Religion and Schools: Should they be together?

[God]

Well after reading an article about a Bill that was passed into Law in Tennessee, USA.

“The bill states ‘a student may express beliefs about religion in homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free from discrimination based on the religious content of their submissions. A student would not be penalized or rewarded on account of the religious content of the student’s work."

Meaning a student could write "God" as an answer for a question like "How do thunderstorms happen"
This also means a Student could present an Anti Gay presentation and be protected under this Law.

The bill also provides for a student speaker program, in which students of faith are chosen by local school boards to address their classmates in what the ACLU called “a variety of inappropriate settings, from the classroom to school-day assemblies and school events.”
As a result, “students with a range of religious beliefs, as well as non-believers, would likely routinely be required to listen to religious messages or participate in religious exercises that conflict with their own beliefs.”

Should Religion and schools be allowed to be together?

"This is Public School, not Sunday School"

[Kyle]

thought this would be a good debate and then you ruined it with the bigoted image
Don't think anti gay presentations would be protected under law considering there are other laws in place that prevent hate speech

yes, education should be freely accessible and not discriminated against in schools

[FlyingJesus]

Oh no, having to listen to people with other beliefs! The horror!

And no, saying "God" as an answer to a question about thunderstorms would not be accepted, this is clearly a ruling about ethical content not science

[Yawn]

i went to a religious primary school

stop religion bashing im sick of u

[Kardan]

I'm going to ignore your post Dragga and just reply to the thread title.

My views are that religion should be taught in schools, but not practised (unless the school is clearly stated as a religious school). So no more hymns at assembly etc.

[iBlueBox]

Yes they should, but there are clearly options for non religious schools in the UK, So I think it's down to the individual if they want to attend a religious school.

I went to a Catholic primary school, Catholic secondary and stayed on into the sixth form and I loved the sense of community in my secondary school and the sixth form, I'm no way deeply religious as In I go to mass every sunday. But I did love the school and Religious Education in secondary was one of my favourite subjects. I loved the aspect of debating different issues with different religious views on them. It was one of the main reasons I decided I wanted to study Philosophy and Ethics at A-Level that I deeply enjoyed.

[GommeInc]

Science should take precedence over religious theory in schools. Beliefs can remain, but having children leave school thinking God is in charge of thunderstorms rather than the theory behind it would be unacceptable and cruel.

[Lewis]

I don't think schools should be like proper religious. Teaching it is absolutely fine though.

I remember being in some sort of religious primary school years ago and we had to pray before going out for break, lunch, home or whatever. We were pretty much forced! I don't know if normal religious schools do that, but that was just weird. And sometimes it was more than three times a day lol. Overall, I don't really know what religious schools are like. But I don't think it's right that education should be merged with religion so much, unless it's just being taught like any other lesson.

And I somewhat believe in God myself, so in no way am I trying to be against any religious people.

Oh and definitely the post above, science should be considered much more important than religion in schools.

[Inseriousity.]

how's it weird lol
my primary school was the same but I never thought it was weird, tbh didn't really think about it much at all, too young to really care about God and faith and religion but it never felt weird.

In the UK at least, religion was the primary provider of education before a state education system was introduced so in that sense, religion and the state will always have a dual-role in education here. I do not believe the hype about them brainwashing children, in fact, in secondary school the only compulsory church day was 1st march, everything else was voluntary and in primary I think these things are just too young for it to really stick and more of a ritual than a deep meaningful conversion.

I don't really see anything wrong with the first one. I doubt just writing one word would get you very far but saying some people believe x, some people believe y is pretty much the standard template of those sort of essays. The 2nd one could be tricky if it excluded students to a particular faith. It's the US so that's possible lol they're crazy about religion over there sorry rosy

[FlyingJesus]

Yeah unless you get educated in an actual nunnery then "religious" schools (here at least) are simply fashioned around church values and may include a couple of hymns in assembly services, nothing intrusive and far less in-your-face than any hardcore atheist I've ever known, who tend to be the most dogmatic of the lot