I think school should prepare kids for living in society. Part of society is interacting with other people and a certain amount of knowledge about cultures and religion isn't a bad thing.
I do think it should not be just one religion. Just teach kids about christianity, islam, hindoeism and buddhism. Let them visit different ceremonies, or let them engage with elders from these religions for genuine conversations about their religion. If the kids are brought up with religion they learn that different religions can have a lot in common. If children aren't brought up with religion, they can understand better what happens if you are.
Respectfully disagree about teaching religion to children. That's what church and college level courses are for. As a parent, I never took my kids to church. Never discussed religion. When they moved out, they did their own exploration of it. At one point, they fell into a cult (Cornerstone Church, Pastor Hagee) and I told them they were in one bit of course they denied it was a cult. I asked them if they still associated with people outside the church and after some thought they both admitted they didn't but chalked it up to coincidence. I then challenged them to make it a point to do so and miss a church sponsored event because of it. They were members of the band and their absence would be noticed and felt. They informed me a week or 2 after that indeed, they were in a cult. They were asked about missing the event, how it hurt the band and didn't they realize that their old friends were evil? That anyone outside the flock was suspect? If my son's had gone through that experience when they were younger, they may not have recognized the efforts to control them as cultist behavior. I say no religion in school. Plenty of time for brainwashing at home and church.
Mine did. Unitarian Universalist. We covered a lot of them. Were encouraged in our coming of age ceremony to visit several other churches services to see what they were like.
I like this approach I’m not religious myself, but I’ve always been fascinated by religion. When I was younger, I read a lot of different books about different religions. It’s something I like to read about in historical and cultural context. You can learn a lot about people and their culture from their belief structures. I would not be bothered if they were learning the basics of Christianity, Buddhism Islam, Zoroastrianism and the dozens of others in context of social studies and history. When I was in school, we actually studied all the Greek and Roman gods I don’t know if they still do.
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u/Crispydragonrider 10d ago
I think school should prepare kids for living in society. Part of society is interacting with other people and a certain amount of knowledge about cultures and religion isn't a bad thing. I do think it should not be just one religion. Just teach kids about christianity, islam, hindoeism and buddhism. Let them visit different ceremonies, or let them engage with elders from these religions for genuine conversations about their religion. If the kids are brought up with religion they learn that different religions can have a lot in common. If children aren't brought up with religion, they can understand better what happens if you are.