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If pupils were taught about a wide range of religions...
I had a "History of Religions" class in high school that was exactly this. Foundational texts, creeds and belief systems for most major religions and a few minor ones too. Was an amazingly interesting class, and helped me be more empathetic and understanding to people who are very different from me.
A class like that would be amazing as a general thing for everyone rather than just a class for a small private high school in Romania.
That sounds really good. It's exactly the sort of thing that, if we have to have RE, an actual educational class about religion should look like.
Let's call it "The Evolution of Religions" and see how that turns out. People's heads would explode in the US.
It actually is taught in the US in world history classes but could be a whole optional class in itself.
I promise you that was not taught in deep south GA in the 90s. We did read excerpts from the bible in literature, not critically, mind you.
That was 30 years ago and times have thankfully changed
It astounds me that some people don't want their children to be taught the basics of religions. How will you understand the 16th and 17th centuries if you don't understand the Protestant Reformation? How will you understand the Reformation without understanding the basic hierarchy of Catholicism? Religion is extremely important to world history and to understanding even the most basic events for almost all of history.
I don't think anyone is saying that learning about religion in context is a bad thing. There's nothing wrong with learning about Papal supremacy prior to the Reformation or people like Wycliffe within the context of how a nation and/or culture evolved. And if that was how students in the UK did learn about religion I think more people would find it educational and interesting but that's not how it's taught. In my day it was just more evangelism dressed up as education and from all I've read that's still pretty much the case.
I believe I had similar experiences as yourself. There would even be Jehovas Witness teachers, who would make points favouring her belief despite teaching others. I wish I learnt more about the faith I was born into, Sikhism, rather than having to learn it myself as I grew older.
It's what happens when there's a state-mandated religion. A lot of people don't realise it's still law in the UK for state schools to have a certain amount of christian content per day. Obviously a lot of schools ignore that with zero repercussions but it's indicative of what happens when theist religions have a choke hold on the tools of state, particularly one religion.
Legally enforceable christianity in schools, the rise and rise of single faith schooling, the fact that we're only one of two countries in the world that have unelected religious leaders actively participating in forming the laws of the land (the other, notably, is Iran). And all in a country that is no longer a majority christian country.