religion class in school

salm · Post by **salm** » 2003-01-05 07:08am

what were the religion classes in your school like in case you´ve had religion in school.
here, in most schools you can either chose religion (if you´re protestant you go to protestant calss if youre catholic you go to catholic calss) or ethic classes in school.
i was in religion classes until 10th or 11th grade simply because it was standard and it didnt bother me anyway.
the classes were not taken very sereiosly and it was an easy way to get good grades with a minor amount of effort.

one religion teacher we had for a couple of years was a physic teacher as well. class usually consisted of singing some christian song which the whole class normaly enjoyed because you had a good reason to yell in class. after that he usually got out some stuff about water or solar power plants or told some stories about WWII.
of course he had do the occasionall biblical story but nobody really took that seriosly.

how were your religion classes?

Post by **Dalton** » 2003-01-05 09:22am

I was forced into the entire Communion/Confirmation sequence because I was raised as a good little Catholic. It was mostly learning about all the happy-joy stories in the Bible and why God and Jesus rocked, etc. The memories of those days are vague.

Before that I had spent two years in a Catholic school (at the same place, before it closed down).

Mr Flibble · Post by **Mr Flibble** » 2003-01-05 10:09am

I went to Anglican schools, thanks to my father being a priest. Religion classe seriosness depended on which teacher we had one year we had a teacher who took it extremely seriously, needless to say I got a D, and it was treated as a serious subject, however it was about all religoins not just christianity. In another year with a different teacher who thought it was a joke he just let us do our homework, he diddn't even bother setting an exam. In general religion classes were a welcome relief to slack off coz no one cared, hell even my dad didn't care about the D I got.

Lord Pounder · Post by **Lord Pounder** » 2003-01-05 11:15am

When i was in school i refused to do RE. No child should be force fed religon.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-01-05 11:25am

I was a private school snot so I was forced to suffer through 'Christian Studies' ... utter farce.

I should also add that church attendance for every student, whether they were a Sikh, Atheist, Muslim or whatever, was mandatory- on penalty of detention.

I should go over there right now and tell em fuck off, I want those hours of my life back.

Mr Flibble · Post by **Mr Flibble** » 2003-01-05 11:43am

[quote="Vympel"]I should also add that church attendance for every student, whether they were a Sikh, Atheist, Muslim or whatever, was mandatory- on penalty of detention.
quote]

My school used to have that, evry week church was mandatory, then they decided to make it voluntary and so everyone just took a long lunch. They still had compulsorary services at easter.

CmdrSweevo · Post by **CmdrSweevo** » 2003-01-05 11:51am

In the UK, RE is a required part of the curriclium until you leave secondry school at 16 (we're also supposed to perform a daily act of worship together as a school, but this only happened to me in primary school, and I was heavily involved in the church then, so I didn't mind).

At primary school we were taught all the normal stuff at christmas and easter, in the manner of "God did this" as opposed to "Christians believe God did this" and I didn't even realise other religions existed till I moved on to secondry school. Most of the priamry school round here have some christian leaning, though. Both the ones I attended were CE.

RE classes were considered a joke at school, because no-one was interested, and both the teachers and the pupils knew that all it led to was "half a GCSE", which is basically worthless.

The school came across as religiously independant (none of this hymn-every-assembly crap that permeates primary school, even though the Government requiers it), and RE lessons were like that too - they were concentrated on the beliefs and ceromonies behind several religions.

I didn't get my half GCSE in the end - our teacher fell ill during the final year and RE was always bottom of the heap for sub teachers, so none of us were entered for the exams.

God Emperor · Post by **God Emperor** » 2003-01-05 11:56am

Dalton wrote:I was forced into the entire Communion/Confirmation sequence because I was raised as a good little Catholic. It was mostly learning about all the happy-joy stories in the Bible and why God and Jesus rocked, etc. The memories of those days are vague.

Before that I had spent two years in a Catholic school (at the same place, before it closed down).

I've the same problem as you, but it's happening now.

