Were you taught Religious Studies at school?

[MetalMagpie]

Were you taught Religious Studies (or Religious Education) at school? And what was included?

To provide some context, include what country you live in (or were schooled in).

For example, I live in the UK. I had RE (Religious Education) lessons at primary school (up to the age of 11) covering the "Big Six" religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Then I had RS (Religious Studies) lessons for the first three years of secondary school. The first year was entirely devoted to Christianity (and was mainly spent reading the Old Testament). The second year covered the other five religions. And the third year was more of a philosophy course.

(To provide a complete picture: My primary school education also included Christian hymns, prayer and Bible readings. But that was kept separate to the RE lessons, and pupils belonging to other religions were exempt. For some reason, coming from a family of atheists wasn't enough to exempt me!)

 

[Jonluw]

Norway.
Had religious education throughout elementary school, and I'm having another course this year (mandatory in upper secondary education, but only for one year).

I can't really remember what the stuff we did in elementary was all about. Mostly christianity, Islam and Judaism, I think. There was a wee bit of Norse mythology and Buddhism as well I think.

So far this year I've been through Islam and Buddhism (and perhaps christianity), as well as a series of smaller religions for a short period (the people in class were divided into groups which had to do presentations on a small religion/worldview each), in which I dealt with Satanism. I learned quite a bit about the mormon faith as well during those presentations.

 

[Chemical Alia]

Only when I went to Catholic school in first grade. Nothing like that in public school.

 

[Rowan93]

The primary school I went to was religious, I'm not sure if I remember there being specific "religious education" lessons but my memory's pretty bad and I'm not sure if the memories from primary school add up to even a day's worth. Actually, no, that much would be a lot of memories anyway, I have less than the number of snippets required that if you added them up you could work out what one day was like if they were all from the same day.

Anyway, averting tangent, there was quite a bit of Jesus in my primary school. Then in secondary school I had RE for the first 3 years, covered Christianity, Judaism, and a few other religions in less depth.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

The closest we ever had was one unit in sixth grade (ages 11-12), where we learned the big five -- or at least, what the school considered to be the big five -- Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Confucianism. I'm not sure if you'd call Confucianism a religion, but whatever. Unit lasted barely two weeks, probably spent most of the time on Christianity (of course) and Judaism.

We really just learned

1. When it originated
2. Who started it
3. What the teachings are
4. Who follows it (think nationalities and total world percentage)

Public school, in ol' 'Merica if you're wondering.

EDIT: Should say this was for History/Social Studies.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

(To provide a complete picture: My primary school education also included Christian hymns, prayer and Bible readings. But that was kept separate to the RE lessons, and pupils belonging to other religions were exempt. For some reason, coming from a family of atheists wasn't enough to exempt me!)

Same here, went to a Christian primary school and came out of it an Atheist. XD We did RE a bit in primary and secondary school, I know that we covered the main six as well, though my memories beyond that are rather obfuscated given that I wasn't really paying attention because...well, it's RE. My dad is an Atheist, though at the time I was in primary school I was oblivious to this and nobody at the school really pressured you to abide by the dogma and essentially wasn't even mentioned outside of assembly. Basically, they offered an introduction to the main 6 religions, what they were about and left you to your own devices to figure out what you believe, so I guess I'm grateful I never really got pressured from either side in regard to this.

 

[Hazy992]

Yes. I went to Catholic school, so it was compulsory. The first three years were Religious Education, teaching us about world religions, so Judaism in the first year, Islam in the second and Hinduism in the third (I think it was that order).
Then for GCSEs (I live in the UK) it was Religious Studies so it was all about Catholicism. Faith schools are all the rage in this country! \(^_^ )/

EDIT: And my primary school was Church of England (as many in the UK are) so I was taught RE there as well.

 

[Hazy992]

EDIT: Double Post

 

[Soviet Steve]

Yes - I went to folkeskole (elementary up to highschool) and we had christianity lessons. Mandatory, and a grand total of one lesson in the 10 years I had to have it was devoted to handing out a piece of paper about Islam and Judaism which we weren't required to read.

Protestantism is the state religion in Denmark and I think it was vile that I was fed that nonsense in a school. I remember some teachers being rather pushy about their beliefs too, which has severely undercut my respect for the public school system in general.

Specifically what we learned is that Christianity is 100% fact and we had to memorize the lords prayer. I didn't pay much attention though.

