[The Cool Arse]

(Original post by minsat)
RS wasn't enjoyable for me when I was subjected to the hour long lessons in year 9 however I know appreciate it because I realise I had the opportunity to learn about other religions. We yalready have so many ignorant people in our society I'm pretty sure the situation would only get worse if RS were to be scrapped.
I do agree that forcing people to take GCSE RS is wrong but it doesn't happen often I don't think.

yeah, it does. In most state schools.

[kunoichi]

RS should never be put over more academic subjects such as history etc
But i believe it should be compulsory alongside more academic subjects, as it enables people to understand and accept other religions, it does not force them upon people. Understanding religion is essential in multi cultural Britain. It also develops essay writing and debate skills. I dont consider my Rs GCSE a waste of time, i enjoyed the subject and I have a decent GCSE out of it.

[POWCATTY]

(Original post by The Cool Arse)
Seriously? I mean, (no offence meant of course), that the current cirriculum is more likely to affect future decisions. Gcse should be philosophy and ethics. I personally believe religion learning is enough up till gcse.

i did say it is enough up to gcse....?
and what do you mean its more likely to affect future decisions? i dont quite understand i know that my RS lessons were spent talking about euthanasia and colouring in the star of david, or looking at weddings and funerals. didnt really teach me much about religion tbf

[The_Lonely_Goatherd]

I think RS lessons should be compulsory. I wouldn't necessarily stretch that as far as saying people have do a GCSE/equivalent qualification in it. I also think that there should be firm ground rules about what can be taught and how it should be taught, and that religious teaching in faith schools should be more closely monitored

[littleone271]

I think they should have R.E in years 7, 8 and 9 and then maybe they should get to choose whether they want to do it for GCSE or not. I'm agnostic and I went to a catholic school so I had to do a GCSE in R.E and we had R.E in sixth form too but not as an A-level obviously unless we specifically chose to do it. It was just an hour a week that usually turned into hilarious heated debates in my class due to the science geniuses in my group arguing with the teachers and I think it was for some sort of minor qualification that nobody actually got because they didn't fill in their worksheets lol. At that stage it was probably a bit of a waste of time but it was quite fun and a total doss so nobody really cared.

I think it's a positive influence because it teaches kids about other religions so they have an understanding of other people's beliefs and they know what to expect when they meet people of different religions who have certain routines and things that they abstain from and to sort of stop them putting their foot in it really. We can't forget that some kids do have ridiculously ignorant parents and I don't think anyone should be allowed to grow up not knowing what a mosque is for instance or what halal meat is in the UK which is becoming increasingly multicultural.

[casi]

(Original post by POWCATTY)
i think it should be compulsory. mainly because i think its important for kids to learn about other religions and their cultures and to be more accepting of them. i do think that the current RS curriculum is s***. you learn absolutely nothing of any importance. we should be learning about the main religions, their background, what they involve and maybe like case studies of people who follow them so that we actually get an understanding and basic knowlegde of religion. obviously i cant speak for the whole country, but what ive experienced seems to be incredibly ignorant of other religions (i heard one girl talking about 'those hindus that worship allah...') and cultures - me included i should add.
personally i dont believe in god, and i dont really believe in religion (kinda difficult to explain unless you sort of feel the same) but i still want to know about them and what they mean to people. its still a very important part in all cultures....i dont understand why there isnt more effective lessons on it :/
obviously it shouldnt be compulsory for a level....id say probably make it compulsory to year 9, then offer it for GCSE

wow....lots of people saying it shouldnt be compulsory...why is that? is that because you dont believe in god and you dont think it should be pushed on people? they should be free to make their own choice?
i do sort of agree with that, but i think that by exposing kids to a range of religions would allow them much more free choice as it is showing them that there is a choice to be made...not simply that it is god or no god, but that there are different gods etc and that each religion is unique.

Ah sorry didn't mean to neg rep you! I agree with everything you said. Learning about other religions should be compulsory as we have such a diverse country that it's important to know about other religions!

[fishfan01]

Oh my goodness! I cannot believe how many people are saying that it should not be compulsory!

