Religion as a leaving cert exam???

ScienceNerd wrote: »

I did Religion as a non exam subject, up to 4th year it was very much from a Catholic perspective (I got a much more laid back teacher for 5thand 6th though )

My memory of Religion was that it was a doss class and used to do HW for other classes. Having said that my memories of it are that it was mostly about christianity.

I have no problem with religion being taught in schools if it's put forward as "this is what various cultures believe/have believed". Ideally, Zeus and Thor would be taught alongside Yahweh. I think that the more one learns about religion, the more likely one is to reject it.

I did it for the Leaving last year, it's not quite such a pisstake any more

As in, the exam isn't quite so predictable. We didn't have any philosophers on our exam

Amusingly, I'm not entirely sure I'd be an atheist if I didn't do LC religion, because I never really gave the whole thing enough thought and the philosophy section introduced me to deism/nihilism/agnosticism and whatnot.

I did religion (pre exam) in secondary school. It really depended on who your teacher was as there was no set curriculum. Some years you'd have some old fossil preaching the evils of abortion (we got to watch a video on the subject from the 70s, it was fun) or that evolution was 'just a theory' (as you can guess, the classes budding palaeontologist didn't let that one slip).
Other years you'd get a more liberal minded teacher who would give you information on many different world religions. Sometmes you'd geta more cheeky teacher who just liked to rip into various cults for teh lulz.
In 6th year it was a bit different. We would get guest speakers in each week representing a particular religion. The Jehovah's Witnesses tried the old 'fossils were merely left overs from the great flood' line'. That was one of my proudest moments in school: Suddenly everyone imediately looked at me as if to say, "Take it Sean!" What resulted was everyone getting a 101 course in the fossil record. Funnily enough I bumped into someone from school the other week whom I hadnt seen in years. He told me he still remembers 'that class where you told everyone about dinosaurs'.
The Harri Krishnas were cool. Spent the afternoon playing drums, singing and dancing - the perfect antidote to a stressful exam year.
Apparently the school had the Mormons in before but refuses to invite them in anymore because they set up a 'conversion van' outside the school.
We even had atheists in one week. It was weird because they didn't have a whole lot to say other than they didn't believe, the 'thousands of Gods, which is true?' argument and a few others we've seen onthis forum a zillion times. I think they were expecting more people to challenge their position and have to answer some questions, but no one asked them anything. The general consensus seemed to be 'yeah okay'.

Galvasean wrote: »

That was one of my proudest moments in school: Suddenly everyone imediately looked at me as if to say, "Take it Sean!" What resulted was everyone getting a 101 course in the fossil record.

Damn militant atheists and their words!

I think it's great to see religious studies as a subject as I believe a knowlege of world religions is every bit as important as maths, english or languages etc Sometimes even more so. My only regret is that more schools don't do this kind of thing, and start it earlier than second level, it should really be done in primary school. That's why I feel lucky to have gone to an ET school because the cultural and religous awareness I gained there was second to none. It was just as a perevious poster described with guest speakers, and demonstrations. We would even go as far as to celebrate different religious festivals which was always great fun. Waldorf schools take it a step further by studing cultural myths and legends. I've always had a strong belief that school should be seen as a sort of 'hub' of knowledge and learning, where it is shared and experienced, none of this 'opt out' BS we have now. Kids who experience this type of education go on to view the world in the same way, becoming more open minded and accepting adults.

Truley wrote: »

I think it's great to see religious studies as a subject as I believe a knowlege of world religions is every bit as important as maths, english or languages etc Sometimes even more so.

Complete BS man. Religion is one of those things where if no-one had invented it, no-one would need to invent it.

I've always had a strong belief that school should be seen as a sort of 'hub' of knowledge and learning, where it is shared and experienced, none of this 'opt out' BS we have now. Kids who experience this type of education go on to view the world in the same way, becoming more open minded and accepting adults.

If schools did a proper job in teaching kids how to process the information they come into contact with then they wouldn't need to have been introduced in school. If society needs to hand hold children in every encounter witha new idea, then the education system is not really working.

Mark Hamill wrote: »

Complete BS man. Religion is one of those things where if no-one had invented it, no-one would need to invent it.

I don't quite understand what you're trying to say. Are you saying that because religion is a made up idea that it makes it less a legitimate subject of study? I don't see why, whatever about your belief in God, religion and it's effect is as real a presence as the air we breathe.

If schools did a proper job in teaching kids how to process the information they come into contact with then they wouldn't need to have been introduced in school. If society needs to hand hold children in every encounter witha new idea, then the education system is not really working.

It's a fantastic and unique subject because it's a way of demonstrating to young children what goes on in the wider world and that yes, there are different viewpoints and ways of life outside of your own. It can help them gain an awareness and acceptance of difference from an early age. It introduces them to different religions and cultures when they would otherwise not have the opportunity. Then when they are older they would hopefully have the learning tools to better understand the people around them and to have greater empathy and a broader knowlege of the world. Can you suggest a better way of teaching children to process this information without being introduced in the classroom?

Truley wrote: »

I don't quite understand what you're trying to say. Are you saying that because religion is a made up idea that it makes it less a legitimate subject of study? I don't see why, whatever about your belief in God, religion and it's effect is as real a presence as the air we breathe.

Footballs effect is as real a presence too, should kids have classes on the world cup and the premiership too? Religion, as a subject, is a curiousity piece and nothing more. No-one would lose out on something fundamental if it were removed form the curriculum, its the least important of all the subjects.

Truley wrote: »

It's a fantastic and unique subject because it's a way of demonstrating to young children what goes on in the wider world and that yes, there are different viewpoints and ways of life outside of your own.

You would want to have some pretty sheltered kids for them never to have come across different viewpoints of the world.

Truley wrote: »

It can help them gain an awareness and acceptance of difference from an early age. It introduces them to different religions and cultures when they would otherwise not have the opportunity. Then when they are older they would hopefully have the learning tools to better understand the people around them and to have greater empathy and a broader knowlege of the world.

If religion class was really about giving kids an awareness and acceptance of difference, then religion class would be world culture class, and would examine more differences between people than what flavour of sky fairy they hold to.

Truley wrote: »

Can you suggest a better way of teaching children to process this information without being introduced in the classroom?

Teach them to approach everything they come into contact with, with the same rational and logical approach. Teach them how to evaluate claims made to them, teach them how to take apart arguments and how to seperate viable points from logical fallacies. Become comfortable with this, and making allowances for different opinions and cultures is second nature. Wether or not learning about these difference is interesting is a personal view, not everyone is going to care, and for healthy individuals it wont be an issue.

Dades wrote: »

Likewise!

What? It's as important to have your child educated in the various world religions as have them read and write and perform basic life functions? Seriously, that is so naive.

I didn't mean English as in reading and writing I mean English in the sense of the leaving cert subject where kids learn off an essay about King Lear and regurgitate it on the day. I don't think the secondary school syllabus teaches basic life functions, it certainly didn't when I went there anyway.