A subject where you're taught the bare facts of a holy book, and are told to believe it for the fear of being condemned to eternal damnation. Is this what you think RE is? If so, please do read the entirety of this post!
RE has changed a lot from what I've observed. Whenever I talk to my parents, aunts, uncles and even some of my teachers, they all tell me their RE lessons were just like the above paragraph. To me, this seems completely alien as a concept. My experience of RE has never been like this. A lot of people will be quick to say that I'm not being entirely truthful when saying this, but anyone from my own school, and other schools I know of, would be only too happy to back me up. In fact, why don't you take a look about what some of today's GCSE RE students think of RE?
The opinions in the video above are all from students who go to a Catholic school. Some are atheists, agnostics and some Catholics. That alone goes to show how RE in a Catholic school isn't having the Catechism forced upon your conscience.
In year 9, I studied an RE course that covered the following concept: life after death; abortion; euthanasia; contraception; design; causation; religious experience; scientific theories for the explanations of the universe; multi-cultural and multi-faith societies; women in ministry; racial harmony; religion in the media; divorce; marriage - these aren't even the entire course! In year 10, due to the changing of the GCSEs in 2011, I studied a course that was practically the same, but under a different name. Now, in year 11, I study a course with the following concepts: capital punishment; the theories of punishment; why should we vote?; electoral and democratic processes; genetic engineering; global warming; the causes of war; the just war theory - again, just to name a few. From this, I think it's only fair to conclude that this goes against some common prejudices of RE. Would you not agree? If not, I'd love to know your reasons.
In some words, I'd like to explain what I think RE is. RE is a subject whereby students can, yes, develop faith and beliefs, however, also have the time to think about reasons why maybe our religion isn't right, and other people's ideas are. It's a time to think about the moral and ethical issues that come about in our society today. It's a time to decide what we think is right or wrong. It's an opportunity to change the world we're living in; to make the world a much better and more tolerant place to be.
Yes, this is all coming from a student who loves and adores RE, but I'm not the only one with these opinions.
Thanks for your time, and I'll be blogging again soon!
RE has changed a lot from what I've observed. Whenever I talk to my parents, aunts, uncles and even some of my teachers, they all tell me their RE lessons were just like the above paragraph. To me, this seems completely alien as a concept. My experience of RE has never been like this. A lot of people will be quick to say that I'm not being entirely truthful when saying this, but anyone from my own school, and other schools I know of, would be only too happy to back me up. In fact, why don't you take a look about what some of today's GCSE RE students think of RE?
The opinions in the video above are all from students who go to a Catholic school. Some are atheists, agnostics and some Catholics. That alone goes to show how RE in a Catholic school isn't having the Catechism forced upon your conscience.
In year 9, I studied an RE course that covered the following concept: life after death; abortion; euthanasia; contraception; design; causation; religious experience; scientific theories for the explanations of the universe; multi-cultural and multi-faith societies; women in ministry; racial harmony; religion in the media; divorce; marriage - these aren't even the entire course! In year 10, due to the changing of the GCSEs in 2011, I studied a course that was practically the same, but under a different name. Now, in year 11, I study a course with the following concepts: capital punishment; the theories of punishment; why should we vote?; electoral and democratic processes; genetic engineering; global warming; the causes of war; the just war theory - again, just to name a few. From this, I think it's only fair to conclude that this goes against some common prejudices of RE. Would you not agree? If not, I'd love to know your reasons.
In some words, I'd like to explain what I think RE is. RE is a subject whereby students can, yes, develop faith and beliefs, however, also have the time to think about reasons why maybe our religion isn't right, and other people's ideas are. It's a time to think about the moral and ethical issues that come about in our society today. It's a time to decide what we think is right or wrong. It's an opportunity to change the world we're living in; to make the world a much better and more tolerant place to be.
Yes, this is all coming from a student who loves and adores RE, but I'm not the only one with these opinions.
Thanks for your time, and I'll be blogging again soon!
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