...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?

From the thread most people have had very basic RE lessons just being told basic information, or just focused on Christianity.

I'm going to assume now that those that say it is important as it opens up ethical discussions and debates, probably chose it for GCSE.

If this is the case, then ethics and philosophy should be included from Year 7, which would make it more interesting.

I'm sorry that you're feeling like parents aren't taking your subject seriously - that must hurt. These parents are probably sending their kids to your school because (I'd imagine) the school gets good results, great Ofsted reports, and excellent discipline - NOT for the Catholic education they'll receive. For what it's worth - my DD took RE, did the GCSE today too. We're not particularly religious, but she went to a single faith primary school, and found she really enjoyed learning about other cultures & beliefs once she started at Secondary school. She really enjoys the debates that are sparked from the "ethics" part of the RE curriculum, and intends to study Philosophy at A-level.

@2boyzNosleep I don't remember being taught in great depth about Judaism at school.
We were pretty much taught some basic facts What a Rabbi is and what the Torah is. What a Bat and Bar Mitzvah are. A little bit about Orthodox beliefs and how they pray. That type of thing.
Did you not learn anything like that?

@pollymere

what exactly does a student need to know about the nicene creed?

@BooBooDoodle that church trip sounds dreadful. It shouldn't have been like that.
Who were these random ladies? Why were they there?
A few years I was a parent volunteer on a trip to a local C of E church when my daughter was about 7 or so.
We met the Vicar and the lady who "ran the office".
That was it.
Definitely agree that should be something to complain about.

I would say, if only for all the religious hatred bubbling around the world, it's an extremely important subject. And if people are going to "hate" because of someone's else's religion, the least they should do is take the time to learn about their religion.

But I think most parents see RS as an "easier" GCSE rather than a non-important one.

And most parents are going to put their support behind the subjects their child will be studying at A level.

For some exam boards you're expected to know it and what it's about. A recent question asked about the Resurrection of the Body for example.

But religious education is learning about other people’s beliefs and cultures. It is not religious instruction. If children don’t learn this they live in ignorance.

You mean like UK school leavers live in ignorance of the entire Western philosophical tradition?

Nothing learnt is ever wasted.

The subject should be renamed Ethics and Cultural Studies (or something similar) and made broader with the religious study just one element or module amongst others.

Oh I know! I just get the rage when I have to send the document and I see a lonely C in a nice line of As 😂

As a former Catholic (now long time atheist) I’m afraid I wouldn’t be supportive of everyone having to take an exam in this. Learning about religions around the world could be done in a fairly short time as a ‘topic’ in my opinion, not a drawn out subject with a formal exam.

Wow, what a breadth of opinions. My daughter (not religious, sort of CafE school) wanted to take GCSE Religion and World Views but sadly they didn't run it for her year. I've always been glad that my kids got a grounding in world religions at school, grateful for holistic view of worldwide faith to better their understand the world we live in.

I went to a catholic school and while I'm not against the idea of the kind of compulsory RE many posters are describing, mine was not that at all.

Mine was almost completely about Catholicism with a bit of CofE and some Judaism and Islam thrown in, but only in the context of "here is where they agree with us" about various issues and "here is where they don't".

I didn't learn anything about their festivals, rituals or even their beliefs independently. I had no idea about Sikhs or Hindus. It definitely didn't help me respect anyone else and their religion.

I have memories of my RE teacher going off on tangents about how we shouldn't be promiscuous because no men would want to marry us and making the boys in the class tell us the same. "Everyone loves a slut but nobody wants to marry one."

I have memories of lessons about abortion where we looked at graphic images and had abortion methods described to us in detail. Only surgical abortion of course. We were told all about how much pain the foetus felt. We were never spoken to about terminations for medical reasons or early term abortions. Or women's bodily autonomy. Or the dangers of childbirth.

Sometimes we were told different points of view but it felt like a box tick exercise and was done through a very specific lens.

"Such a such a group thinks abortion is ok in some circumstances however catholics believe that murdering adorable babies is wrong. Now let's watch a video about baby murdering. Obviously some of you might think it's ok to murder babies and you're entitled to your beliefs but all I can do is give you these facts. Ssh if you listen closely enough you can hear the babies' hopes and dreams being destroyed."

When asked about abortion after rape, we were dismissed instantly with "it isn't the baby's fault."

No acknowledgment of the difficulty in making such a decision or the complicated situations that arise or even where you can go for support related to the topics.

I got an A* form figuring out that catholics thought everything is bad. Abortion bad. Sex before marriage bad. Contraception bad. Euthanasia bad.

