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What was your religious education in public schools by State?

Terry Sampson

Well-Known Member
  • U.S. Public school education:
    • Kindergarden/1st/2nd/3rd/4th/5th/6th Grade
      • In Oklahoma, Sept. 1953-May 1960.
      • Topic: #14. Puritans/Colony of New England/Thanksgiving
    • 7th/8th/9th/10th Grade
      • Nevada, Sept. 1960-May 1964.
      • Topics #14. Puritans/Colony of New England/Thanksgiving and 8. Stonewall Jackson
  • Pivate school - Lutheran
    • 11th/12th Grade
    • Oakland, California
    • Topics #1 thru and including #14.
 
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MikeDwight

Well-Known Member
  • U.S. Public school education:
    • Kindergarden/1st/2nd/3rd/4th/5th/6th Grade
      • In Oklahoma, Sept. 1953-May 1960.
      • Topic: #14. Puritans/Colony of New England/Thanksgiving
    • 7th/8th/9th/10th Grade
      • Nevada, Sept. 1960-May 1964.
      • Topics #14. Puritans/Colony of New England/Thanksgiving and 8. Stonewall Jackson
  • Pivate school - Lutheran
    • 11th/12th Grade
      • Oakland, California
      • Topics #1 thru and including #14.
Hmm, what do you take that to mean? I don't want to misinterpret your list. So a religious school in California helps a broad view of religions?
 

Terry Sampson

Well-Known Member
Hmm, what do you take that to mean? I don't want to misinterpret your list. So a religious school in California helps a broad view of religions?

Somewhat. Becoming a Sampson by adoption, in June of 1960, by a Lutheran preacher exposed me to Topics #1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 12, and 13, but that exposure was at home, not in school. Attending the private school in the 11th and 12th grade, filled in the rest.
1. 95 theses
2. Oliver Cromwell
3. Calvinism
4. King Henry VIII
5. Anne Boleyne
6. (loosely the Pope/Catholocism)
7. Byzantine Empire
8. Stonewall Jackson
9. Martin Luther
10. Queen Catherine (of Aragorn)
11. Queen Isabella
12. Lutheranism (More Specifically)
13. Quakers
14. Puritans/Colony of New England/Thanksgiving

Trivia: In Public School, in Oklahoma from Sept. 1953 thru May 1960, my classmates were white, Native American, and Hispanic/Mexican. First time I had Black classmates was in 7th grade in Nevada, Sept. 1960-May 1961.
 

shunyadragon

shunyadragon
Premium Member
I've come on an alarming realization, possibly condemnable upon my person. Everyone could help me out with a simple questionnaire. Please indicate which of the listed items, and fill in as miscellaneous where applicable, that you remember highlighted terms in your public education, and list the state in which that Grade School , Elementary-High School religious education took place. I'll provide my example at the bottom.
Thanks for participating.

1. 95 theses
2. Oliver Cromwell
3. Calvinism
4. King Henry VIII
5. Anne Boleyne
6. (loosely the Pope/Catholocism)
7. Byzantine Empire
8. Stonewall Jackson
9. Martin Luther
10. Queen Catherine (of Aragorn)
11. Queen Isabella
12. Lutheranism (More Specifically)
13. Quakers
14. Puritans/Colony of New England/Thanksgiving


I respond,
1,4,5,8,9,14
I may write in, education with Martin Luther King Jr.. you can count that as 15.
10, 13 may have been there
Northern Alabama




-----
I Highly Suspect state textbooks are dividing the country. I'm entirely for my state, BUT, not at the expense of assuming un-American education! Thanks for responses. Or, if you want to comment, that's fine.

My education up through high school was in Maryland and Costa Rica. Probably all, but not in depth.
 

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
""People", in English, is not quite the same as "persons". Persons is just the plural of "person". "People" means roughly the same thing, but there is often an understanding that there is something uniting the persons that make up a people, usually some form of ethnic characteristic or cultural trait."

I don't see anything worthwhile in "Atheism" so I express my disagreement with it. As far as the Atheists, I am not against them in their persons and I am in favor of equitable treatment to them by every Religion. Hence I address them as Atheism people to make it the most impersonal instead of Atheism persons, which gives a connotation of being personal. Right, please?

