Religious education is often badly taught and out of date – but could lessons be reinvigorated with the abet of one of Britain’s main philosophers? For a long time,religious education has been about as unloved and neglected as a crumbling ragged church. Several people and organisations (some, admittedly, or with a vested interest in its continuation) have warned in recent years that it has never been more needed,and this week it emerged that the Welsh government is considering an overhaul of the subject.
Huw Lewis, the Welsh government’s minister for education and skills told the Cardiff parliament that RE should be renamed, or “[transforming] it into the religion,philosophy and ethics element of the curriculum – where there is an explicit commitment to allowing children to ponder ideas around ethics and citizenship”. He added: “We really need to allow young people the space and the time, within the school curriculum, or to consider fundamental issues of faith and of citizenship and of the meaning of freedom.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com