Yes it's a catholic school but telling a load of 15 year olds that a woman's worth as a person is tied to their virginity, that enjoying sex safely will make them damaged goods, that if they get raped and have an abortion they are murderers etc is simply abusive in my opinion.

It's for that reason that I am wary of compulsory RE. If it's genuinely learning about many different religions in a respectful way and being given various points of view to consider, then that sounds great. I want my child to understand and respect others.

But I would be horrified if they were RE lessons like I was having.

I cannot imagine sending my child to a catholic school in the first place but if it was the only decent school around and I did so, I would be very interested in what was being taught and very quick to tell them to take no notice if necessary. Even if it meant them failing a GCSE.

So while I have sympathy overall for your plight, I am quite interested in the curriculum you're actually teaching and whether it is parents being disinterested or if it's parents being against what's being taught.

I always tell my lot it’s a easy gcse so go for it they disagree it has come a long way since my day when we had to memorise a gospel and that was it

No, it's not important at all. It's outdated and I think young people are more intelligent these days to be brainwashed into believing a load of unproven made-up stories.

Sadly there are a lot of unintelligent older people who actually believe that modern RE lessons are about encouraging children to be "brainwashed into believing a load of unproven made-up stories." and even spout that rubbish on internet forums like it's actually the truth.

Thank goodness for the more intelligent young people!

Oohh, so you believe the stories then? Oh dear.

Ok, well, obviously there is a clear distinction between novels such as Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, and religion. Predominately because people believe that religion is true, have wars about it, force women to act a certain way because of it, etc etc… When teachers teach about Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, especially in the context of the OP’s question, there is no suggestion that this is anything other than fiction…

@Middleagedspreadisreal you don't have to believe the stories to understand them.
It's important (and interesting) to try understand why some other people may take them as fact.

I went to Catholic schools where RS was mandatory, and I think this is the issue.

For me, coming from a deeply religious home, having to attend church any days I wasn't at school, and then do catechism classes at bible school, get all the sacraments, as well as compulsory RS for exams..... well, I made zero effort. I hadn't chosen the subject and I didn't see it in my future.

I get it with mandatory PE to keep healthy and English and Maths as the foundations.... but RS for me fell into a category that I felt I should be able to choose, and had I been given the choice I wouldn't have chosen it because I was up to the gills with religion already.

Needless to say I don't practice any religion now and I made point of not sending my kids to faith schools or church. I think I burnt out with it all by the time I was 15. My certificate in catechism signed by the archbishop has never once saved the day for me professionally or personally.....

I still had to attend classes at the church before I got married which was the final religious nail in the proverbial coffin for me. Being tutored on sexual compatibility by a priest in preparation for my marriage was the final straw. Comical now I look back.... but also a tad (very) creepy.... pretty sure he had never even seen real life boobs, let alone a vagina to be talking about the necessary fit he felt we all needed to be checked out by the GP for in order to ensure we would be able to meet the primary objective of the marriage... bearing children for our hardworking husbands.... 😳

@ttcat37 yes but schools aren't (mostly) giving religious instruction - they are giving religious information.
No modern RE teacher will say it's 100% fact.
Although in recent years through fiction new religions have evolved - being a Jedi for example. Some people do consider their religion to be Jedi.
Something George Lucas made up ! So if you don't want to have the risk of children being indoctrinated into a faith via RE lessons - then you better take fantasy novels out the school libraries because that has just as much risk.

Oh dear, indeed!

You know you don't have to believe stories from the bible to find out about Muslim, Buddhist, or Sikh views of e.g. relationships and families, and how they differ from one another.

(Don't worry - I don't expect you to actually understand what I've written!)

And, as I said upthread, I'm an atheist. Make of that what you will.

Very important just look at the war’s all over the world. We have a Catholic high school in our area and if the children from the feeder schools did not get in the parents would cause an uproar. Would like to think these are not the parents saying that this subject is not important.

the parents don't take is seriously? I bet they were glad enough to get their little dears into a faith school! They are being unreasonable but happy to take advantage of what is probably a successful achool.
We did R.E. for 4 years,didn't take it at O level ( showing my age) but it was tvaken seriously. We could be prepared for confirmation there. I'm not very observant now but I liked RE and was good at it. I went on to teach Sunday school for 20 years, and did a course on the major religions as part of my OU humanities degree. I can't say it did me a great deal of good, though when I worked as a TA in a special school I often got to take s.all groups to do religion based activities.
My children's school covered the major religions,not in any depth though. I think it's quite important , to know a bit about your classmates religion, maybe that promotes tolerance and understanding?