...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?

Cultural studies would hopefully be far more about how culture across the world differed. What are the essential differences and where they stem from. Things like family structure, social structure, age of adulthood (or its equivalents), how cultural capital is acquired and spent, the value placed on individuality, gender and attitudes to the sexes, attitudes to marriage (or its equivalents), attitudes to aging, etc.

Not a run down on the various arts nad practices that make up popular (or high) culture in the UK.

I wouldn’t say I was intolerant of religion, but I I’m very much against it being a compulsory part of schooling the way it is and I think schools should be required to be secular. I think the inclusion of a duty to consider the spiritual welfare of children as a requirement for all state schools is incredibly intolerant.

I would be fine with a child of mine visiting a place of worship, I think those sorts of trips can be very informative. I would be fine with them respecting rules (like girls covering their heads), if they were okay with doing it. If they weren’t okay with it I would expect accommodation that didn’t disadvantage them to be made with good grace. And I would expect it to be pointed out to the group at large if a rule placed a greater burden on some students than others or otherwise separated them out or Othered them (like girls being required to cover their hair) and discussion about what impact that might have on practitioners and what attitudes there are to the practice within the faith.

I am not keen on any religion or religious practice which discriminates against women, OP.

Religion has been the cause of so many historical wars and atrocities and yet here we are, same thing happening today. We never learn indeed

@parkrun500club surely that's why it's so important to learn about.
So things could one day change.

@Needmorelego
Why change such an anachronistic, patriarchal philosophy? Why not just leave it in the past where it belongs.

@DeadbeatYoda yes but those who believe and have faith aren't going to suddenly stop following their religion.
But if the next generation along can learn the problems they can be the generation to change things.
My mother in law attends a church.
Average age of the congregation is about 75 and very "stuck in their ways".
That church will quite literally die out in the next few years.

I don't think that religious schools are very keen on using RE to teach about problems with religions and why to avoid them.

@ZiriForGood maybe?
To be honest they can only teach what's on the exam syllabus - which is more than just "religion yay" so they will be getting different views.

I think religion is a very personal choice therefore I don't think RS should be taught in schools. If a person is interested in others faith & religions then it's up to them to educate themselves. Religion has caused so many conflicts around the world I feel that children should be left out of it until they have the capacity & maturity to understand & make decisions for themselves when the time is right for them

@Goodtogossip adulthood is too late and you could put that theory to most school subjects.
Why should children learn French? It's a personal choice as an adult if you are going to need to communicate with those who speak French.
Why learn world geography if you're unlikely to ever leave the UK?
Why read Charles Dickens if your personal reading choice is sci fi?
I don't understand why people are against children learning FACTS about the different religions and cultures the world has?
It's shocking how many adults don't even know that Judaism, Christianity and Islam believe in the SAME God.
It's this basic ignorance that causes hate in society.

I feel as long as a child is taught to respect others choices then leaving religion out of schools is a good way to save conflict. It's not too late to learn in adulthood. In my opinion, growing up a child will hear different things about different religions & will ask questions & hopefully will be educated enough to have an open mind & choose to believe what they feel is best for them instead of being taught it in school by bias Teachers forcing their own thoughts & opinions on young impressionable kids.

TBH How religion can be taught is beyond me. It all happened so long ago & can't be proven & stories have been passed on so many times, like chinese whispers, they'll be changed to suit one persons narrative. Also a lot of 'facts' have been changed or lost in translation so can anything kids are taught in RS be correct or factual anyway? Faith is personal & what you believe in is your choice & shouldn't be influenced by anyone.

@Goodtogossip but you wouldn't be teaching it as "this is all completely true and definitely happened" you teach it as "this is what SOME people BELIEVE".

So if that's the case then why teach children what others believe & not let them make their own choices on what they believe without being influenced at school. Also if it's not based on facts how then can they have an exam & be graded if a child answers with their own belief & not those being taught?

@Goodtogossip there's a lot of history that's taught is also a lot of guess work and stories filtered down through time.
Should we stop teaching history too?

@Goodtogossip I don't know what the exam questions are but it usually doesn't involve the students personal view.
If they've studied the 5 pillars of Islam the questions will be about that. They can still answer the questions even if they believe and practice in Buddhism or whatever.

Those historical events that can be proven & are factual should be taught as lessons can be learnt. However, if there is something in history that is guess work then I don't think it should make the curriculum.

Can't say it is an important subject, it depends on what you want to do after. If you are studying cookery or engineering it probably isn't that important. If you are studying politics or history it probably is important.

Regardless, I would still encourage my children to take it seriously so they keep their options open in future.

Who's to say the 5 pillars of Islam are correct though?

@Goodtogossip to be honest the OP was originally talking about her school making it compulsory for GCSE.
I actually think it shouldn't be but should still be taught at GCSE age as a non exam subject like PHSE and PE.
Compulsory - but non exam.
I actually think the amount of exam subjects should be considerably less in general.
But I am not the head of the government education department unfortunately 😂

@RawBloomers

The irony of what you said in your post

thinking 🤔 it's intolerant of schools curriculum to be compulsory about various different spiritual faith beliefs systems,

as you feel that the school system should be mostly secular based,

I agree to a certain extant to your post,

I think however Aithest Humanist feel on the very idea on subject of faith,
there are still quite significant amoumt of people of our society either attend church or still believe in something or other,
whether they attend faith based building or not,

Also in our society's and other societies law crime and punishments are often intrinsic connected or based on Christian faith in our country and other countries of the world based on their predominantly faith belief system too,

I also think increasingly secular tendencies are to participate in spiritual faith based ideas themes festivals without appreciating them properly,
Such as encouraging to eat as many chocolate Easter eggs as possible or and having lots of Christmas presents 🎁 to show how you love someone in a materialistic way,
Maybe to over compensate for something lacking elsewhere I their lives etc..

@Goodtogossip those who believe will say they're correct but you don't have to believe it to write the answers.
A lot of science (in my opinion) is total guess work with no proof.
How do we really know what a black hole in space is?

@Goodtogossip if we can only teach history that can be proved then that takes learning about the Stone Age out the curriculum.
Shame - because my clay model of Stonehenge was brilliant. But it still hasn't be proved how it was built and why.

This is what I mean, if we can't prove something & it has no relevance on our lives today why do we need to waste time learning about it at school when we could be learning a whole other set of skills that will be useful throughout life.
I've always thought Sign Language should be taught in schools so children can communicate with those with hearing issues or teach first aid which can save a life at any age. Practical things should be taught to our children that will help them & others & won't cause conflict.

@Goodtogossip we don't indoctrinate children if that's what you think!

I have to teach 'Catholics believe this and they believe it because...' 'Jews believe this and believe it because...' - they do not have to believe it themselves!

They are then examined on how they can explain the concepts Catholics/Jews believe in and follow.

A question on the first RE GCSE paper this year was 'Abortion should never be allowed' and they had to give view points from Catholics, Jews, and non-religious groups.

@Goodtogossip some things are just interesting to learn.
(Most schools do teach first aid and often makaton)