I'm doing a huge research project on the positive and negative affects of incorporating religion and spirituality into schooling. I need to get a broad range of opinions from parents and teachers. I can do the parent part through message boards. I'm going into classrooms to look at grades, curriculum and classroom environments. I'm looking at catholic and Waldrof schools. Waldrof schools have a broad concept of "spirituality" in their curriculum. Questions: *1-Do you think religion/spirituality belongs in a school curriculum? Why? 2-Do you think students who are in these schools/curriculums are above or below students who receive schooling without religion/spirituality? 3-Please share any experiences if you'd like if you have/had children in any curriculum that has any religious/spirituality aspect. *Can be answered by ANY parent Please do not give me any names because I'm not allowed to use names or anything that could id who the person is due to confidentiality laws. Thanks! I will share my findings!
No religion in public schools.Supposed to be the law.Spirituality should be taught by parents and peers,but is sorely lacking in this country.
1-Do you think religion/spirituality belongs in a school curriculum? Why? Depends on your definition; I believe children should be taught to understand and respect all religions. Though I believe ultimatly schools should be neutral when it comes to any particular religious affiliation (e.g not teach 'intelligent design'). Catholic schools would be an exception; as the children are being raised with that religion anyway then it seems reasonable to encorporate that in their schooling, though of course they should learn tolerance for other beliefs. 2-Do you think students who are in these schools/curriculums are above or below students who receive schooling without religion/spirituality? I don't really see there being a huge diffrence either way. 3-Please share any experiences if you'd like if you have/had children in any curriculum that has any religious/spirituality aspect. The high school I attended wasn't religious per se, but had a 'Christian ethos'. We had prayers during assembly, and little things like that; otherwise it was pretty neutral. Nobody was forced/expected to partake, and we were all taught about other religions and encouraged to be indepedant thinkers. Whilst I've never been Christian I do respect that approach.
*1-Do you think religion/spirituality belongs in a school curriculum? Why? No, I don't think that it should be UNLESS it is a wide variety of religions and various aspects of spirituality being taught. Schools should encourage free thought and belief, and I find that the schools who teach religion often turn out narrow minded people. Schools should be teaching the basics, like math, science, social and english...however, all of these subjects...english and social, require an open mind. Schools who teach religion I find pressure the students to encorperate religious aspects into the student's opinions. 2-Do you think students who are in these schools/curriculums are above or below students who receive schooling without religion/spirituality? I would say that they are below. I don't know any actual statistics on this, but I find that students who come from schools with free expression often do better than students who come from a structured, stiff, strickt schools. 3-Please share any experiences if you'd like if you have/had children in any curriculum that has any religious/spirituality aspect. When I was in high school, the catholic school down the road was where most of the either: 1. Jerks came from, or 2. The people who were kicked out of our schools went. My cousins go to the catholic high school right now, and I find that they have grown up to be extremily judgemental people. They look down on people they don't feel meet their standards or have the same values as they do. It's a shame, since they were nice kids when they were little. granted, that comes along with the age they're at....but it's not just them....it's most of the people who go to those schools, whether they are still there or were in the graduating class that I was....
1-Do you think religion/spirituality belongs in a school curriculum? Why? I do feel that different religions should be discussed as a part of social studies. Each country has a few "main" religions, and I do feel that these help to define that countries beliefs & actions. I don't mean you should go on & on about it, but a brief rundown of the basic tenets would be helpful. If we want our kids to understand & be accepting of others, I think it helps to show them where they could be coming from. 2-Do you think students who are in these schools/curriculums are above or below students who receive schooling without religion/spirituality? My hope is that they're more open & accepting of people who may be "different." 3-Please share any experiences if you'd like if you have/had children in any curriculum that has any religious/spirituality aspect. This is what we're doing in our homeschool, and it does seem to help. I have had to answer some pretty tough questions, like "why DON'T we believe in Paganism? We love & honor the Earth too!" But I hope that it will help them in later life. I guess I've got a few years to see if it works or not though love, mom
*1-Do you think religion/spirituality belongs in a school curriculum? Why? I don't think religion or "spirituality" belong in public schools (private schools are a different matter). Public schools should not include religion because not everyone shares the same religion. Would all belief systems be taught, and taught equally? - I doubt it. It is up to parents to send their children to church/temple/whatever, or to a private school that includes religion if they feel that religion is important. Personally, I would change my Childs school at the first hint of religious instruction. As a final note, I would like to add that "intelligent design" is crap and should not be taught in ANY school. 2-Do you think students who are in these schools/curriculums are above or below students who receive schooling without religion/spirituality? Define 'above' and 'below'. It might also be a good idea to explain whether you're question implies causality.
