To think Religious education in schools should be replaced by AI education

[IsitRainin]

Looking at how quickly AI is advancing, our education system needs to be overhauled.
There's no benefit of subjects like Religious education in today's world and people can learn about it from their family. This should be replaced by AI studies and other STEM subjects which will prepare the Children to be ready and up to date with future advancement and at par with children from China, USA and rest of the world.

I am but since most of you are so against AI that I thought I'll ask you to enlighten me

@IsitRainin if you’re looking for enlightenment, I think R.E. is the perfect subject 😂

This whole thread is pointless though as you got your numbers totally wrong. Secondary does around 30 hours of R.E. a year, not 190. Primary same/less. Unless you picked a religious school for your child.. in which case that was a bit of an error on your part.

I’m not against AI.
Just because I think Religious Education has a place on the curriculum doesn’t mean I’m anti AI. What an absurd assumption.

@IsitRainin I looked at the twinkl resources which aren't AI.
The lesson on Humanist beliefs looks interesting....

I suspect though this thread is a wind-up or bot-generated (not because I disagree with you but because the hallmarks are there - 50/50 whether that's bot generated, or because humans are beginning to subconsciously mimic bot-style - that feedback loop could be quite something to behold). Either way, clearly you think RE is a waste of time and that's fine. Others clearly disagree - that's also fine.

However OP - leave a vacuum, things fill it. One of DS's mates is already well down the antisemitic rabbit hole at 14. It's to the degree that I am quite uncomfortable about them being friends because he's sharing all sorts of AI-generated bigoted rubbish with DS. Think Great Replacement, Jews own and control everything, they're against white people conspiracies. We're just lucky DS still discusses things with us so we can help push back on it.

NZ doesn't have state mandated RE, they go to a secular state school. I can't help but think they'd benefit from a little RE, because the online world they're inheriting is an absolute shit show full of religious and racial hatred. Especially our boys who are targeted for this stuff.

Incidentally, our educational achievement is well below average - and we have no RE in anything other than religious schools. Correlation is not causation, something you would do well to remember.

What's your opinion of the prominent US-based AI Grok that started calling itself MechaHitler, wrote graphic rape fantasies and said that Hitler had the right idea about the Jews?

Not against AI, but am against the "race" - which is profit driven and devoid of regulations. We have an amazing AI at work, but it's amazing because it's closed loop and pulling from reputable, vetted subject-specific sources - and even then it's a starting point, requiring checking through for accuracy before use in the professional space.

The publicly available 'free' tools, however? They're almost universally crap. Always keep in mind - if it's free, you are the product.

I don't think you understand what RE lessons are OP. I have been an atheist as long as I can remember but learning about religions is an important part of education and it sounds like the curriculum is massively improved since I was in a class decades ago.

We're all doomed.

I work in a primary school and we DO already teach AI as part of the Computing curriculum. We follow the Purple Mash scheme. Feel free to look into it.

Ignoring the ridiculous OP, I can't believe someone is suggesting replacing MFL!

Not RTFT.

But you're talking bollocks.

I'm an atheist and I see the indoctrination of followers to AI just as detrimental as followers of any faith, in that it will eventually curb critical thinking and dumb down people's brains. Also STEM etc isn't the be all & end all of future life, we still need art, and humanitites, and bloody good journalism (already this is ebbing away) to keep our minds informed and curious.

I still think we need to teach children about the faiths of the world so that they have tolerance of others, but also so that they can critically evaluate them to see how much harm, or good they do. I also think all the atheist and humanist perspectives need evaluation, because as a heathen, I'm not so arrogant as to say I know I am right, only that this is the worldview I have settled on because it makes sense to me.

The internet has been an unknown quantity, as has social media, and it's effects are being evaluated now, for all its benefits and flaws. AI is exactly the same. Sadly we know the effects of religion on the world. The future of technology is an equally terrifying prospect.

I don’t think ChatGPT or Deepseek were build by primary school children though, were they? So not really relevant to a discussion about the UK school curriculum.

Looking back over decades, I'm dismayed that when taking my "options" I was allowed to drop History at 14. Madness.

