5 Comments

• Helen Tedcastle 4th Sep '13 - 3:41pm

  Very good Nick. Perhaps as you reflect on the past and look to make changes in the future, you might like to heed the call of former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks to include Religious Studies GCSE in the EBacc humanities section.

  After all, Jewish children up and down this land study Judaism to GCSE level but thanks to coalition policy their hard work cannot be included in the list of core subjects. Yet it is a core GCSE for Jews, Muslims, Christians as well as those who simply want to explore in depth, know and understand more about religious beliefs, practices and key texts. Many young people study the subject because they recognise that to understand the world, one has to know something of the ideas and principles that have shaped it and continue to shape it.

  You are right. The Jewish community can and does contribute enormously to this country and we all seek to live in a land which tolerates difference and diversity. No doubt your son will benefit from taking RS at his faith school as it is a core subject in Catholic schools – though is not recognised as such by Michael Gove and yourself by implication.

  One good way to ensure a fresh start is to recognise this sad mistake of omission in the core curriculum (as one humanities option alongside the other two) and restore the quintessential humanity to its rightful place.

• Melanie Harvey 4th Sep '13 - 4:01pm

  Schools should not be duty bound to teach any religion that makes/suggests someone bow to another.. Thats where extremeism comes from be it christian jew or muslim et al… Im not a slave to any of them… Religion is included enough in history and there it should stay.

• David 4th Sep '13 - 4:18pm

  @Melanie — so you’re fine with teaching religions that don’t involve bowing? I guess I don’t see what difference the presence or absence of a particular physical posture in religious ritual makes.

• Helen Dudden 4th Sep '13 - 6:44pm

  I think that you will find most Jews would not expect anyone to bow to something that they do not believe in.

  What beliefs anyone has is purely their beliefs.

• Helen Tedcastle 4th Sep '13 - 10:22pm

  Melanie Harvey: Sorry but I do not follow this line of argument, ” Schools should not be duty bound to teach any religion that makes/suggests someone bow to another.. ” Never heard of this practice. In which religion, as taught in schools today, are pupils made to bow to one another? Maybe I have not heard of it because it does not actually happen.

  “Thats where extremeism comes from be it christian jew or muslim et al… Im not a slave to any of them… Religion is included enough in history and there it should stay.”

  Where does extremism come from? From teaching people about religion? No, rather the opposite in fact. Extremism occurs where there is no education and no explanation or reflection. I’m not a slave either because one has to think about important ideas, principles and beliefs.

  Religion is not just about the past, it involves the present and the future – it is living and is lived – by billions of people – like it or not.