1-Do you think religion/spirituality belongs in a school curriculum? Why? depends on whether the school is private, public, or homeschool. I am a homeschooling mother. I believe there is no room for indoctrination in my children's education, period, whether they were in public school or not. But I do expect them to learn about all kinds of different faiths and belief systems. I also feel it is my job, as the parent, to teach these things, or to find someone else to teach them, without indoctrinating/brainwashing them into any one particular faith. 2-Do you think students who are in these schools/curriculums are above or below students who receive schooling without religion/spirituality? that totally depends on the particular school, and the individual child, rather than the religious education the child is receiving. I do recognize that the religious schools in my area are vastly superior to the public schools, but that's not a factor of their religion as much as it is because of the beaurocracy and rules the public schools must follow, the larger class sizes in public schools, the limited budgets, the administration fearful of hiring competent teachers who may someday wish to have their cush jobs.
1-Do you think religion/spirituality belongs in a school curriculum? Why? I don't think kids should be forced by the school to pray to any particular god, or to follow any one religion. I think that all religions and beliefs should be respected by the schools, but I dont think that the teachers and principals should have any right to say, "You should believe THIS." I do think that all religions should be taught, like homeschoolmama said, in social studies where they just touch on each religion, just so the kids are aware that they are out there. 2-Do you think students who are in these schools/curriculums are above or below students who receive schooling without religion/spirituality? I went to a Mennonite school (basically the Mennonite religion is Christianity, but very strict. Women have to wear skirts at all times and head bonnets on their head. It's kind of like the Amish except they drive and use electricity) my junior year of high school, and I have a few friends who went to Catholic schools and I would have to say that private schools, whether they are religion based or not, definately teach more advanced subjects, and since they are more strict, more kids do what they are told, and because their parents are paying for their schooling, they are getting pressure from them to do well. I dont think any one is "above" the other, I don't know exactly what you mean by that, but I do think that kids in private schools are more well behaved, and because they are taught more advanced subjects I think they are more educated. (I'm generalizing here, I definately think that it can be the other way around, depending on the kids and the schools, I'm just saying in my experience). On the other hand, private schools (especially Catholic) don't give kids a chance to express themselves like public schools do, and a lot of my Catholic school friends, as soon as they graduated kind of went a little wild. Although it seems they go to college more often than public school graduates, but that probably has more to do with mommy and daddy's money than anything else. 3-Please share any experiences if you'd like if you have/had children in any curriculum that has any religious/spirituality aspect. Like I said, I went to a Mennonite school in Philadelphia my Junior year, and it really wasn't that bad. Although no one who was actually in the school, or taught at at it, was Mennonite, lol. I've never been to a public school in Philadelphia, but I've heard they're pretty bad, so I'd have to say compared to the public schools, it was a big improvement. It definately wasn't strict (unlike the actual Mennonite community, which is VERY strict) but there were only about 300 kids on the whole school so it was hard to misbehave and not get found out. The only thing they really taught that was adapted from the Mennonite religion was to be peaceful and be kind to others and stuff like that, but no one wore the head bonnets and skirts (like they do around here). But anyways, I would say that it was a good experience, but it wasn't like any other school I've seen before. It was very laid back and for the most part the kids were nice to each other and well behaved. Now, in the public school I went to, religion was not incorporated at all except for the Under God thing in the Pledge of Allegiance. We NEVER prayed, never got preached to, nothing. And this is in a very conservative community (Lancaster County, Pennsylvania) so I'm so shocked when people say that the teachers pray in public schools, because I never have seen it. Although we did talk about all the religions in Social Studies and that worked out very well IMO. ANYways, I don't know if I've helped you with you're paper, you said that you wanted parent's opinions, but my kids aren't in school yet, so I've given you my experience. I'm still undecided about what I'm going to do with my kids, though. Sometimes putting up with religion in private schools is worth it when you think about the poor education a lot of kids are getting in some public schools.
kinda off subject, but I remember a certain incident when I was younger. I was checking out books in my highschool library. One of them was about different drugs and their effects on people, and another one was on satanism and the occult. I'm not satanic nor was I then, but I have always been interested in different religions. Anyhow, the school counslers started harrasing me and trying to get to the psycological cause of my behavior problems (I didn't have behavior problems, I just wasn't afriad to give my opinion, it just didn't match their opinion in most cases). To make a long story short, my parents recieved a call talking abotu the material I was checking out from the school library. The counslers were asked if there were any christian bibles or material of the sort available for students to read. After finding out that there wasn't, the counslers got a really big earful. Hehehe. This probably has absolutly nothing to do with your subject, but sparked a memory.
