Religion classes in school - Megathread
in Students & Teens ·
Sarah Hall53 said:Yeah, my cousin dealt with a total piece of work for a priest (typo: I first wrote priest, but honestly, that description fits this guy perfectly 😂), and she actually had to bring in a doctor's note if she missed Sunday Mass because she was sick. Because of his ridiculous rules, her family couldn't even attend a funeral Mass for her own cousin—meaning her mom had to miss her own nephew's service just because you were required to show up at your specific parish. And not just any service, either; it had to be the exact one he designated, not the one two towns over, or even the afternoon or evening ones.
To make matters worse, he was working hand-in-hand with the religious ed teacher, who would give a failing grade for commitment in the yearbook if you missed three Masses.
(Btw, the girl didn't just drop religion class at the last minute, she's not even Catholic anymore—she switched to Adventists, Evangelicals, or something like that...)
That's where the issue lies, and even my local pastor doesn't get it (he doesn't demand stamps, but the problem shows up differently)—you shouldn't force kids, you should attract them. You gotta inspire them, not blackmail them.
Looking at the teachers I work with at the church—they aren't much different, really 😬
Sam Kim12 said:Yes—those are certainly some of the more fascinating quirks within our education system.🙂
It’s absolutely maddening—honestly, it’s a complete bureaucratic circus. Every single year, you’re forced to jump through hoops just to re-register for your second language elective, like they’ve somehow forgotten who you are over the summer break. It’s an exhausting, repetitive loop of paperwork that serves no purpose other than to waste everyone's time. But then—and this is where the real absurdity kicks in—you look at how they handle religion classes. You sign up once, and suddenly it’s hardcoded into your schedule forever. It becomes this automatic, permanent fixture in your curriculum for every subsequent grade. There’s no easy way out; if you decide you aren't interested anymore, you have to go through the whole ordeal of formally requesting a withdrawal at the end of the school year. It’s a total lack of logic—one thing requires constant, annoying upkeep, while the other is practically impossible to shake off without a fight. It’s enough to make anyone lose their mind.🍿
It all boils down to one inescapable reality—the Catholic lobby has successfully embedded itself into the political machine, and their influence is nothing short of overwhelming. For us mere mortals just trying to navigate daily life, there isn't much we can do about it—it’s a frustratingly rigged game, unfortunately.
I went head-to-head with the religious education teacher back when my kid was in second grade—she actually had the audacity to tell me she couldn't just "remove" a student from the class. So, I did my homework—did some digging into the district policies—and discovered that there is a perfectly valid option for opting out: non-graded status. Essentially, the child doesn't attend the sessions, completes the rest of the school year normally, and simply receives no grade for that specific subject. Once I laid out the facts, the teacher cooled her heels regarding her little power trip—and frankly, the entire class breathed a massive sigh of relief.
I am certainly not an opponent of religious studies in general—there are plenty of beautiful, profound things one can learn from them—but the actual methodology employed by certain believers is nothing short of appalling.
We actually dealt with a situation where they were handing out seals after every Mass—it was part of some rigid ritualistic nonsense preceding St. Price and charisma. You see, so many kids would head out of town to other parts of the US on the weekends, making it impossible for them to attend Mass at our home parish, yet the priest—stubborn as ever—refused to accept any confirmation from a different local church. It triggered a full-blown revolt. We’re talking organized petitions, heated confrontations, and even trips to Capitol Hill to demand a meeting—all of which eventually forced them to scrap the whole seal business and, more broadly, stop making Mass attendance a strict prerequisite for receiving the sacraments😁.
Attending mass should probably be a requirement for a sacrament. Not necessarily a specific mass at a specific church, but going to mass is preparation for a sacrament just like religious ed classes are.
Just like kids have to show up to practice to play the game, or you have to go to language school classes to get your certificate, mass should be a requirement here.
But then you hit the same wall with parents as you do with priests. We want the sacrament, but we don't want to show up to the services 🍿
Shiny! 👏