Why I Hated R.E.

I have no religious beliefs. But that isn’t why I loathed my weekly dose of religious education. You see although I don’t ‘believe’ religion its history does fascinate me. Sadly though my opportunity to learn about religion at school was wasted all because of crap RE teachers. The two main teachers at secondary school were both passionately Christian and many of their lessons were nothing more than thinly veiled attempts to convert us.

The problem is most of the students played on it. At the start of the lesson we’d be told which passage of the bible we’d be learning about. One smart arse would then pipe up, ‘But Mrs P I don’t believe in this rubbish why should I have to learn it?’ This would then lead to an hour of Mrs P getting all self righteous and pretty much accusing us all of being devil worshippers while she told us how mighty Christianity was and how if we didn’t believe we’d all melt or something.

Thinking back though her teaching style was awful. She had an opportunity to teach us about the many faiths of the world perhaps leading to us each finding one that really spoke to us. All religions have a fascinating history. Much of it bloody but interesting none the less. We could have learnt more about the Koran, the Buddhist way of live. Why do the Amish chose to live their lifestyle? What is a Mormon? So much to learn but no instead she was ignorant to any religion but her own – the same ignorance that is causing the troubles in the world today.