And the reigning monarch is also the Defender of the Faith.


[yet, as the writer of that piece suggests, we are a pretty godless bunch.]

RE was horribly dull, but I find that I have a much better understanding of the various religions and their similarities than many of my peers here. It also helped confirm my beliefs. Here, I too frequently encounter very scary "but they sacrifice animals" type comments, which is what results when your only religious education is in the faith of your parents.

Good point.

I actually think the RE curriculum is pretty decent. It can and is abused by some teachers, but most kids get a fairly rounded understanding of various world religions. What I have more of a problem with is the compulsory act of daily worship. Though as I have said, it is rarely conducted in the spirit of a religious exercise and more by way of offering a useful moral or ethical message in the daily assembly meeting.

Assembly was horrible, but my parents wouldn't let me opt out. The only kids who didn't attend were the Jehovah's Witnesses. We all tried to convince the teachers we were JW too. All the Hindus and Muslims just joined it. The hymns in junior school were quite fun to sing. In high school, it was hard to spot the Christianity in the twice-weekly assemblies.

It is kind of bizarre, that we have the Church as a central pillar of the State, yet are a profoundly secular society.



[eta] ahahahah you lot tried the Jovo excuse too then?:P I seem to recall we had pretty much al out kids in assembly (obviously apart from the Jovos) And you're right, it really was hard to spot the religion in assemblies. Sometimes the religious aspect was some little parable which then related to a real world situation (bit like Thought for The Day) but the emphasis was on the lesson, not the faith aspect: e.g. good samaritan. Other times, it was just a non religious assembly with a quick recitation of the Lord's Prayer atthe end, which was rushed out by 500 kids with no feeling whatsoever :P

huh. I did not realize that, you guys. I mean, I knew intellectually, historically, that Britain does not have "separation of church and state," cause, you know, that was kind of the colonists' point (one of them, anyway), but didn't realize that your schools included compulsory RE.

Comparative religions is pretty much taught here through history and social studies classes. This was true for me, though obviously I can't speak for all US kids. (Do they still teach history and social studies? <cough>.

Oddly enough, in 9th grade, we studied the Old Testament in literature class--as literature. This was very valuable to me, because otherwise I would not have read it, and knowledge of the Bible is important for cultural literacy, at a minimum. No one said a thing about it back then. But it was, um (counts backward) - about 1970. Guess that's an indicator of how the cultural climate has changed here since then.

In my secondary school we only had Assembly once a week and although there was occasionally a prayer, there was definitely NO daily act of worship. Even though I came from a Catholic school with daily prayers (including grace before lunch) I didn't miss it. The Floyd wasn't affiliated with a faith so it would have seemed odd to pray there.

We learned comparatively little about the other world religions though. Our only full-time RE teacher (some had it as a secondary subject) was a committed Christian. The fish wearing sort. I don't know if this allowed her to bend the curriculum in any way? We couldn't take an exam in it anyway (which annoyed me as I knew I could do it with my eyes closed after living it for 16 years)

I learned most of what I know about other religions after I left schoool. In fact after I stopped believing in the Christian God.

In my senior English class (public school, 1998) we studied the Book of Ruth, the Book of Job, and the play J.B. (which is based off the Book of Job.) It was presented as historical literature, alongside The Epic of Gilgamesh and a few others.

But our teacher was a defrocked minister, so he may have been more willing to push the envelope in that respect than some other teachers would have been. :)

I think all public religious teachers should be required to be able to present a compelling argument for and against each of the religious theories he/she is teaching.

"teacher! leave those kids alone!"

;)

Religious theories?
LOL, why is Thor mythology and not fact, hilarious? Waste of time. Mythology/religion is just to be taught as a class, the information, that is all. That is the only way I have ever been taught it.
If they want it taught as fact they should take a theology class.

RE classes are pretty important in my opinion. There is some effort by some schools here to teach about different faiths, but not all. It's not a subject that's compulsory here but I have my kids in the classes which are designed to be more philisophical than factual. The idea is to get the kids to start thinking about how religion affects world events as well as how it affects people personally.

Actually I was taught Norse myths, Greek and Roman - and Christian (religion, because it's still practised today) on the basis that - as Cloud says - it helps with an understanding of literature.

I taught myself the basics of the Egyptian pantheon before I went there because I knew it would make my trip more interesting - as there aren't any major works available in hieroglypics so I hadn't come across those stories before.

RK I do understand where you're coming from - but can't you see that your strident condemnation doesn't help advance the cause of logical atheism? I'm not suggesting for a second that you're murderous. but you can be as confrontational in your own beliefs as some fundamentalists.

Nobody worships Thor anymore, do they?

RE covers the history of religion as well.