Thoughts on withdrawing from RE lessons?

[MidgetJones1]

We’ve had to send our son to a Catholic high school (Long story but no real choice and 70% of the kids there are not Catholic). I’ve looked at the RE curriculum and it’s almost entirely a study of Catholicism rather that a comparative study of a variety of faiths/beliefs, which I’m obviously not surprised about with it being a Catholic school. We are firmly atheist and would be very happy for him to study a regular inclusive RE curriculum but not comfortable with him being taught from the perspective of Catholicism being the truth.
We are considering withdrawing him and finding an online course for him to do instead so he doesn’t waste his time out of lessons.
Has anyone got any experience of withdrawing from RE from a parent or teacher POV and how has it worked out? Thank you

Yes, good point - also it's possible that the OP got a council house in a particular area and can't really move.

Isn't that just fact learning though? If that's what they'll ask, that what he learns - similar to any other exam? Him believing it or not is completely immaterial.

How is that any different to an exam question about Judaism, or Islam? They're unlikely to ask every candidate their personal views on it - that's more philosophy than RE isn't it?

He's going to stuffed during his English Literature exam if he can't answer questions based upon the POV of a character he has nothing in common with. Unless he's really the reincarnation of a traumatised woman from 11th Century Scotland who had been married off to a future Thane of Cawdor, he's going to struggle with explaining why he said he would rather bash in the heads of his infant whilst it was at his breast - or why he wanted to be a serial killer and stamp a little girl to death (plus all the other things that went on in the apartment in a dismal quarter of Soho).

It's not 'convince us you're a good Catholic and tell us what we want to hear'. It's 'answer the examination questions in accordance with the mark scheme that any qualified teacher who has knowledge of the syllabus is able to assess it against'. There's no requirement to be Catholic to mark it, there are no points for saying 'I do believe, I do believe'. Otherwise every Muslim child that takes it would fail - and they don't, any more than atheist, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, non conformist or Quaker children do.

I was an atheist pupil in a Catholic school. In the lower years we did learn about other religions but not much. Then we did the O-Level curriculum which was studying the Catholic version of the New Testament plus a few tiny bits from the Old Testament. It was very easy. I was fully aware at the time that it was the Catholic world view. I wouldn’t worry about it to be honest.

@Soontobe60- CofE schools are nothing like the intensity of Catholic ones. Really not comparable!

The sorts of questions on the papers;

"Give two reasons why the Sacrament of Reconciliation is important for Catholics."

"Explain two Christian beliefs about Hell. Refer to sacred writings or another source of Christian belief and teaching in your answer."

"Give two religious teachings which show that people-trafficking is wrong."

Absolutely nothing about pretending he believes.

No he won't. He will need to know the Catholic interpretations of things. There is nothing in GCSE RE that says "what do you believe?" It's all about knowing the scripture and some common interpretations. My friends made it clear in their exams that they were atheist and thought it was all rubbish - some of them got A*.

Because he will (I think and this is why I’m asking for advice) be expected to answer questions from the POV of a Catholic

As others have said, that's not how this exam works. You can look up exams.

Also, I've known very academic kids who fail RE - like getting 8s and 9s in all other subjects and then a 1 in RE. It had nothing to do with whether they share the faith(s) being tested, and everything to do with having family and friends tell them that it's a pointless subject, that they can just leave it off their CV and to focus on other subjects instead.

have found a good online course for him to do so he won’t miss out educationally. I’m wondering if anyone else has experience of withdrawing/not withdrawing in this situation, from either a teacher or parent POV

If you want your child to do an online course during that time, you'll need to discuss with the school about whether he'll have access to a computer. That's not automatically a given and they are not required to supply that. I would not rely on that being an option - IME, it's really unlikely.

As a parent of a child who was withdrawn from RE while at a faith school that was the only accessible option, I think doing it based on the school's website and ideas of what you think the exam will be like is a premature jump.

There will be a lot going on that isn't on the school website, and you can request a meeting to discuss your concerns - if you withdraw, they'll likely want to arrange one first.

@MidgetJones1 I wonder how it would be received if devout Catholics were forced to spend 10% of the school day learning about Atheism/Buddhism or another completely different belief with virtually nothing about other beliefs or faiths.

Who are all these "devout Catholics" you mention ?

