Should Religion Be Taught in Public Schools?

dru's in the dark.:

When I was taught about the first Amendment in school, we were taught about freedom of and from religion. Freedom from religion, we were taught, simply means that the government cannot impose a religion on you. Freedom of religion is the right to practice any religion.

I get what your saying, but still, the phrase "freedom from" also implies a degree of isolation.

And we're entering an age where philosophy and religion are almost synonymous. People mark "Atheism" as their "religion".

LEAF.:

I get what your saying, but still, the phrase "freedom from" also implies a degree of isolation.

I never took it as such. But I'm just going off what I was taught.
(Was my school really the only one that taught "freedom of and from religion"? )

Personally I think it should be optional and only in high school and college- more so college than high school.

I'm Frozen Still:

Personally I think it should be optional and only in high school and college- more so college than high school.

I really disagree on that. I'm at university and there are some very high intensity courses (such as Medicine) in which that the person would have no time to learn about it, even if they wanted. Additionally, optinional classes in college/university still have the endgame (ie the degree) in mind. I have to take 120 Credits (1 credit = 10 reading hours) worth of classes per year and I don't think that an optional religious class could offer much unless the person wished to use Religion in their lives. Even then, it could only be offered to certain students.

I don't see the issue in introducing the idea of many religions and cultures from a young age. I was taught Judiasm, Islam and Christianity since I was five and it hasn't made me a religious nut.

I think elementary age students should be taught the much more basic things like reading, writing, handwriting, math, spelling, etc. Hell, we didn't really start learning history in my school until fifth grade.

druscilla is dancing:

I think elementary age students should be taught the much more basic things like reading, writing, handwriting, math, spelling, etc. Hell, we didn't really start learning history in my school until fifth grade.

History education in American elementary schools is absolutely awful though- most states don't even have standardized tests for history like they do English or math- I don't think we should use that standard as ideal.

I don't see why it shouldn't be taught in schools. I think it should be optional, considering not everyone will have a religion. If someone wishes to learn about the different religions then I think they should be given that opportunity in school. For those that don't wish to do so, maybe a study hall could be set up?

druscilla is dancing:

I think elementary age students should be taught the much more basic things like reading, writing, handwriting, math, spelling, etc. Hell, we didn't really start learning history in my school until fifth grade.

I don't know. At an early age, there should be exposure to all sorts of learning. Literacy and numeracy are all very well but learning just that all day is dull. I mean, there is a vast amount of evidence out there to suggest that learning new languages is vastly easier at a younger age which is why there is a push for modern languages to be taught elsewhere.

Similarly, at my school, we did projects during the year that would cover History, RE, Art, Geography, Politics...whatever. The first History I can remember learning about was the Ancient Egyptians, then Romans, Medieval Age, Victorians and then World War One and Two.

A bit of variety hurts no-one.

Honestly, I think it would be fair to teach religion and not just Christianity either. Especially when our country is one that tries to claim that we are open to all ideas and yet a lot of kids don't even know that there is more than one religion or that some people don't go to church on Sunday or that there even is a Christian religion.

^
I think if a non-religious school only taught Christian education, they would be sued immediately. I wouldn't allow my kids to go to that school and I am a Christian.

^ You don't have to have an only Christian education for those things to happen. I have a lot of friends who are education majors who come back from their kid watching only to tell me about all these things that these kids don't know about a lot of things both pop culture and religion and I don't mean just Christian.

^
Oh, I know. But I was discussing when you said they shouldn't teach only Christianity. My sister was raised in a household without religion, as an Atheist. It's so interesting how she views religion.

Where I live, there's public schools and there's Catholic schools. I think in the US Catholic schools are private, tuitioned, and maybe even taught by nuns. But in Canada, well, only in Saskatchewan and Alberta, the Catholic school devision is almost just like the Public school devision. Except, in my opinion, Catholic schools are in a way safer, more educational, and you have better chances at things.

b.emma.:

Where I live, there's public schools and there's Catholic schools. I think in the US Catholic schools are private, tuitioned, and maybe even taught by nuns. But in Canada, well, only in Saskatchewan and Alberta, the Catholic school devision is almost just like the Public school devision. Except, in my opinion, Catholic schools are in a way safer, more educational, and you have better chances at things.

Are you saying that the Catholic schools in your area are safer etc than the other state schools and that statisically, the kids from there seem to do better or is this a generalisation?
Why are Catholic schools better?

Well... I'm not sure.
Not everyone can afford the private religious schools, so a lot of people that don't have the money and have to settle with church, even if they want a religious school.
Personally, I wouldn't want it in public schools. I'm going there next year, and I'm not going to a religious school again for a reason (and to save money).

I Am Kid Flash:

Well... I'm not sure.
Not everyone can afford the private religious schools, so a lot of people that don't have the money and have to settle with church, even if they want a religious school.
Personally, I wouldn't want it in public schools. I'm going there next year, and I'm not going to a religious school again for a reason (and to save money).

I'm not sure where you are, but in England at least you do get state run religious schools, and some of them are very good academically. I think it's fine for religious public schools to exist, although I think the number of schools for each religion should correlate with how many Catholics/CofE/Muslims there are in the country.

sunflowers.:

I'm not sure where you are, but in England at least you do get state run religious schools, and some of them are very good academically.

In the U.S. public schools are not allowed to be religious (separation of church and state). All religious schools are private.

I'm still baffled that everyone don't learn religion in school. We always have, and all religions simply from a non-biased pov and without any angles etc. I mean, to me it's always felt so natural to do that, and I don't really know how it could do any harm. I think it's been good for us, because of the relaxed way it was done, we now common knowledge about religions other than the major one in Sweden.

^The issue is more that some schools that do teach religion, exclusively teach on Christianity, I think a lot of us would agree if schools could find a way to teach on ALL religions, fairly then it wouldn't be such an issue.

the mice endure:

^The issue is more that some schools that do teach religion, exclusively teach on Christianity, I think a lot of us would agree if schools could find a way to teach on ALL religions, fairly then it wouldn't be such an issue.

It is physically impossible to teach all poets in English, all historical events in History. Just because you don't learn about the Holocaust or the battle of the Somme in a history course doesn't mean that it's any less important. So why not teach religion because you can't teach every religion?

It makes sense to teach the 6 main ones, at least.