Dear @IsitRainin

If you're so clear on what you think we need in our educational institutions, and you're so passionate about the link between this and our economic productivity, then why haven't you become

• A school governor
• Work at your local council in the Education department
• an MP so you can sit on cross-bench committees on the subject
• Join a trade body or similar that speaks on AI and the economy, and become a speaker and campaigner for the issue

I'm making a big assumption here that you're none of these, but I think I can tell what I am reading.

But honestly, please... anything but starting a thread on Mumsnet where you keep stirring the energy by saying

• we're worse than China or the USA (but without any stats or facts)
• We are behind in the AI "race" because we don't have an LLM ( again this is a fallacy - the real gains will be made by those who know how to deploy it effectively, not merely those who build it)
• RE is pointless (and yet how can pupils critique the impact of AI without philosophy or ethics...?)

YABU.

AI in schools. We can teach the basic principles of how it works and look at accuracy, ethical considerations, plagurism, copyright and use of personal data. We could also look at various ways of using AI to do things (with an AI like in house copilot that won't take the students data) and what the pros and cons of this might be. I would say that this should be acessible to all students and could fit into KS3 Computer Science and PSHE through out secondary, though there is usually not much time allocated to either. It would be important to keep this material up to date as things keep changing.

To go a bit deeper. Well to start calling models from apis, write a simple neural network or use a machine learning library. I think we are looking at a minimum level of a 7 or above at GSCE Computer Science in terms of the coding required. And tbh that is if Computer Science is well taught and a GCSE variant with a practical exam such as ExExcel. So I think realistically this is A Level Computer Science, though it hasn't been added to the curriculum yet.

Even then you wouldn't be able to dig too far into the theory as it involves partial differential equations, which you do in A level maths I believe but they don't like to make one A Level contingent on taking others. So degree level I think to really get into the detail.

Schools teach and will continue to teach RE for as long as their funding comes from the diocese I would imagine. It ticks a box. Many schools are now fully embracing AI for policies, letters, pretty much all admin. It is taught in schools - even assemblies are now created using AI. Staff are all being trained and are using it for curriculum and lesson planning.

Schools teach and will continue to teach RE for as long as their funding comes from the diocese I would imagine

I doubt that many schools are funded this way. With falling congregations churches are not cash rich at all these days.

Atheist who teaches RE and considers RE to be one of THE most important subjects on the curriculum. It teaches respect, understanding, tolerance, kindness and empathy.

And helps battle ignorance and prejudice.

It’s not about indoctrinating children into religion!

This is a stupid post.

Religious education isn’t proselytising or evangelising. It’s learning about religions and belief systems.

Church schools aren’t funded by the diocese. Their funding comes from local councils / government.

The benefits of learning about various religious beliefs and ethics, philosophy etc is that you have a population with a bigger world view, more tolerant and inclusive. You have young people being exposed to interesting ideas and able to apply critical thinking.

You seem strangely obsessed with RS, and fail to understand the benefits of a general, broad education for some reason.

You're probably the same person that thinks "there's no point learning calculus" I never use it!!

Failing to understand that other people do use it, and they were sat next to you at school inspired by it and loved it and went in to a career in STEM and are partly responsible for creating the systems around us that you use every single day.

OP you’re ignoring the people who’ve questioned your maths. 190 hours of RE!

Religuon has shaped and continues to shape history, geography, culture, literature and science. An understanding of it is fundamental to understanding the world in which we live. Your understanding of the world is so limited.

Thank you. I thought that was the case.

So you’ve never been in a secondary RE lesson then? Children learn about different religions and about differing views on ethics; they do not have religion shoved down their throats. They learn to debate, to study similarities and differences between different belief systems and learn about why certain behaviours are considered to be respectful/disrespectful towards others. It helps them to understand what motivates large swathes of the world in the way they live and in their politics. It is also essential for understanding history and very helpful for English literature! In short, it’s far more important than AI lessons which they will learn about organically anyway or which could conceivably form part of PSHE/ Science/ ICT lessons