the fables of La Fontaine rather than Aesop. That, Le petit prince, and Voltaire are typical class readers - good moral lessons with no religious content. Like I say there is some teaching now but it was a huge hot potato at the time and anyone over the age of forty or so will not have had any of it. And frankly I am none the worse for it - it's easy to pick up through general knowledge. Let's face it, Tommy Robinson's ten years of obligatory RE lessons don't seem to have done him much good.

A huge amount of Western art etc requires some knowledge of the Western philosophical tradition too. Let's teach that instead - much better at developing critical thinking skills.

Yes, I understand what your point is. Mine is that RE as a lesson is a waste of time, which would be better spent on more valuable life skills.

I was schooled in a scummy comprehensive.

RE, social studies, games and music were the doss lessons for me. In games the teachers kept discipline with an iron fist. So no mucking about there. But the other 3 fine.

Basically my parents didn't really give a damn about what I did in them (bad behaviour would probably not have been tolerated, but poor performance was fine).

So long as I worked hard in everything else they were a glorious time to relax and spend time doing important stuff like trying to avoid getting tatooed by your deskmate with a compass and sticking chewing gum in other peoples bags without them noticing.

I think if you are in a religious school then I would expect parents to take stuff like RE a bit more seriously.

@AuxArmesCitoyens that is what baffles me - how people like Tommy Robinson got their ideas, bigotry and opinions.
Unfortunately that I can't answer 🙁

@ttcat37 but where do you draw the line ?
I had pretty much no interest in science but everyone has to do science. I could argue the several hours a week on science could have been spent on something more "useful".

I think learning about religions and cultures is essential. It breaks down many societal ignorances and promotes knowledge over ignorance.

that said - I personally wouldn’t recommend it as a GCSE choice for students. But, if they chose it I wouldn’t be telling them it isn’t important to study. It’s the GCSE mark I would be advocating for - not the subject.

@Hereyoume

In your post you asked whats the point relevance of studying religious studies?

Well it's very useful to know that often in different cultures societies in history and course contemporary modern era times

Religious faiths ethics doctrines and values are often based shaped laws crime and punishments in different cultures societies around the world,

Also religious festivals events and cultural foods even today are often related to based on religious faiths ethics values,

Also its interesting and relevant to know to keep up to date with topical news stories on conflicts in the world,

How 🤔 war conflicts are recuring often themes based in history,
such as knowing the background the factors behind big news stories...

An individual may wonder what's the relevance of history subject too as its old news full of dusty cobwebs but it's susprisely how historical themes are often repeated,

as people are imperfect and have free will to make good decisions or and dysfunctional destructive decisions ones too..

Also faith based pastoral care and guidance is something that is practised in schools and people still turn to faith person or religion faith as marks of rites of life passages or times of trouble for reassurance ect too as a emotional Anchor or crutch to ensure emotionally stability...

Even a non-believer Aithest/Humanist feel a need to believe trust in something whether that's their family values or and cosmos or sense of place in community or whatever else factors that maybe out there..

Personally I draw the line at ‘things that exist’ ie science vs ‘things that do not exist’ ie god

My DDs go to a catholic school and are Catholic. They both enjoy RE and want to try their hardest.

its hard I think for the children who haven’t been to a catholic primary school as my two have been used to RE being a main subject since they were first in school.

they find it so interesting!

don’t be dismayed!

Most parents if they've chosen a Catholic school know that children have to take RE GCSE. It's kind of a given. So what's the problem?

Even though I'm an atheist, I still think it's an important subject and ties in well with history.

My son's school has also made in mandatory.

Not at all religious here (no offence meant), but this was one of my favourite (and I chose to study) GCSE subjects. Learning about other cultures and religions was so interesting. I went on to study at A-level too. Is there still a theological module too?
I don't think pupils and parents realise the skills gained from the subject and that it's not just religious content.
Sadly, there is an apathy in taking it seriously, because it's been seen for a long time as "an unnecessary/the breezy subject" and the negativity surrounding the topic of religion in general. Its very odd this is happening in a chosen faith based school though.
Please try not to take it personally. It's not a reflection on you and your teaching.

sorry, but your subject is hardly going to affect their employment prospects

I’m from NI, so went to RC school, my kids too. I don’t think it should be compulsory - but I would never, ever tell my child to try anything but their absolute best at it. Same with all subjects.

I'm with you . I think it's important to know but it would be the first subject my dd would drop and I'd support her.
I think if you send your child to a religious school then you have to accept it.
It must be hard to teach them. I know this as i used to teach English to 16 to 19 yr olds alongside their subject course and they didnt want to learn!

So do people really think philosophy and ethics are useless things for teenagers to study?

Taking RE as a GCSE is a waste of an option. It should only be taken if the child wants it and will use it later.

As a practising catholic who sent my kids to a catholic primary school I was shocked at how many parents complained about how much RE the kids were doing in school. Especially around the time of first holy communion - where about one third of the class opted to actually take the sacrament but still had to do the in school learning but opted out of the extra monthly out of school preparation classes. If you don’t want your kids to study religion then don’t send them to a religious school. Interesting thr school also had a high number of Muslim children who were placed there due to it being the only school with places when they came over as part of the Syrian refugee situation. Fair enough for them to opt out of the catholic faith classes but actually was surprised to see many taking part in the annual nativity.

As for GCSE it should really be an option and not forced. But the parents choosing that school should have known that when they made the choice. Personally I think it’s important to learn about the different religions and am pleased catholic schools now widen their RE lessons to cover this rather than just the old religious instruction (indoctrination).

There are children who make gcse choices though as an easy option in other subjects. My DD takes drama and music as she’s passionate about both but there are some who spoil the lessons and potential performances as they aren’t taking it seriously.

As a teacher myself I’d find it very frustrating if parents weren’t supporting the lessons being taught.

@ttcat37 but it isn't just about "God" though.
The curriculum (or it did in my day - so I hope it still does) covers faiths that believe in many gods or those with no gods - instead their faith is in nature and how much of their faith is passed down through oral stories and traditions.
Essentially it can teach people an insight into humanity and why people do things.

I had a friend who refused to write anything more than his name on his RE paper because he was incensed it was mandatory.

I tutor two students. One at a Catholic school and one at a secular one. Same exam today.

The C one doesn't know the Creation story properly or The Parable of the Sower. I didn't even risk asking about Sheep and Goats. They were also hazy about the Nicene Creed. The other one has been receiving tuition from me and is pretty knowledgeable about Christianity and Islam - I was just there to fill in knowledge gaps and answer questions.

I think Catholic schools are becoming quite apathetic about faith and assumptive. How many of their students go to Mass every week anymore? Do the schools have regular Masses and Termly Rite of Reconciliation anymore?

My second student got to choose RE as a topic that interested them. Faith schools who actually offer little in the way of teaching and upholding the Catholic Faith are bound to having RE as a mandatory subject so push students, many of whom are not Catholics, into taking a subject that bores them to tears. We did well in ours because we were 99% practising Catholics so the exam was basically stuff we'd grown up with. We didn't need to revise because knew it like we knew our home address. Twenty five years ago I was teaching a class of Muslims the Islam syllabus as they were being forced to sit the Christian one in a Faith School. A few years prior my DH was attending a Catholic school without having been baptized because the school needed money rather than students who were Catholics.

And...I retrained and now teach English and not RE because parents take English seriously.

@ttcat37 also does that mean schools shouldn't allow fantasy novels such as Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter in their library.
Because they aren't real.....