Were you taught Religious Studies at school?

[Sun Flash]

Same as OP for primary school at least, but I think we only learned about Christianity (mainly the difference between Catholicism, Protestantism and the 9 billion other off shoots) Islam and Judiasm. We were also technically a CoS school (Only a handful of kids out of the 200ish student body actually went to church), so we had services for easter/christmas and sang hymns at every assembly.

At secondary school, we never got an exam on Religious and Moral Studies but it was still required teaching (two hours a week?) in the curriculum, we just got to watch "moral" movies, like Equilibrium, Vera Drake and 10 Rillington Place.


It was actually all quite good stuff.

EDIT: Should probably note, This was in Scotland and the type of education emphasised the studies. Apart from the bi-annual church visit and hymn singing in primary school, we were taught from a purely objective stand point. It was the this is what they think and why. When talking about christianities, it was more, this is how they differ, why and how that shaped the world today.

 

[Cipher1]

Uk here and yeah I did RE up until Year nine where afterwards unless you picked it as a GCSE you didn't have to do it, in primary school we focused on Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism but oddly we learned nothing of Islam at all in fact I don't think it was until 2001 that I was even told of its existence.

 

[theriddlen]

Here, we have a subject called "Religion", and it's basically 45 minutes of Catholic Church indoctrination. It's usually taught by a nun or a priest. And it's taught until you finish the last part of the mandatory learning system. My country is awesome.

 

[Ekit]

I'm from Sweden and we had religious studies in 6th, 8th and 12th grade. (At age 12, 14 and 18.)

We studied Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, various cults and Norse mythlogy. We leared about their history, their traditions and their beliefs. Nothing too in depth though.

 

[DaJoW]

Yes. 4th - 9th grade it was kind of mixed with Social Studies and Geography ("Social Orientering" as it was called), then I had a dedicated class in 12th grade. It consistently was very much secular, teaching us the history, major philosophical ideas and the spread of the religion. We mostly did world religions, though we also had a fair bit of Norse mythology, a part where we studied any mythology (most chose Greek, Roman or Egyptian) and for the course in 12th grade we also did some work on Christian cults. Why Christian? Because there's a lot of them.

Our religious studies teacher in 12th grade was a former pastor and actually pretty hostile to religion, making fun of the Bible and the commandments ("Good thing God didn't include slavery or rape, much more important to make sure nobody tries to paint a picture of him") in our very first class.

 

[MintberryCrunch]

UK, I went to a Roman Catholic pirmary school where we went to church every week (I spent most of my hours there changing the hymn words to 'poo' and 'wee', as is tradition amongst primary schoolchildren). Since then I have been an athiest.
In secondary school Religious Education was mandatory from ages 11- 16 (up until 6th Form). It was the only GCSE I got an A* in, which was mildly worrying as I didn't listen for the entire course and didn't bother revising whatsoever.

 

[Woodsey]

Same as you pretty much.

Learnt the same stuff over and over again; personally I think it should be put in with PSHE. Yes, its somewhat good for awareness and understanding, but entire lessons devoted to archaic beliefs is a waste of time.

 

[Joe Deadman]

From the U.K again, and yup we mostly did a general rundown of a number of different major religions in secondary school, their holidays, religious practices etc.

It was also compulsory in the year we were doing GCSE's however we just watched movies at that point (which was quite nice since it was the last lesson on a friday and just after PE (Physical Education (aka sports and stuff)).

 

[lRookiel]

Ha!, Oh... those were the days....

It all started off in primary school. Now I went to a Catholic primary school, Lots of good that did, Im about as Atheist as you get.... I dont remember much of those years other than we did hymns evey day -.- so fast forward to secondary school where for 5 school years, I just mocked and listened to fuck all the teacher said, and in year 11 I would have got kicked out every other lesson because I just challenged my teacher or made fun of the theories.

I got a D for GCSE, wasn't bothered at all, it was the only grade I got that was below a C for my GCSE's

 

[RyanRohypnol]

Throughout my primary and high school education they taught us Religious Education. However I was the only kid on record to have never attended one of these classes through my dads request.
Couldn't tell you what they taught, however if you picked on a contradiction from the bible to one of these teachers they go ape shit.
Currently in the sixth form from said high school. In my first year I had stay 30 minutes after one of my classes to explain how I am not religious in any form, how I have never believed or ever will believe in any form of all powerful entity / being and that I believe shit just happens.
I really dislike religious nuts.

 

[Littaly]

Ah, this is interesting.

I grew up and went to school in Italy, grades 1-3. There they had what the OP calls Religious Studies, as in, you were taught Christianity. That is, everyone except me and a handful of other kids who were Protestant (at least I was officially, I didn't give religion much thought even back then), we got extra Italian lessons instead.

I moved back home to Sweden when I was nine years old. I don't think the concept of Religious Studies exists here, at least not in regular schools. They started teaching us religion in 5th or 6th grade and continued doing so up until the last year of High School, but that's what the OP refers to as "Religious Education", learning about other religions.

I always thought it was an interesting difference. I can't tell you if they teach religion in Italian schools, and if so when, but I'm actually kind of curious to know if anyone has an answer.

 

[DrRockor]

UK,
in primary school we had RE (religious education) I cant really remember that much but I think it focused mostly on Chistianity and Islam.

For the first 3 years of high school we did RS (religious studies) I remember doing some stuff on hinduism, christianity and maybe buddhism. I don't think I paided that much attention so I cant really remember

 

[TheLoveableMuffin]

Yeah about 6 years at secondary school. I was oddly good at it as well, so I was obviously taken the piss out of and deemed a future vicar. And the thing is I couldn't give two fucks about religion. I just did the work, and quoted Monty Python's Life of Brian every so often.

 

[deathninja]

We were all offered to sign up for an extra optional GCSE in religious studies, and about 90% of the year group refused.

Other than that there was some RE in Year 7, though I skipped those classes as I always got a kicking in them from the other students for not being Hindi/Sikh/Muslim.

 

[imnot]

so we had a supply teacher who just put on Lord of the Rings every lesson.

Is it bad that I would quite like to have lotr instead of education?

now its almost impossible to fail them...

Well now I just feel stupid ;_;