Were you taught Religious Studies at school?

[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 ;_;

 

[GrimSheeper]

Germany. Religious information about all big world religions as well as a minor one, the Kurd Jezids.
After that we were basically taught how Jesus was a glorified peaceful guerilla fighter against Roman oppression. By a Christian. It was pretty awesome.

 

[Lev The Red]

yeah, my freshman year of high school. it was a two week thing where we delved into the big religions: christianity, judaism, islam, buddhism, hinduism, and sikhism.
we just broadly learned about their rules and history.

 

[MetaKnight19]

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 ;_;

Believe me, Lord of the Rings does start to drag when you've seen the trilogy at least three times...

 

[kasperbbs]

I had it, but we could choose between it and 'ethic education' ? ,not sure how that translates. It was supposed to teach us about christianity, but in reality only boys from my class chose it because the teachers were pushovers and we could do whatever we wanted during the class, and i say 'teachers' because none of them lasted longer than one year, i think that had something to do with the fact that none of the students attending the class were religious or even remotely interested in the subject.
Lithuania btw.

 

[trollnystan]

Yes, in högstadiet (ages 13-15) in Sweden. We learnt about the major religions. I went to a school founded on Christian principles - or something like that; we had non-mandatory prayer at the mandatory Monday morning assembly for example, and a prayer room - but we didn't focus more on Christianity than any other Swedish school.

Not that I remember much; I cut class a lot during those years and I have some memory gaps as well.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

Yes, BUT due to my residency and the fact that I don't have an Arab passport, I was put in a Religion for Non-Arabs class (they just teach the fundamentals of Islam and all. You know, there's only one God, Muhammed (PBUH) is his Prophet, etc.

That being said, it counted for approximately dick in my final mark, meaning that I could bomb the exam so hard and still pass the course, or cheat from other people taking the same exam (everyone does), and still pass. They really did not give the slightest fuck.

 

[Suicidejim]

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!)

Mine was much the same as yours then, for my time in the UK (from what I remember, I'm cloudy on the specifics), and then I also did a Religious Studies class when I moved to Canada that covered Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Cults, and a lot of presentations on less prevalent stuff like Satanism, Voodoo, Wicca, that kind of thing.

 

[Formica Archonis]

I lived in the boonies of Nova Scotia, Canada. While I officially received no religious classes, unofficially from my first year of school until about my seventh we had one class a week of Catholic catechism, Wednesday mornings before lunch. (My school was in the metaphorical and literal shadow of the Church.) My mom thankfully got me out of it after a short while, so the school dumped me in detention but called it something different.

But then a school closed down and we started getting kids from further afield, including some Protestants whose parents didn't take well to their kids being taught their faith was wrong, and the whole thing got shut down before the press could get wind of it.

 

[Broady Brio]

I'm in the UK. My school did it a bit differently. We had RE Days, instead of lessons. This did not end well in terms of learning, all we did was shuffle from one classroom to another hitting each other with provided booklets.

 

[Ooga600]

I've gone to Catholic school in the U.S. for most of my life and up until the last two years the religious classes have been pretty useless apart from learning to not take everything in the bible literally (which I was pleasantly surprised by). Last year and this year have actually been interesting because the classes aren't so much religion/Catholicism as they are ethics and philosophy. Obviously we have to study Catholic ethics but we've also studied Aristotle, Mill, Kant, Locke, etc. Although, I have heard of Catholic schools where philosophy and ethics classes are basically just bible class.

 

[Robert Ewing]

British here.

I went to a Christian primary school in which we were taught about nothing but the teachings of Christianity. My secondary school's RE was on the big six religions. With an intense focus on Islam. They made a point of always avoiding any bloody undertones any religion ever had. Not once were we taught about an atrocity, or a war that involved religion. We were told that religious people were the most intelligent and gentlest people you will ever meet. And that they love everybody unconditionally.

As a result? I'm the most militant atheist to ever walk the Earth. Maybe RE does enlighten someone, in it's own way.

They never told us about the racism, the homophobia, the brain-washing, the Zionists, the hated, the wars, the crusades, the emancipation's, the massacres, the politics, the despair, the murder, the hindrances to human progress, the hindrances to human morality, the complete illusion freedom that the church claims to give us. It was taught that religion is an absolute good. Why? So that they don't offend anybody that may be religious...

Not one bad word was ever spoken about religion. Out of respect, maybe? Why should I respect a brain-washing bronze-aged mythology'd fascistic way of life, when it clearly doesn't even think about respecting me? And don't lecture me about the kindness that religion has bought. Do you seriously think that human kindness wouldn't exist without religion? It's kindness that will be there none the less, same with culture, and ways of life etc... Thank god Science was the period after RE on my timetable.

It makes me incredibly angry that religion is so respected...

 

[somonels]

(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!)

Now that is something that I have a problem with. No system of belief should be exempt from unbiased religion studies.

I did not receive any religious education, not that I would have wanted or cared about it at the time.

 

[sharks9]

I'm Canadian and didn't learn about it in school, though I wish I did.

I'm hoping to take some religion courses in university.

 

[triggrhappy94]

Public school in California? um...

Nope. The closest thing would be Hummanities.

Between Schwarzenegger and Bush, I almost didn't learn anything.

 

[kaitoshimizu]

Freshman year of high school I was taught practices of Hindus, Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims. That teacher also created a new religion of trees and velociraptors. It was pretty sweet.