Pupils twiddling their thumbs in Spain

[Stephen]

Has this been brought up on the forum? A law was passed in Spain a while back giving schoolchildren the right to opt-out of religious education in school. This law doesn't allow those that opt-out to gain any advantage over the ones still studying religion, so they can't do anything on the curriculum.

What those that opt-out do in the time varies from school to school but many are just doing homework or nothing at all! A strange situation.

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/Clase/Religion/nada/elpepusoc/20090930elpepisoc_1/Tes

[Legazpi]

I'd be interested in knowing what religious education involves in Spain. Does it teach religion or teach about religion?

In the UK I went to state schools that did occasionally force pupils to attend some religious indoctrination. Strangely, pupils that were not of the same religion as the school could opt out, however atheists couldn't.

On the other hand, the religious education classes taught about the main religions in a fairly objective way. And, given that those religions still play a big part in society, I thought those classes were worthwhile.

[Kralizec]

It's strictly catholic indoctrination. However, all public schools and most private also have an alternative, such as History of Religions (teaching about the main religions in history), Human Rights or Ethics - out of them, Ethics is the most usual. These alternative classes are usually taught by Philosophy teachers.

[Legazpi]

It's strictly catholic indoctrination. However, all public schools and most private also have an alternative, such as History of Religions (teaching about the main religions in history), Human Rights or Ethics - out of them, Ethics is the most usual. These alternative classes are usually taught by Philosophy teachers.

Thanks. So it would seem that the children are being given the chance to opt out of lessons that involve some form of religious indoctrination. In that case, to avoid giving them an unfair advantage in other subjects, they could be given these History of Religions lessons instead?

[jimmy_jazz]

Estas subnormalidades creo que solo se dan en España.

Mejor que los chavales no hagan nada, no vaya a ser que tengan una ventaja sobre los que estudian religión. Pues te jodes y la religión la estudias por la tarde en tu casa.