Very important(religious education)

In Poland we have religious education at school. I had it at my elementary school, then - at secondary school. Of course there is no obligation to participate in these kind of lessons, but it is little bit more complicated than it seems to be. These lessons should be the first or last in the schedule ( so that these people who don't want religious education could stay at home or go home), but unfortunately, many schools place it in the middle of the day...

In germany there is also this education.
Divided into catholic and protestant lessons. (sometimes they are together)

I think its great, eventhough im not very religious i enjoy it. Because these lessons are like discussion rounds in higher grades. And the teachers are open for new ideas and opinions.

I think its not a good idea to have a strict teaching of Bible or Kuran phrases... It should be sth that helps u understand the society...

There are three situations possible in France:

- Fisrt and most common: your children are in a public school, religious education (as well as showing religious belonging) is strictly forbidden. If you want your children to have religious education (catechism) you have to find a way out of the school. (every church provide religious education to children, but it's disconnected from school)

- Second case: your children are in a private school (most of them being catholics school, but others are jewish, muslim or protestant). Religious education (and religious environnement) are provided by the school. In most of the case, attending religious lesson is not an obligation. Many parents are choosing private school for other reasons than religious education, and some of them don't want theie children to receive religious education at all.

-Third case: you are living in Alsace or Lorraine. These regions were in Germany when the laws creating the public school and separating the French state and the Church were voted. When they went back in France in 1918, they remains under the previous laws, and this has still not be changed. Therefore there is religious education even in public school. It is not an obligation (but I think 80% of children are attending these lesson).

My parents went in private school in their youth. Though being faithful, they did not want me and my siblings to go in private school. All of us went in public school and we received religious education with the local priest out of the school.

Quote from Nastja

I think its great, eventhough im not very religious i enjoy it. Because these lessons are like discussion rounds in higher grades. And the teachers are open for new ideas and opinions.

I envy you. My lessons were terrible boring, with priests who WEREN'T open for other opinions...
And, generally, in theory there is an alternative in Poland (for atheists, agnostics, other religions etc.) - ethic or philosophy. But not may schools provides such lessons - no teachers, no books, children are not interested in that (sometimes they don't want to be treated like strange people who don't like religious education ).
So, I think that it is sometimes more difficult to live in a country like Poland (high majority of catholics) than in France for example (many religions), although there are many other religious problems in this country.
If you live in Poland and you are not christian-catholic... Well, you are in minority.

Quote from Konrad

So, I think that it is sometimes more difficult to live in a country like Poland (high majority of catholics) than in France for example (many religions), although there are many other religious problems in this country.
If you live in Poland and you are not christian-catholic... Well, you are in minority.

There was not many different religions in France before 1960's, and there is still a high majority of catholics (at least of people pretending themselves catholics)

But for more than a century now, France is a non-religious country.This created some difficulties but it also solved a lot of problems. What you are speaking being good example of what can not happen in France.

By the way it's not really true that there is not religious education in French public school. I forgot to write it, but there are some occurrence of religion's history and religion's philosophy in education. But these lessons are not supposed to make children believe.

Quote from Armel

But these lessons are not supposed to make children believe.

Well the lessons here dont have that aim either. The Lessons here are digging in the old traditions and trying to make the kids understand why some people act the way they do. At least thats what i had.

In the grades until 10 or so u learn things about the bible and all the other religions. So that you have a good overview about the world and its different beliefs. From grade 10 on it becomes more a social education, very similiar to philosophy. Same topics from different ankles.
As for example we were talking about the christian sexuality compared to the other religions. Then about abortion, homosexuality etc. and the position of the church concerning these. Very interesting topics...

I have religion courses for 13 years now, and it didnt make me believe more. But im really thankful for these lessons, cos it widens ur horizion and general knowledge a lot... (if u have the right teachers of course)

Religious education was recently introduced in Serbia, in 2002 or 2003 I think. It was a very controversial topic at the time and many people were against it, so it was decided that there should be a compromise solution: you can choose between religious education and another subject, I can't remember what it's called.... Something about civic society, I'm not sure what it's exactly about but I guess it has to do with ethic. However, it's obligatory to chose one of the two.
In elementary schools it's parents who decide which subject their children are going to take, in high schools the students can decide themselves. Majority choose religious education, both in elementary and high school.
As far as I know all the major religions in Serbia (Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism, Islam) have their own courses and study plans. I don't like it, I think all children should learn the same things and that this subject should be strictly theoretic, but it isn't so.

I'm very much against religious education in schools and I'm very glad it wasn't around back when I was a pupil.

Quote from Joana

I'm very much against religious education in schools and I'm very glad it wasn't around back when I was a pupil.

Lucky person you are...I was born too late, e.g. during socialistic times there wasn't religious education in Poland. For clear reasons.

This is an especially interesting topic for me, as I grew up in the US going to a private christian school and then later to a public high school. So basically I just got a very one sided view in middle school and close to no knowledge in high school. Looking back, I wish there was a mandatory religion class covering a broad spectrum of the world's religions. I think it would definately help my home country in some areas;)
At wiki there's a general description of the approaches of various countries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_education

In Italy, religious education means, in the majority of cases, Catholic education...
When I went to school, we had it in secondary and high school, and the two teachers I had were priests. The lessons were centered on the Bible and Gospels.
In our last year of high school (when we were 18 ) we could choose whether to attend the religious education class or not. Given what kind of class it was, the majority of us didn't attend anymore.
I think that religious education should cover, if not all, at least the most important religions from all over the world, but Italy is a very Catholic country, and that is reflected in school, too.
Anyway, I think things are slowly changing now, mainly because there are a lot of immigrants' children who are not Catholic attending public schools...but I can't really tell because it's been years since I graduated...

Well, I'm a bit late, but, better late than never

here in Brazil, there is religious education only in "religious"schools... it can be catholic, jewish, muslims... it depends on the owner of school and of the students that attend it... In usual (public and private) schools, there isn't religious education as a discipline, but at least it was supposed to be taught in the history class (I had to study in 7th grade about how the religions started, how it evolved...).

Anyway, I think that a class about religion wouldn`t work out here, because there are people of all kind of religions... the official religion of Brazil is catholic, but there are muslims, jewish, protestants, kardecists, etc, all over, so it would just create some problem Besides that, for example if you are catholic and want to teach it to your children, you take the kids to the church and give some classes about it, each religion with its rituals... It gives the chances to make each family to decide what`s better for their children to learn, even if I do agree that everyone should learn about all religions since all of them are important in some way.