Post by **NecronLord** » 2003-01-05 12:25pm

Most of the early concepts for my various sci-fi was formulated in "RS" (Rectal Studies)

Myself and a friend of mine also made up alternate words for the hymns (I went to a chatolic school/shithole)

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2003-01-05 12:50pm

My old school system happen to be both heavly anit-religion and heavly pro-religion, My first High-School(As I moved half way through) had TWO count em, TWO Churchs within VISUAL range of the school, one across the Street the other behind where the Bus Parking lot was

Laterday-Saints and First Church of Christ(No such thing as the second church of anything.. notice that?)
So while we where surronded by Christians and tons of afterschool christinan activies where going on year round, acutal school was nearly religion except for Holidays

My second Highschool was even better with a Religion class acutal taugh by a certified "Forigen" Religion, in this case a American Hindu

So it was not a big problem for me

ArmorPierce · Post by **ArmorPierce** » 2003-01-05 01:14pm

My mother tells me the only reason she baptised me is because she wanted to have a party.

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2003-01-05 01:21pm

RS classes were extremely useful to me - we studied all the major religions from an objective viewpoint - 'Christians believe this, Jews believe this, Buddhists believe this' and we were introduced to the major contradictions in the bible - such as the two cfonflicting Creation stories.

In years 10 and 11, everyone not doing RS GCSE still had to do one RS lesson a week, but it focused on arguing about ethical issues rather than religion.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2003-01-05 01:29pm

innerbrat wrote:RS classes were extremely useful to me - we studied all the major religions from an objective viewpoint - 'Christians believe this, Jews believe this, Buddhists believe this' and we were introduced to the major contradictions in the bible - such as the two cfonflicting Creation stories.

In years 10 and 11, everyone not doing RS GCSE still had to do one RS lesson a week, but it focused on arguing about ethical issues rather than religion.

This sort of Religious Education class I'm not opposed too and think it should be a widely offered elective. One that goes over various religions in an objective manner would be useful.

EmperorMing · Post by **EmperorMing** » 2003-01-05 02:08pm

A private school with Seventh Day Adventists. GACKKK!!!

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2003-01-05 03:42pm

I went to Catholic school from 5th to 12th grade. In grammar school and junior high, it was pretty much being quizzed on the Bible and being preached to. High school was more of the same, but we had to write papers, as well.

Theology I: Indoctrinated into Catholic beliefs, which were passed off as actual facts and academic material. I remember having to answer questions like "True or False: Jesus is the only way to salvation."

Theology II: Studying the gospels and being force-fed reasons as to why the Bible does not, in fact, blatantly contradict itself.

Theology III: World religions. My teacher was excellent, and we learned about Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam for the first semester. Then we did Church history for another quarter. We viewed it more objectively, covering the Crusades and Inquisitions as actual things that the Church was reponsible for. The last quarter was social justice. We talked about Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X and all that stuff. Excellent class.

Theology IV: Final indoctrination into Catholic beliefs about sex and marriage. We also covered the Catholic version of "logic," which is basically parading logical fallacies around as if they are valid. We also had to do a marriage project and studied the Catechism. A lot of my distaste for Catholicism comes from this class.

Ted · Post by **Ted** » 2003-01-05 03:45pm

World religions, with a teacher who is VERY cynical and atheistic, we got to make fun of religions and all, so much fun.

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2003-01-05 05:55pm

I spent the first seven years of my education in Catholic schools, but there were only two years where we had much of a religion class. We had a 6-day cycle there, and 5 out 6 days, we had religion class. Instead of taking away from core subjects, the classes eliminated time for electives, such as choir. The classes themselves were very boring, and I ended up doodling or reading, and got by with an above average grade. We also had to attend church serices, which I didn't mind going to, because then my parents wouldn't make me attend them after school. Since there wasn't much done, I really wasn't indoctrated into anything.

Anyway, once, for religion class, we toured a synagouge down the road to lear about the Jewish religion and culture. Still, if we were going to learn about the culture of others, we should have went to a Pagan animal sacrifice ritual.