When I was a kid I went to a Catholic school. Not because my parents were devout believers, heck no, my mom was a Pro-*test*-('")ant and my dad a Catholic, however both non-active, so no prayer at my house.

They chose that school because it was the best school available. Of course they had religion classes, and I didn't follow those. Thought it was my parent's decision, turns out it was the -school's- in fact. Just heard that one recently when my dad was highly amazed at my story of 25odd years ago.

Now.. we have schools for different religions here, public schools as well, and those going into the very extreme reformed schools. For as far as I know we have no Islamic or Jewish schools, BUT, I don't live in the city, so one can never know.

But.. whatever religion the school is based on (save for the public schools), you always get religion lessons concerning the religion that that school is based on.


Is that a good thing, or is it not?


My opinion is twofold really: on one hand I say it is, BUT! I would like to see a wider religious lesson, so also involving and teaching the other faiths around, create more understanding amongst one another (considering it is Rammadan now, that wouldn't hurt).

On the other hand I say: no. Let the child make up its own mind when it gets older (basically the upbringing I got at home), by then it is old enough to make a properly thought through decision.


So.. as always, I am a fence sitter and I cannot decide which side to take. Should schools teach religion, or not?

Which schools? The public ones could probably teach a history of (all) religions, (maybe as an elective subject) or they should (as I would consider logical) teach religion in the same package with alchemy, belief in Santa, legends, etc.

But if you don't allow religious schools to teach religion it would be a really strange thing to do. One would hope they would make religion elective and don't push it down the throat of people who are not interested.

So my answer is "maybe", depends on which schools, depends how is religion taught, depends if it's elective or not. Basically I think religious schools should be allowed to teach religion, but they should not do it in a way that imposes their religion on students (but that's a combination of self-policy from the school and self-policy from parents who should not send their kids to a religious school if they have don't like the idea of having their kids exposed to religious training)

In America it is a different policy. There is the law of "seperation of church and state" meaning that anything that is funded by the government cannot teach or endorse any religion. Haha, it doesn't always work that way, but it gives rise to our school system...the public schools are supported and funded by the government and there is no religion taught. The private schools do not recieve money from the government so therefore they can teach religion (the parents pay to send their kids to these schools and it is not required that they go to these schools). Schools that describe themselves as a church school (Catholic, Baptist, Jewish etc) WILL teach that particular religion as part of their studies.
So, then my opinion based on this is that if the school is a religious school, then yes, teach religion. That is the school's right. If it is a public school, then leave religion out of the classroom!
I am of the "discuss openly what you believe and encourage the child to grow his/her own spiritual identity" My son went to the government supported free public schools and is quite spiritual in a very unconventional way.

I think public schools should teach a history of religions, I think anyone who doesn't know what the major religion are and what they are about is missing something and most likely can be easily manipulated by other people that have different interests.

Reading Koran doesn't make you Muslim, reading the Bible doesn't make you Christian, reading Torah doesn't make you Jew, reading about Buddha doesn't make you a Buddhist, just as reading legends of the Greeks doesn't make you a Greek. Knowing about all of them is less likely to make you a religious extremist.

Of course all has to be balanced, shouldn't take much of the students time and should be taught at higher classes.

(BTW, I'm agnostico-atheist, but I think religion is (unfortunately) part of the social reality that we can't just ignore)

Most definitely so. To add, I have heard once: people usually fear the most what they do not know. The more reason to educate rather than not.

QFT again. I am a Pagan, but I read large sections of the Bible. I am NOT a Christian at all because of reading it Err.. that could be interpreted in more ways than one But.. to recap: your point is true.

There I disagree, with the second part of the sentence. I say it should be taught on lower levels as well, in order to promote tolerance amongst the kids. It helps with the bullying part as well, kids are less likely to bully another when they understand what things are about. It's just like with grown ups, just in miniature and minus the suicide bombers However, this should be kept on a rather playful level, nothing heavy and serious. Kids are more likely to remember things when they are taught to understand instead of some big guy telling them it is wrong.

Hear hear, and not just in the world news, but in our daily lives even!

I was more thinking about things that are not appropriate for some ages, but yeah for example kids could start by reading legends of Greeks, reading about Hercules and Zeus and stuff is fun they can go to something more mature, however I don't think it would be very interesting to 2nd graders to explain to them the 4 noble truths of Buddhism and debate with them about enlightenment... or to show them "Passion of the Christ"....

As a compromise from my part... they can probably play with Ganisha or Shiva-like dolls when they are in kindergarten

*laughs* Yeah I get your point perfectly!