GCSE in RE.

[Jux]

We are choosing subjects for GCSE atm - well, dd is! They get 1 hr pw of RE, which the school has decided will lead to another GCSE (2x1.5 hr exams). This is a core subject choice.

Why do they have to do it? I know the Gov has deemed that state schools must teach 1hr of RE a week, OK. Why the mandatory GCSE at the end of it though? DD doesn't want to do it, doesn't think it will be helpful as it is focussed on Xianity (she isn't). If it covered religions of the world or ancient religions she'd be interested, particularly the latter (Aztecs, Egyptians, Romans etc).

My own view is that if she's doing the 2 years she may as well do the exam. I do still wonder why the school has made the exam mandatory.

Excuse the typos...posting from phone with three yr old wriggling on lap but needed to get that out!

sassh I did that hole punching program writing thing too and that was in 1974
cuggles DS had an inspiring RE teacher, also self confessed atheist. Perhaps that's somehow helpful in that you can teach along the lines of "this is what these people believe" without any religious agenda of your own. Different in a faith school perhaps?

secrets - very good point actually, never looked at it like that! :)

Thanks everyone. The debating and ethics is certainly an huge positive. Think what I am worried about - a bit - is that dd is a follower of a very minority religion, and the school have already objected to it. Moreover, her tutor and HoY have said they are committed Xians; they clearly have found it quite hard to cope with dd's beliefs. She has been told not to talk about it in school, though her RE teachers, and many other teachers, are very interested (and there are others of her religion in the school too).

I suppose, I was worried that she would be Evangelised at and proselytised at, but on reflection, it is only her tutor and HoY who seem to have a problem.

I also thought she might be able to do another subject at GCSE instead if she didn't do this, but as it's only half-time she obviously can't. There are soooooo many GCSEs she wants to take, and is really cross she's limited to 10 (though it may be 11 in the end).

It's interesting. I took O levels in 1973 (I think, long time ago, not entirely sure!), was at a Catholic school run by nuns, and RE wasn't included in our O level choices at all, none of us did it

cuggles - I think you are a bit confused, I was responding to the OP where she is talking about the Christianity centered RE in her particular DD's school.

If the subject is as diverse as to cover ethics, morality, debate etc then it should be called a philosophy class. The reason being that some schools use it to push one (their) religion aka indoctrination. I wonder how many atheists teach RE in Catholic schools? The teaching of morality is to important to be linked to Religion.

Any RS teacher who evangelises in class should be struck off. It is religious EDUCATION, not indoctrination. I am an atheist, my head of dept is the school chaplain, we both teach all six major world religions in the sense of teaching what the hundreds of millions of people in the world believe and how it influences their lives. Chloe74, do you really want your children to have no clue about this aspect of humanity and what it does (for good and ill)? This is why a straight philosophy class is not the same, though i would happily teach one as well as RS if the timetable would allow it.

good point fairylightsandtinsel. I most certainly do want my DC to learn about world views, however doing it through the lens of religion is part of the problem. To say all people who ticked 'christian' at the last census believes the historical morality any church espouses is just incorrect. Most Christians have different views on morality, so I cant see how it helps to teach them what 'Christians' believe is right or wrong is, their is no such thing. Might as well teach them what: the Spanish, the communists, the American gun lobby, the disabled, the mentally insane... think morality is.

Teaching children how to determine what is right and wrong is a very important subject and should not be tainted or influenced by any religion. I am actively doing that with my DC and when he grows up and encounters other cultures I hope he will have the intelligence and morality to determine whether an particular individual is doing the right or wrong thing irrespective of how they justify it using religion, politics, race, ethnicity, culture, etc.

Why is it acceptable to have a Chaplin in charge of the RE department and not someone who is a member of the BNP? Surly a prerequisite to teaching morality should be non bias to any religion/group!

chloe74 But right and wrong are subjective concepts . They arise from a context and that includes religion, race, politics, culture etc. I am an academic specialising in area studies and one of the reasons we value the religion and ethics GCSE is that already students will have got used to looking at those contexts and understanding different perspectives. What you are teaching your son arises from your belief system, western liberalism perhaps? A belief system that sprung up in 18thc Europe. Not surprising that whole swathes of the world are not signed up, what our world desperately needs people who can understand the different perspectives on right and wrong.

I've never heard of area studies, Copthall. It sounds interesting. Does it fall into a wider subject area, for instance Philosophy? DD is primarily a historian (specialising in Egyptology!) but is also shaping up to be strong in chemistry. Her english and literacy skills are fantastic too, and she seems to be a bit of a linguist (this is what the school tell us too, not just fond parental assessment).

While at present she still wants to specialise as an Egyptologist (has wanted that since she was 3), I am thinkinh ahead as to how she might achieve that, but also what other possibilities there are for her.

jux Area studies look at a particular area or culture and then study the different disciplines within that context. It actually has a academic tradition, the sinophiles etc, but academia these days questions the traditional boundaries between disciplines as often there is much to study in between, Cambridge for instance does a Natural Sciences degree , rather than the traditional individual Sciences, although you specialise there are chances to study not just areas of Science but economics, philosophy and ethics etc alongside. Egyptology like classics could be regarded as area studies, since the past is another country and they take a similar interdisciplinery approach, However there are excellent area studies courses focusing on the Middle East, America, China etc etc where your daughter would get to study language alongside history, literature, religion etc etc etc Both the Oxbridge and SOAS courses would give you a good idea.

Thanks, Copthall. It does sound fascinating. When I was at Uni everything was very separate, even within a discipline, for instance different aspects of psychology hardly seemed to touch each other. I know that that has been changing, and am glad to hear that that change has gone so far.

I will look at Oxbridge and SOAS, dd may be very interested

Some links www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/iw/arabic_islamic_studies.html
www.soas.ac.uk/about/

Mine loved it and 2 have carried on to A level - RE and Philosophy is great for discussion, essay writing, thinking things through. Helps dd1 with her law degree and lots of fascinating links. She even thought of doing a philosophy degree and is in a philosophy society.

If it's well taught, it's brilliant.

Thank you Copthall, again. Very interesting links. I particularly liked the language paper, as (I think!) I could actually do it, but I haven't checked the answers yet; it was fun anyway. I've printed it off for dd to have a look at as she has a great interest in languages, made up one of her own (and a script to go with it, which she still uses for her diary) when she was 8ish as you do, though I doubt it has a particularly full vocab.

She says she would like to go to Oxford, hates London so SOAS is out for the moment (shame, as I have loved SOAS for years, for no particular reason). Still, plenty of time for her to change her mind. She'll probably suddenly decide she'd rather be a hairdresser or something (and people will always want their hair cut, so it's a secure job).

Kids. Who'd 'ave 'em?

Jux It is a wonderful place but a bit of an alternative undergraduate experience. Makes you want to go yourself though, doesn't it?