should religion be a part of a school's curriculum?

Question

"Secular schools can never be tolerated because such a school has no religious instruction and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith . . . We need believing people."-Adolf Hitler

Answer 1

I believe schools should teach SPIRITUALITY, not RELIGION. Unless it's a private school paid for entirely by the parents, that is. Spirituality is part of everyone. The UN Rights f the Child recommends that the whole child be taught, and this includes their spirit. Teaching in a way that brings out the sense of wonder in a child, teaching how we are all inter-related, of how to peacefully resolve our problems, all these things are part of spirituality. It should definitely be part of a child's education.
Hitler was wrong!!

Answer 2

It depends on what kind of religious teaching you're talking about, really.

If you mean a religion class that focuses on a specific religion and gives hints that the religion is the one "true" religion, then no. I hold the belief that religion is a personal choice and should be kept personal because of it. It is not something to be forcing on people, especially not students in a school setting. If it occurred at a young enough age, it could very well be considered brainwashing them into a certain faith. (While this does happen to many children who grow up in religious families, that doesn't mean that it should spread to schools.)

But, if you are referring to a class on religion in general, I see no problem with it as long as there is no detectable favouritism between religions by the teacher/curriculum. I, personally, am very interested in world religion on a whole, and I would be ecstatic if such a class was offered at my [public] high school. However, I think that such a class would only be acceptable in a public school setting if the teaching of the different religions was unbiased and strictly informative.

Answer 3

It depends on what you mean. If you are referring to public schools, then my answer is no. I say this because people are not unified in their beliefs. There is a wide variety of religions in this country. Even among Christian denominations, there is so much division. Imagine trying to implement the curriculum! What would be taught? Who would oversee it? I don't think that it would be a good thing at this point. However, it can be a great thing in private institutions. In that case, the entity which funds the institution has the power to decide what is included in the curriculum, and the people whose children attend these intitutions can choose whether or not to send their children there (not the case with public schools). On the other hand, if you are talking about religion from a historical or anthropological perspective, then I think that would be great. But it would have to include accurate depictions of all major world religions.

Answer 4

Comparative religion where students can learn about different belief systems with all being treated equally is a valid topic for study. Religious instruction in a particular religion is not and should not be allowed in schools.

"Evolution is taught in the schools every day!! And that, my friend is a religion! "

Said by someone knowing SFA about evolution. Evolution is science with more and stronger evidence for it than there is for either of the theories of gravity. Science does not work in faith or beliefs, it works in evidence. Evolution is not a religion any more than physics or chemistry or any other science is a religion.

Answer 5

I actual do not understand why somebody, theist or atheist or agnostic, does not locate the project of religion to be an enticing one. The historic previous of religion is very attractive to me because of the fact it so intertwined with the historic previous of the human race. you will not be able to tell the historic previous of one with out telling the historic previous of the different. i'm not bearing on particular memories in religious texts like the bible or the Koran. i'm conversing approximately how the worshiping of different gods gave thank you to a monotheistic philosophy, how Judaism brought about Christianity, how the two inspired Islam. and that's in basic terms the Abrahamic religions. a rustic like India has an exceedingly wealthy religious historic previous as does something of Asia. long in the previous eu settlers arrived in Australia and the USA of a's, the indigenous human beings there had their own religious traditions, a number of which predate the previous testomony.

Answer 6

I believe world religion classes should be taught, so that all children are exposed to as many different beliefs as possible, that way they are well-informed members of the spiritual community, and -hopefully- a little more tolerant than people who know absolutely nothing (or just the wrong snippets) of any other belief system than their parents and their own.

Edited to add........
These classes would include not only information and basic teaching of the Big Three, but of other, nonAbrahamic traditions as well.

Answer 7

Regardless of who you quote....religion should not be a part of the school's curriculum, unless you are going to give fair time to every single religion. We barely have enough time in the day to cover all of the important things like Math, Language, History, Science, etc. Some schools don't even have Art or Music classes anymore.

Answer 8

i would say no. Not just because one would have to teach EVERY religion, but the fact that religion and science are like apple and oranges. Also, morality is different among people, as well as other religions.

To teach religions in school is essentially a logisitcal nightmare.

Answer 9

Public school should never base their curriculum around one particular religion. I definitely don't want my stepkids being forced to follow someone else's beliefs, but I don't want anyone else's kids being forced to believe mine. I took a World Religion class when I was in high school -- it was an elective, not required -- and it was really interesting. I think its a good idea to make kids aware of the beliefs of others.

Answer 10

I think religion should be taught as a subject. Like it or not, religion has had great influence in people lives and in history since the beginning of time and especially now it seems when the world is so divided. Children need to know religion just like they need to know history, philosophy, math, science, and languages. It is part of everyone's culture and history and should be taught in a neutral way.