On Teaching The Catholic Faith In School

Extract

Five years ago, (February 1973) I wrote an article for this journal entitled ‘On Teaching Religion in School’ in which I argued for a style of teaching religion in Catholic schools which had greater respect for the child’s own understanding of his religious identity. The fact that the majority of children in Catholic schools enter them with a Catholic label tied, as it were, round their necks, does tend to make those professionally concerned with the future of the Catholic faith in this country forget that, while for some children this label may be a pathway to great joy, for others it may be an albatross.

In the same article I pointed to a dilemma which lies at the heart of religious education in schools. This analysis still seems valid. It runs as follows:

1 Religious education (knowledge of religious reality) is usually acquired through participation in the life of a religious group.

2 Participant education in religion (i.e. taking part in prayers, religious rites etc.) in a classroom context is indoctrinatory where there is no personal commitment within the tradition that is inculcated.

3 The problem of identity is a paramount of adolescence. The adolescent experiments with a variety of identities and this process of experimentation is necessary if he is to achieve maturity.

4 It follows that the majority (or at least some proportion) of adolescent students will be subject to indoctrination in the negative sense if the aim of the teacher is ‘to teach the Catholic faith’.

5 But participant education in religion is a condition of acquiring genuine religious knowledge.

6 Hence either the teacher teaches religion adequately and indoctrinates (in the bad sense of that word) some of his pupils or he teaches religion inadequately and does not indoctrinate.