And one knows that friends @LuisDantas and friend @Willamena , I like them most in the forum.

Regards
Thank you, Paarsurrey. You're a lovely person (as opposed to a lovely people).
 

paarsurrey

Veteran Member
If you mean what did they teach in religious class? mostly a distorted view of what religion actually is, no school teacher in religious teaching cared about their teaching of religion
At the age of 15 years old I knew more about religion than my teacher, so I did not learn anything from them

I was in school from 1984 to 1997.

The better idea as I visualize is that there should be periodically seminars in the schools/colleges in their halls on the subjects about religion/no-religions where the selected representatives of religions/no-religions should give answers, moderated by the education officers of the boards.
Does one like this idea, please? One could expand it to be most befitting.

Regards
 

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
I don't see anything worthwhile in "Atheism" so I express my disagreement with it. As far as the Atheists, I am not against them in their persons and I am in favor of equitable treatment to them by every Religion. Hence I address them as Atheism people to make it the most impersonal instead of Atheism persons, which gives a connotation of being personal. Right, please?

And one knows that friends @LuisDantas and friend @Willamena , I like them most in the forum.

Regards

Honestly, I don't even know whether "people" is more personal than "persons", equivalent, or the other way around.

In any case, disagreeing with atheism is fine. Denying its legitimacy is definitely not fine.
 

MikeDwight

Well-Known Member
In India, none in government schools where I studied.
Huh that's interesting. You know india doesn't like religious divisions, they claim it created Pakistan after independence. Stop blaming Brits, its an Indian independence problem.

Maybe so to guest lecturers, but, why then not every topic? Guest mathemeticians? I guess they have those in-house. The subject Social Studies is intended to Socially equip on subjects.
 

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
I've come on an alarming realization, possibly condemnable upon my person. Everyone could help me out with a simple questionnaire. Please indicate which of the listed items, and fill in as miscellaneous where applicable, that you remember highlighted terms in your public education, and list the state in which that Grade School , Elementary-High School religious education took place. I'll provide my example at the bottom.
Thanks for participating.

1. 95 theses
2. Oliver Cromwell
3. Calvinism
4. King Henry VIII
5. Anne Boleyne
6. (loosely the Pope/Catholocism)
7. Byzantine Empire
8. Stonewall Jackson
9. Martin Luther
10. Queen Catherine (of Aragorn)
11. Queen Isabella
12. Lutheranism (More Specifically)
13. Quakers
14. Puritans/Colony of New England/Thanksgiving

I respond,
1,4,5,8,9,14
I may write in, education with Martin Luther King Jr.. you can count that as 15.
10, 13 may have been there
Northern Alabama

-----
I Highly Suspect state textbooks are dividing the country. I'm entirely for my state, BUT, not at the expense of assuming unAmerican education! Thanks for responses. Or, if you want to comment, that's fine.

I only encountered #14 and only in the context of Thanksgiving.

I went to public school in Kansas from later 1960's to late 1970's. But I only had one year of high school.
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
Stop blaming Brits, its an Indian independence problem.

Maybe so to guest lecturers, but, why then not every topic? Guest mathemeticians? I guess they have those in-house. The subject Social Studies is intended to Socially equip on subjects.
I don't blame the British for anything. That is history. I do not blame even Muslims for partition. That too is history. 'Que Sera Sera'. I like it that I was taught nothing about religion in the school. What I gathered is from the family, and at a much later time (in my middle age), by studying Bible, Quran, Buddhist Suktas and Avesta, when I started understanding things.

We do not have guest lecturers or guest mathematicians in schools, and teachers do not go beyond the syllabus (Who has the time and why should one go beyond the syllabus? Teachers perhaps have at least six 45-minute classes every day. The students would protest). Yes, Civil Studies is a subject, but it does not include religious studies. Here is the syllabus for Xth standard students and the word 'religion' occurs only once that too in a different context, it does not go into what different religions teach.
India is a secular country.

