Religious Studies in High School

[The Giver]

Religion, regardless of your own personal beliefs, is clearly a big fucking deal. It influences (in some way) just about every aspect of the world that we live in. Moreover, with the increased communication of the internet and the relative globalization of the world, we are increasingly likely to deal with folks of diverse religious beliefs in our everyday lives.

With this in mind, I find it somewhat odd that most public school curriculums in the US do not seem to really have much in the way of religious studies. While some very rudimentary facts might be mentioned in a history or social studies course, broadly speaking we graduate from high school having no working understanding of religious beliefs. Given how influential/important these beliefs systems are to the world at large (and often in our own lives), this strikes me as a massive oversight.

I think we are doing a disservice to our young people by not giving them at least a base level of knowledge about the major world religions (e.g. Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, etc). Personally, I'd advocate for having a mandatory course in high school where students are presented with some basic facts about the history and beliefs of the major religions.

Thoughts?

 

[Joan Nyan]

That sounds great in theory but in practice it would be "Christianity is evil and created every problem in the world, every other religion, but especially Islam, is perfect and peaceful and tolerant."

 

[AnOminous]

Any objective presentation of religion would offend members of every religion covered, so it would either be watered down to the point of uselessness or would be used to push some particular religion, probably Christianity, and in either case, would just draw lawsuits from everyone from atheists to fundies.

So while in theory, this should be a thing, in actual practice, it can't work except, possibly, as an elective so the easily offended can opt out.

 

[Beaniebon]

Spoiler: Edgy

call it mythology class

They teach basics of religion. When I was a freshman in high school, I was required to take world history and we learned some core parts of all the major religions so we would have bases for a lot of shit that goes down.

That sounds great in theory but in practice it would be "Christianity is evil and created every problem in the world, every other religion, but especially Islam, is perfect and peaceful and tolerant."

Depens on where your at, honestly. I actually had a teacher in biology skip over evolution because it was hateful towards Christians. And when we learned the beforementioned religious basics the teacher made sly jokes at most other religioins outside Christianity. I lived in the deep south though so take from that what you will...

 

[Randy Lahey]

in my high school, religious studies was the class that all the speds that needed an easy credit to graduate took

 

[Caddchef]

In 'ol Britbongland we had thirty minutes of "Religious Education" class a week for two years. This class covered most of the traditional religions, i remember Shikism, Buddhism, Christianity (the two main flavours), Judaism... there was probably some more - funnily enough i don't remember us covering Islam, it was 15 years ago now though and i'm sure we must have...

Although it was generally unbiased it was only designed to give the pupils a rudementary understanding of the faiths covered, but looking back i think that was enough.

 

[Pikimon]

Teach the basics of the big religions, its actually quite fascinating and really informative.

Just make sure it doesn't bleed over into Biology class >.>

 

[Lachlan Hunter McIntyre]

I voted without reading what I was really voting for, like Americans will this November (ZING)
BrokeBack

 

[Inquisitor_BadAss]

In school they taught us about the major religions but when it came to the exams we only had to answer the questions relating to Christianity.

 

[Abethedemon]

I'm a double major in Religious Studies and Anthropology in college, and I was fascinated by religion in High School, so I would say so, but I feel like a lot of kids in high school are very euphoric, so they may give it a bad reputation. There's a certain academic quality to the study of religion, which may become lesser if taught in a less formal environment.

 

[John Titor]

I remember learning about different religions in Social Studies during Middle School, even had to do a presentation on Islam (our teacher didn't beat around the bush about how repressive Saudi Arabia is). I imagine it would be difficult to teach other subjects like Literature or History without knowing the cultural context.

 

[millais]

I think it is important for them to teach the basic theology of the major religions and at least some of the reasons for the various schisms like Sunni vs Shia and Orthodox vs Catholic vs Protestant, because much of the religious feuding today is result of those schisms. In my high schooling, they included much of that in the humanities/history courses, since before pre-modern era, organized religion and politics/government was so closely intertwined that you can't discuss one without the other. They also made us read some parts of Genesis and Sermon on the Mount and translated excerpts from the other Abrahamic faiths, but I think that is a bit too close to "bible studies" for my taste.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Like others said, I think a good approach is to at least integrate basic facts of other faiths in world history. Better than being completely ignorant that other people out there happen to believe differently.

Any objective presentation of religion would offend members of every religion covered[...]

I think people need to stop caring about offending others so much. And grow a thicker skin.

 

[AnOminous]

I think people need to stop caring about offending others so much. And grow a thicker skin.

They should, but the problem is religion is an issue that can and does get you sued. Every penny wasted fending off retarded lawsuits is one penny less for the actual core mission of school, which is (IMO) that people coming out of it can read, write, do some math, and have some basic shared cultural knowledge, with the emphasis on the first three things.

So when schools are, in general, doing such a shit job in these core things (especially STEM education), those are really the priorities. And even those are nearly politically impossible, even simple ideas like maybe math teachers and chemistry teachers and the like should be paid more than basketweaving teachers and other bullshit teachers of useless shit.

 

[tarni]

German powerleveling incoming

Back in my day you (or your legal guardian for those 9 yo or younger) had a choice in school between the two main christian flavors and a neutral escape course called ethics/philosophy.
You had to take one of the three for most of your pre-college school career.
The christian ones also discussed philosophy and the enlightenment so you were guaranteed a basic understanding of where our modern constitution and its values originate from.
You also learned about other monotheistic and polytheistic religions there.

In history courses you discussed religion when it was relevant for occident politics or conflicts in other parts of the world.

Overall I think Germany has a decent system. I do not know if it has been changed much although I assume there are options for islam studies these days.

 

[Hanamura]

I remember learning the basics of the big religions such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, ect. in middle/high school social studies.

I don't see a problem with an actual religious studies that goes more in-depth class as long as it's an elective/not mandatory.

 

[Internet War Criminal]

I do not trust public school teachers with this and since they have no idea what they are talking about they'll get more wrong than right

So no

 

[ChuckSlaughter]

I think it would be great if k12 kids had a worthwhile social studies program we would have less dysfunctional hateful adults and shit like this:

There is no freaking way it could be pulled off though. The second it happened some batshit schoolteacher would have to save the children's souls by ridiculing sacred cows or someone will go full euphoric atheist.
Not unless we somehow up the average quality of our schoolteachers

 

[charmaide]

I'm rather indifferent on the subject, as long as instructors and material are unbiased toward/against particular religions. If individuals want to learn more of the world around them (one of which religion plays a good chunk in some cultures), more power to them.

The risk is how these classes are taught, especially in regards to American teachers in high school. The absolute horror stories just chill my blood.

 

[John Titor]

I think it would be great if k12 kids had a worthwhile social studies program we would have less dysfunctional hateful adults and shit like this:
View attachment 144402

What the hell am I looking at?