Cedric Mayson
SPIRIT LEVEL
A double page spread in the current issue of The Teacher highlights the challenge of religious education faced by our schools. In the old days, religious education was frequently boring, indoctrinated, or ignored. We need to bury it for good to rest in peace or pieces.
Our new Constitution states that “every- one has the right to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief and opinion”. How can schools advance and protect this constitutional right of educators and learners?
People have that right whether religion is defined as adherence to a religious institution or system, or as the spiritual awareness of a person who has no institutional adherence or is an atheist. And when they come flocking into school with their different hairstyles, clothing, scriptures, traditions, rituals, styles of worship, holy languages, holy days, customs – or none of them – with the strictures of parents or clergy ringing in their ears, what must the teachers do about it? And how can the learners respond?
One answer is to ban religion from schools. Both religious teaching and teaching about religion would be prohibited, and schools made entirely secular institutions. The riches of religious pluralism in our society would be denied to our children, who would grow up with major gaps in their educational experience. That system has not done much for the United States, and is inherently un-South African.
Another solution is to pursue one focus only for religious education. Having lived through the experience of Christian National Education in the apartheid era, we know this solution is grossly unjust, and divisive.
The third method is to bring the teaching of religion into the syllabus as a matter- of-fact subject like history. Students would have a comprehensive understanding of religion arising through all religious bodies. “Religion” would set out the rich variety of our national religious heritage, embracing both recognised religions and secular perceptions. The deep agreements on values, morals, ethics, attitudes and respect for one another would appear, highlighting justice and mercy, love and care, commitment, compassion and co- operation. The teacher’s task would be to educate in religion. It would not include promoting faith in any religious belief.
The Constitution is a rule book for enjoying the game of nation-building. It secures national empowerment by the moral, ethical and spiritual values espoused by religion without the weaknesses promoted by religious conflicts. Children have no problem in relating to one another until older people press them into opposing camps. Separatist religious teaching means they are reared in ignorance of how other South Africans live and how to relate to them. Breaking down these barriers of ignorance, misinformation and intolerance is a major task for educators.
So The Teacher tells the stories of Yusaf and Aamena, Jafer and Jackie, Tasneem and Shakiera, Brian and Henriette, and Thabo, Albertina and Sipho. They can be empowered as South Africans with the same fundamental values, understand one another, respect their different traditions, and enjoy building the nation together.
“Diverse people unite” says the new Coat of Arms. The trick is education in religion – not religious education.