"Gender, Religion and Caste:
2. Religion, Communalism and Politics: Identify and analyse the challenges posed by communalism to Indian democracy."
http://cbseacademic.nic.in/web_mate...Main-Secondary/Social_Science_Sec_2019-20.pdf
 
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Nyingjé Tso

Tänpa Yungdrung zhab pä tän gyur jig
Vanakkam

Whole éducation in France, public schools every time.
No religious education at all, as it is forbidden by law in public schools.
Only topics approaching religion I ever had was the crusades and the pillars of Islam in history.
 

Spirit of Light

Be who ever you want
The better idea as I visualize is that there should be periodically seminars in the schools/colleges in their halls on the subjects about religion/no-religions where the selected representatives of religions/no-religions should give answers, moderated by the education officers of the boards.
Does one like this idea, please? One could expand it to be most befitting.

Regards
I do not think school, especially for kids and young adults is the right place to teach religion. There are so many different religions and views that if teachers should know enough to give a good teaching to the kids, the teachers must have 10-15 years of religious education, and even that is not enough to understand deeply one religion.

So it is better if parents and the religious community teach their own kids about religion.
 

Srivijaya

Active Member
In the schools I went to, religious education was seen as a joke. a 'doss' subject where you didn't have to work and could tease the prude teacher with quasi-sexual questions. What I remember of it was a beleaguered older lady stoically standing in front of a class of teenage boys, trying to discourse on Jesus and improbable tales from the Bible. Illustrations of figs, camels and people in middle eastern garb, just underlined it's utter irrelevance to northern English comprehensive school boys. Girls and cigarettes mattered. Religion was for losers.
 

crossfire

LHP Mercuræn Feminist Heretic ☿
Premium Member
I've come on an alarming realization, possibly condemnable upon my person. Everyone could help me out with a simple questionnaire. Please indicate which of the listed items, and fill in as miscellaneous where applicable, that you remember highlighted terms in your public education, and list the state in which that Grade School , Elementary-High School religious education took place. I'll provide my example at the bottom.
Thanks for participating.

1. 95 theses
2. Oliver Cromwell
3. Calvinism
4. King Henry VIII
5. Anne Boleyne
6. (loosely the Pope/Catholocism)
7. Byzantine Empire
8. Stonewall Jackson
9. Martin Luther
10. Queen Catherine (of Aragorn)
11. Queen Isabella
12. Lutheranism (More Specifically)
13. Quakers
14. Puritans/Colony of New England/Thanksgiving


I respond,
1,4,5,8,9,14
I may write in, education with Martin Luther King Jr.. you can count that as 15.
10, 13 may have been there
Northern Alabama




-----
I Highly Suspect state textbooks are dividing the country. I'm entirely for my state, BUT, not at the expense of assuming unAmerican education! Thanks for responses. Or, if you want to comment, that's fine.
All except #1, all presented in a sociological/historical context.
Plus various ancient and indigenous sociological stuff.
Had a quarter of world religion studies in 9th grade, (required class) covering religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Shamanism, Taoism, Confucianism, and a brief look at the various Abrahamics (which were better covered in history classes.)
Western Washington
 
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MikeDwight

Well-Known Member
People keep surprising me. I never saw states giving textbooks that even had indexes that would have islam,confucius,buddhism, or any minority religion. 3 people have claimed this now, in or outside the United States.
The only thing I'd be certain of is the explanation of the start of Protestant Reformation , Gutenberg Bible, Martin Luther, and 95 Theses on the Church Door. They can get in more detail for you in college history and Western Civilization, the most detailed Protestant Reformation map available. What's that, a freckle on Luxembourg?
 

paarsurrey

Veteran Member
I'm so supportive of your approach paarsurrey. The Muslims need more adapters. You appear like an American caring about Islam. However the international Muslim is known for these particular points for you to consider! Having multiple women is more effective for child birth. They are the one religion without racism (why is that?) because they traded white/black slaves for sex and they believe IN those caliphs/empires throughout their history, they are trying to destroy muslim nations as the European invention of nations that they are from the 60's. What else, that all other languages are dirt, and we're al going to take the time to learn Arabic for a Religion Really? I think its the other way around my friend, concerning learning languages.
"What else, that all other languages are dirt, and we're al going to take the time to learn Arabic for a Religion Really?"

I didn't say that without learning Arabic one cannot understand Quran/Islam/Muhammad and that all other languages are dirt?
Did I, please?
I respect all people and every language.

Regards
 
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