Why don’t schools teach philosophy as part of Religious Education

[Kdtym10]

Well my DS’s school calls it Life and Morality not RE, but when asked they confirmed it was just religion and no philosophy.

I would think that given say Platonism ‘s (esp later Platonisms) influence on the doctrines of all the Abrahamic faiths it would be useful to learn about this common theme, surely it’s best to teach about common denominators?

Or is there something objectionable in learning about the actual development of religion? To this end, schools very rarely (if ever) touch upon the very early church and the impact of politics on what then becomes the orthodox view. Surely a school should be equipping children with critical analysis skills.

I'd turn the OP around and say that religious education should just be one aspect of philosophy or humanities.

Primary teacher and philosophy graduate here. I’ve worked in schools that follow Philosophy 4 Children. Website below.
https://p4c.com/

Did you find your pupils were engaged by it, and did well in general as a result?

Were your schools where you taught this state maintained or private?

My kids all went to Catholic High school in the USA, the youngest is just about to graduate. They have philosophy integrated with a class they all take for the first 3 years (15-17) which is a combination of English, History and Social Studies/theology/philosophy. So they have a theme such as Revolution and study a historical period, plus texts and the history of ideas and philosophy that dominated (focused on the USA & Europe). It's team taught with two teachers and a class of 60 in specially built classrooms. It's structured more like a college course. The curriculum is strong on critical thinking, debate, presentations etc.

My dc school had this option. Sounds like different schools decide on which option. Agree though philosophy is useful alongside RS.

I used to teach RS A level 16 years ago.

We taught philosophy of religion and ethics for our course and yes plato was on the syllabus!

I think there's been a step backwards personally to make it more compare/contrast 2 religions as when I taught out entire school focus was philosophy and ethics but was linked in with Christian influence.

I loved it. Ethical theories and picking apart medical ethics in particular.

As that was our bent years 7-9 did some other religion work but it would tie in. So for example looking at reincarnation would lead to a philosophical discussion of life after death for example.

Philosophy is not RE it's a different subject

Philosophy of religion is part of RS GCSE

If I had free rein on the national curriculum (which thankfully I don't, as I'm not qualified) I'd probably get rid of Geography as a school subject, and redistribute its components (and its timetabling). Ecology, geology, etc., all the physical geography stuff, would get shunted over into science. Some of the more human geography side of things would go into an expanded version of RE, called something like Cultural Studies, which would include things like world religions, locally relevant religions, some philosophy, some anthropology, maybe comparative theology, history of religions, some economics and politics including things like inequality, poverty, and concepts like "the West" and "the Global South", societal or intellectual changes and movements like the Enlightenment, the Cultural Revolution, the rise of fascism, the Civil Rights movement, feminism, gay rights, movements like ethical veganism, that sort of thing. PE teachers can handle any leftover map-reading and call it orienteering

You see that sounds perfect and much more valuable than a cursory look at many different religions. I know it’s aimed at trying to promote understanding of different religions/multiculturalism but I don’t think this is really achievable through lessons in school. Knowing who A Hindu God is, or what Ramadan is it why Christian’s celebrate Easter is not going to end racism etc.