Religious Education

In the U.S., the religious right wants to bring religion--particularly one religion--back into the public educational system.  The left is terrified of any mention of religion in schools.  They are concerned that religion will be promoted, or that one particular religion will be promoted, and that this will jeopardize our fundamental freedom of religion.  In order to preserve freedom of religion, the left seems to want freedom from religion.

But I suspect that they are throwing the baby out with the bathwater, for the lack of religious education in schools means that children are not being taught at all about what is perhaps the biggest influence on the values and decisions of most of the world's people.

In the U.K., religious education is part of the curriculum, all the way through school. The RE curriculum is well thought out, creative, and age appropriate.  Children learn about the beliefs and values of many different traditions, without the promotion of any particular religion.  What this achieves is not religious obedience, but religious tolerance and interfaith understanding.  It also means that children are having thoughtful discussions about values.

If children do not have classes in school that cover religion and/or philosophy, how do they learn how to reflect, think for themselves, ascertain their own values, or appreciate other peoples' values?  If children are only taught skills and facts, then they become grownups who are not particularly deep or reflective.  They become technicians, who apply their technology onto the world without much self-awareness.

A middle position, it seems to me, would be to create a space in which the world's religions could be studied and explored as if they really mattered, where children could discuss their own beliefs openly, without fear of ridicule, and without facing the charge that these beliefs are inferior for being unscientific.  In other words, a) teach science in the science classes, b) make room for learning about faith in other classes, and c) make sure that this covers all faiths, not just one.

Comments

[Masud Sheikh]

Marty,
Your comment about teaching all faiths reminded me of when I got to Canada and wanted to put my daughter in a Catholic School, which is the only publicly funded alternative to (secular) public schools.

The curriculum of Catholic schools supposedly gives the alternative of replacing subjects on Chrisitanity with subjects such as "comparative religions".

However, when I met the Vice Prinicpal to request this, he said that no one else (including non-Christians) were taking the alternative, and he was not willing to make an exception for us.

So I ended up putting my daughter in a secular public school.
Masud