School is not just there to educate us in things that we may or may not find particularly interesting at that point in time, nor simply for us to gain qualifications! It is supposed to be making us become well-rounded people with an understanding of the world around us, and that is what RE is supposed to bring us in both the learning about religions and their ways of life, and the more philosophical side of it.
If schools don't teach young people about other religions, how do you expect them not to take what the Daily Mail says about them as true, or know not to try and give a Muslim non-halal meat when they enter the grown-up world? Because it's certain that many families will not be able to/won't want to teach their children about these things.

If we don't try to open childrens minds to other ways of life, we may very well end up reversing all of the social progression we've achieved in the last century!

I was also outraged when RE was not included in the list of humanities subjects GCSE students can take as part of their English Baccalaureate; it is a humanity subject and should be given respect as one, particularly when compared with many of the other 'GCSE equivalent' qualifications around.

I do appreciate that by the time you reach GCSE then it's unfair to force people to take it, but they do that at my school (though my year only had to do year 10 for a half-GCSE, then we elected whether or not we wanted to take the full GCSE) and there is no major problem caused. However, for KS3, I believe it's absolutely essential that we help students to keep their minds open to other cultures, or we may end up being too late to help them, even if it's only opening them up to being able to discuss their thoughts on it and put an argument across. It's just brilliant for everything.

In fact, I agree with what somebody has said earlier, that we should have lessons throughout, even if it's not to get a qualification, because it is so enriching and helps with so many other subjects as well as general issues in life. Doing A2 religion and philosophy, I find I use it in both of my other subjects all the time, there are links to religion in all sorts of things, and being able to recognise them makes you so much of a more well-rounded, accepting and educated being. Which is what education is supposed to provide for you. We need it.

I am aware that I may be biased due to the wonderful RE department in my school, but that only reflects that we need MORE and BETTER RE teaching in order to show the country, and government, how useful it can be. If it's being taught badly or with a bias, then the problem lies with the way it's taught, not with the subject itself.

I LOVE RE!

Sorry for the rant.

[The Cool Arse]

(Original post by POWCATTY)
i did say it is enough up to gcse....?
and what do you mean its more likely to affect future decisions? i dont quite understand i know that my RS lessons were spent talking about euthanasia and colouring in the star of david, or looking at weddings and funerals. didnt really teach me much about religion tbf

I mean that philosophy and ethics would be ylmore useful esp for a level (no offence, of course! )

[TattyBoJangles]

I think it should be compulsory to Year 9, then optional.

My school did short-course RE ("Philosophy & Ethics") for most people, and full-course RE was also an option. I did short-course, and the whole course was literally "Some Christians agree with this and some don't. Catholicism doesn't allow this whereas..."
It was so mind-numbingly boring and focussed entirely on Christianity. Certainly didn't do a very good job of teaching us about other cultures etc. - they were never mentioned.

The only redeeming feature was my teacher, who used to bake us cakes and give people races up and down the classroom on spinny chairs.

[Aquar]

(Original post by POWCATTY)
i think it should be compulsory. mainly because i think its important for kids to learn about other religions and their cultures and to be more accepting of them. i do think that the current RS curriculum is s***. you learn absolutely nothing of any importance. we should be learning about the main religions, their background, what they involve and maybe like case studies of people who follow them so that we actually get an understanding and basic knowlegde of religion. obviously i cant speak for the whole country, but what ive experienced seems to be incredibly ignorant of other religions (i heard one girl talking about 'those hindus that worship allah...') and cultures - me included i should add.
personally i dont believe in god, and i dont really believe in religion (kinda difficult to explain unless you sort of feel the same) but i still want to know about them and what they mean to people. its still a very important part in all cultures....i dont understand why there isnt more effective lessons on it :/
obviously it shouldnt be compulsory for a level....id say probably make it compulsory to year 9, then offer it for GCSE

wow....lots of people saying it shouldnt be compulsory...why is that? is that because you dont believe in god and you dont think it should be pushed on people? they should be free to make their own choice?
i do sort of agree with that, but i think that by exposing kids to a range of religions would allow them much more free choice as it is showing them that there is a choice to be made...not simply that it is god or no god, but that there are different gods etc and that each religion is unique.