I'm hoping I'll be able to put my children in private secular schools when the time comes.

 

[staika]

Yes I was but I went to a christian school so that was probably why
I also had to take a religious class for college but I also am going to a christian college as well so I was going to have to take a total of three religious classes but I transferred to a technical college because I hated the major I was in.
I am christian though so it never bothered me

 

[Korolev]

Yes, I went to a private school that was originally a Catholic School.... but then realized the earning potential of allowing anyone to join, since it was a very highly-rated school and places were in demand.

Although it was de-emphasized later, my earlier school years had "Christian Living" Classes. These didn't really change my opinion or influence my opinion of religion, since I grew up in a very secular household that just... didn't talk about religion at all. But it did educate me on the points of Christianity, which I found interesting. It was a very low-pressure, just-read-this-book-and-then-sit-quietly-and-do-whatever-you-want class and you weren't graded or marked. I just used the time to relax or do other classwork which needed catching-up-on. Most of the teachers who taught Christian Living weren't too happy with having to teach it, most of them regarded it as a complete waste of time. We only ever had one Christian Living teacher who was the "FIRE AND BRIMESTONE" type, but she was quickly fired for being insane and for bullying the chinese students into "renouncing" their "heathen" ways.

After I got to High-school, the Christian Living classes stopped being compulsory and started being electives, which virtually no one took since the evangelical students already went to Sunday School and no one else cared and most of the teachers, but especially the science teachers, hated to teach that class. My physics teacher was force to take a crack at teaching the class. He took one glance at the material and said "If you guys want to read this, fine. But I'm sure as hell not going to make you".

 

[Ldude893]

I went to a Christian private school, so yes I did attend mandatory religious classes. However, they also had mandatory 'world religions' classes, and since it was a Lutheran school there were also science classes.

The teacher who taught the Christian-themed religious classes was one of the best teachers I've ever met (he's currently teaching my AP World History course). So while I had to take religious studies, they weren't a pain at all.

We only ever had one Christian Living teacher who was the "FIRE AND BRIMESTONE" type, but she was quickly fired for being insane and for bullying the chinese students into "renouncing" their "heathen" ways.

Seriously?

 

[park92]

Canada

Well in elementary school i went to a public school so we didnt have that. In Middle school I went to a catholic school so we had religion but it was just talking about God and stuff. In High School religious studies was about other religions. I didn't take it seriously at all and on the final exam I put something about some religions being communist jokingly and I still managed to end off with a 86%. LOL

 

[Merkavar]

australian here. was taught in public school system.
i was taught religion studies in highschool in like years 7-9 maybe even in year 10. basically just watched veggie tales, asked some smart arse questions about religion and maybe get some hmework done for other subjects.

 

[Vault101]

when I went to acatholic school I had RE (religious Education)

if I hear the term "social justic" or some shit liek that ever I again I will go mad..

but it wasnt bad...nothing of the "you will burn in hell" variety, just general stuff..though it was interesting that one textbook said that "homosexual feelins will pass" hmmmm

 

[Kae]

Kind of, I was in an adventist school in middle school and they taught they're beliefs there and how every single other belief was wrong, and since I have always been an atheist, you can guess it didn't go well for me, once a week I had to go to the principal's office so he could try to convert me it was REALLY annoying, but I guess it did me some good, as awful as those guys were given that my friends were religious to I ended up developing a lot of tolerance and respect towards other people's beliefs, but if you want to piss me off, all you have to do is try to convert someone, nothing pisses me off more than people trying to change other people's beliefs just because they aren't the same as theirs.

[sub] Wow it still came out pretty long, even though I cut off that huge rant I had about the principal.[/sub]

 

[BreakfastMan]

No, I did not. Whenever I wanted to find out something about a religion, I would just use wikipedia or ask those much more knowledgeable in the area than I. I learned bits and pieces in history classes as well, but nothing like an entire class devoted to just plain old religion.

Citizen of the US, if you want to know. Most of my primary education took place at an alternative learning program (re: combination of public schooling and homeschooling).

 

[lacktheknack]

Yeah. Religious school from grades 7 to 12, did really well in the religious classes. They were Christian-focused until grade twelve, where we suddenly branched into four or five others. Came out a strong Christian.

Got a $100 award for them, too!

Canada, btw.