So you are saying that it's possible the OP wants subsidised housing and also a choice of school? Council houses are in short supply, even so there is the "exchange" mechanism for council property.

No. I am not saying that.

Then what are you saying?

I have asked her why she chose the school if it's not what she wants for her child, and she's so opposed to the ethos. She hasn't replied to me. However, she said upthread she had "no choice".
I'm trying to work out how that could be - it must be that she's trapped in some way, perhaps in social housing or has had some difficulty with where she lives.
Speculation on my part, but why else would she send him when she hates the idea of the RC faith?

She probably meant no choice in the sense that the other options seemed terrible. There's always a choice. Not always a choice between good options.

She has a right to withdraw her child from RS lessons if she wants. It's not a mainstream choice, but the right's there for a reason.

Our system is pretty odd when you really reflect on it.

Yes. I agree with you on all counts.

Well, until she explains the "no choice" bit we won't know will we?

A friend of mine (in England) who originally came from Belfast, had to sell her late mother's house there.
A week after she'd put it up for sale she got a call from the estate agent to say that all the front windows had been broken.
It seems that the property was in one "religious" area and she had used an estate agent of another religion and that hadn't gone down well.
She had a choice legally but in that environment exercising the choice caused a lot of problems.

Having previously worked in catholic schools I beg to differ.

Sectarianism is still rife in some places, unfortunately.

I got an A* even though for one of the questions worth a lot of marks I wrote I refuse to answer this question on the grounds that it conflicts with my religious beliefs (because I was fed up of exams by that point and didn't care what I got in RE but ended up getting my best grade)

I went to an independent convent school. Great school but RS lessons were the pits. My mum said she absolutely didn't care if I failed my GCSE! I got a B without any work in the end. However, my parents chose that school knowing it was catholic and therefore RS was compulsory. I think you have to suck it up.

And if there is no other stare school within a practical distance, what then?

Every child should be able to go to their local state school where a standard RE curriculum encompassing all the main religions is taught rather than one that is set up to indoctrinate.

State not stare ...

Why are people still asking this question?! The answer is so obvious.
These catholic schools are STATE schools ... they are pupils' local schools for which they have paid with their taxes.

Parents are not choosing to send their child to a catholic school ... they are sending them to the local school which (iniquitously) happens to have a religious bias.

Should we have children travelling hither and hither and crisscrossing the region with all the financial, practical and environmental costs of this, simply to find a school that will not be based on indoctrination?

Every state school should be non -aligned.

I think you can make of it what you will - you don't necessarily need to care about what you're learning. My DH went to catholic school (primary and secondary) and while is is technically a catholic, he's a catholic who doesn't believe or attend church. The only time he sets foot in church is funerals. He's more 'cultural catholic' and it made his grannies happy.
Anyway, he quite enjoyed RE when you were asked to write an essay about something and clearly you were meant to write about it from a positive point of view, but he wrote it from a less rose tinted glasses point of view and got a telling off for being blasphemous. 😂 RE didn't count for anything so it didn't matter.
My mum was also raised somewhat catholic although she didn't believe either. Her mum did though hence the raising. But she did the extra bit you need to do to be able to teach in catholic schools (she was a primary teacher). And got a shouting at, as a grown woman, from the priest for arguing that the role of women wasn't to sit home and have babies for the catholic church. "Know your place girl!" she was told. She laughs about it still, at the ripe old age of 71.
So you take it all with a hefty pinch of salt.
Just make sure you prop up his sex ed cause if it's anything like what it was when my DH was at school, your kid will come out knowing nothing useful and plenty of lies!

You chose a Catholic school = he gets a Catholic education.

He will encounter beliefs, cultures, attitudes and opinions that are not your own throughout his life, and encouraging him to do just that instead of exclaiming in horror and drawing him away will be far better for him.

Support him to ask questions, probe and discuss what he's told especially if it's presented as the only truth (and be prepared to stand up for him if he gets in trouble for it).

Provide him with books and other resources that will expand his education and understanding if he's not getting it at school.

Be active in pressing for a more rounded approach to what the children are told - join the pta, become a school governor or whatever option there is to have an opinion and make change.

But talking about withdrawing him will 'other' him in his friends eyes and inbibit his critical faculties too. Don't turn him later on into one of those students who throw a wobbly whenever someone at their university has a different opinion.