I did religious studies and got an A*, and there was almost nothing about religion on the course. Before GCSE religious studies, the class was just to teach us how wonderful Islam was, and I think we only had one half lesson on Hinduism, but only because someone saw a poster on the wall and asked a question.

[Ice_Queen]

(Original post by Andy16)
Pssht if there was one subject that could be thrown out and replaced by the much needed computer science, RS could be one (but yes ofcourse it is the shocking, disgusting ICT)

Those two years taught me practically nothing, very simple indeed. the sort of exam you could get an A on by doing 1 afternoon's reading.

I did a half GCSE in both, and RS was by far the most useful.

I think everyone should learn about other cultures, whatever name you use. Maybe not forced to do a GCSE, but definitely PSHE lessons, RS lessons, and so on.

[madders94]

I think kids need to learn about religions and tolerance, but not in lessons where one religion is believed to be absolute fact - ours were incredibly Christian, and when I put in a test where it asked me to state two facts about Jesus, "He doesn't exist" I was marked wrong (although, to be fair, I did expect that when I wrote it" - but I also wrote "He would have been Jewish", that got marked wrong - they said he was a Christian.

We didn't have to do it at GCSE (no-one took it so the course didn't even run) and we didn't have any proper lessons after Year Nine either, we did PSHE which had maybe one lesson of RE in it for the whole two years, the rest was things like first aid and drugs.

[Accalia]

I agree that it should be compulsary up to a certain stage (just before GCSEs?), and then optional. Although they certainly need a rehaul of the syllabus at my old (catholic) high school - we were taught only christianity, and within that, only convered evangelicalism, catholicism and liberal protestant views.

[whyumadtho]

I believe it is important to learn about the faiths and lack of faiths of others to attenuate the likelihood of (media-fuelled) intolerance arising out of ignorance.

[SilverArch]

After hearing:

"Yeah, ALL muslims wear that Burka"
"Muslamic ray guns" (wtf?!)
"Atheists are all evil and don't have morals"
"Religious people are freaks"
"Catholics worship Mary as God, so they aren't Christians"

ALL in the last few months, I believe WELL TAUGHT rs lessons should be compulsory, at least until the end of Year 9. Unfortunately, it is not often really well taught. I hated the subject unitl long course GCSE. Teacher in Y7-9 was a) not good and b) very biased towards one faith. Most schools seem really Christian centric, but to kids who've grown up within a Christian culture, it can quickly get SO boring, especially if you just go over the same stuff year in, year out. In Y7-9, we got treated with the same stories of Jesus miracles I was told about in reception class. I learned nothing. I also think the lessons can be pretty patronising. When it comes to belief, we need to treat everything in an adult manner, and not dictate down like in a maths lesson. Also need more ethics in the curriculum earlier, and rather than in depth Christianity/Islam (what we got), we need more of the basic beliefs of ALL the faiths

[arrowandbow]

It should be the mandatory subject in schools.

Kids are more likely to escape it, but it would be ideal to teach them religions by way of movies as they find it interesting to watch at screens for 3 hours continuously. It would be fun as well as learning.

[Salmaa!]

Totally thought this was on about RuneScape for a second there

[Snagprophet]

The only good thing about my ****ty-65%-of-students-actually-passing secondary school was that RE wasn't compulsory. I guess it is interesting though. Very similar to Sunday school because there's a lot of moral stories in religion.

[SophiaKeuning]

Of course. Just because you don't agree with something or take part in it you shouldn't pretend it doesn't exist. Like someone already said, teenagers are ignorant enough. Religion is significant and kids should learn about it. Get some culture in them. Get them to think. I had the most amazing R.E teacher, really got the students thinking outside their small world. I mean, it's not like teenagers are that impressionable, they're not going to walk into their first R.E lesson atheist and leave hardcore Muslim. School is a place of education, not a place of moulding the minds of people into direct copies of what they learn. So I see no problem.

[POWCATTY]

(Original post by The Cool Arse)
I mean that philosophy and ethics would be ylmore useful esp for a level (no offence, of course! )

oh yeah...it probably would be!