Religion classes in school - Megathread

Michelle Nelson4 said:Well, look, I honestly think the only real fix is the one thing everyone seems to be avoiding—switching to full-day schooling. It would just expand the daily block of hours available. Personally, I don’t quite wrap my head around why they’d limit the mandatory hours based on whether a subject is categorized as an elective; it feels like those hours should still count toward their total load, right? My kids don't even bother with electives, except for my son, who is absolutely obsessed with computer science. For them, having a one-hour gap twice a week (or letting them sleep in a bit later, which they actually got lucky enough to experience once this year!) isn't some huge issue at all.

Michelle Nelson4 said:Honestly, it’s just unpredictable in my district too. I don't quite follow the logic of cutting back on religious studies—which isn't even mandatory, and my kids don't attend anyway—just to pad out the mandatory subjects. If we want to increase the core curriculum without touching the electives like computer science or foreign languages, the only real lever left is increasing the total number of instructional hours for required classes. And that inevitably leads us straight toward full-day schooling.

Besides, sooner or later, they're going to implement it. The rate at which school staff numbers are dropping is nowhere near as fast as the decline in student enrollment. A lot of schools are becoming one-way or half-empty, so this seems like a straightforward way for the state to maintain employment levels even as student populations shrink. In the big cities where they actually have overcrowding issues, they'll probably just build more facilities or expand existing ones. Because our overcrowded, two-way schools in NYC are basically a rare exception to the national trend...

Andrew Doyle said:What exactly don't you get?
Religious education isn't just some random elective like anything else; if it were, it would be scheduled during 7th or 8th period, or maybe zero period, just like any other elective course. Have you ever heard of religious classes being held during the opposite shift, like 7th or 8th period? No, you haven't—and there's a reason for that. It is explicitly defined in The Contract that it must hold the status of a mandatory subject.
Furthermore, in order to facilitate what was signed with the Pope, the schedules for all other subjects had to be restructured. So, let’s indulge in a little fantasy: imagine an impossible scenario for America where The Contract is nullified, religious studies finally move back to the church, and schools return to a standard schedule consisting only of secular subjects.

...but let's stop right there with the imagination, because there is absolutely no way anyone is going to tear up The Contract.

Michelle Nelson4 said:If you look at the Department of Education guidelines, there isn't a specific rule laid out regarding the daily schedule, which means any interpretation of it is pretty much subjective rather than set in stone. You see similar ambiguity in the legal statutes for other election matters as well. Essentially, the hourly schedule just needs to comply with federal law, which states that for multi-grade levels, the maximum is six hours per day. Beyond that, schools have total autonomy to organize their day however they please—whether they want to use block scheduling or something else entirely. In my experience, some days actually end up being longer because if religious studies is on the calendar, those hours don't even count toward that limit.

As for The Contract, of course it can be terminated. We are a sovereign nation, after all, and we’ve entered into agreements with other entities, like the Holy See, which we can rescind whenever we see fit. Naturally, there's a process involved; if things get complicated, there are plenty of international arbitration courts designed specifically for disputes between nations. You just take it to court, much like a divorce settlement.

Larry Walker24 said:Whichever Government pushes this through, they're basically handing the next election to the opposition on a silver platter.

Nancy Howard4 said:Sure, but you’d need some serious guts to pull that off, and if the King of England could just declare himself Pope just so he could get a new wife, then I guess we can try asking for a "new" contract too.
You really don't realize how much influence Vatican City has over the economy and the whole European Union, especially since about 48% of the EU is Roman Catholic, so👎

Michelle Nelson4 said:If you look at the Department of Education guidelines, there isn't a specific rule laid out regarding the daily schedule, which means any interpretation of it is pretty much subjective rather than set in stone. You see similar ambiguity in the legal statutes for other election matters as well. Essentially, the hourly schedule just needs to comply with federal law, which states that for multi-grade levels, the maximum is six hours per day. Beyond that, schools have total autonomy to organize their day however they please—whether they want to use block scheduling or something else entirely. In my experience, some days actually end up being longer because if religious studies is on the calendar, those hours don't even count toward that limit.

As for The Contract, of course it can be terminated. We are a sovereign nation, after all, and we’ve entered into agreements with other entities, like the Holy See, which we can rescind whenever we see fit. Naturally, there's a process involved; if things get complicated, there are plenty of international arbitration courts designed specifically for disputes between nations. You just take it to court, much like a divorce settlement.

Michelle Nelson4 said:But honestly, how does that even tie back to the theory that they're unbreakable?
There's a massive difference between simply wanting something to be true and actually having the capacity to make it happen.

Larry Walker24 said:
Whatever the Federal Government tries to push through, it's just a fast track to losing the next election.

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Look at this. Nowhere in the school handbook does it actually specify the schedule, so we’re stuck dealing with arbitrary interpretations instead of anything set in stone. It’s the same nonsense you see in federal regulations regarding other election matters. The hourly schedule is supposed to comply with the law, which states that for multi-grade classrooms, there's a maximum of six hours per day. Schools stick to that limit, but beyond that, they have total discretion on how they structure things—whether they use block scheduling or whatever else they feel like. Besides, at my kid's school, they often hit more than six hours if religious studies is on the calendar for that day, since those hours aren't even counted toward the total.

Michelle Nelson4 said:If you look at the Department of Education guidelines, there isn't a specific rule laid out regarding the daily schedule, which means any interpretation of it is pretty much subjective rather than set in stone. You see similar ambiguity in the legal statutes for other election matters as well. Essentially, the hourly schedule just needs to comply with federal law, which states that for multi-grade levels, the maximum is six hours per day. Beyond that, schools have total autonomy to organize their day however they please—whether they want to use block scheduling or something else entirely. In my experience, some days actually end up being longer because if religious studies is on the calendar, those hours don't even count toward that limit.

As for The Contract, of course it can be terminated. We are a sovereign nation, after all, and we’ve entered into agreements with other entities, like the Holy See, which we can rescind whenever we see fit. Naturally, there's a process involved; if things get complicated, there are plenty of international arbitration courts designed specifically for disputes between nations. You just take it to court, much like a divorce settlement.

Larry Walker24 said:
Whatever the Federal Government tries to push through, it's just a fast track to losing the next election.

Michelle Nelson4 said:So, I’ve heard there are some schools where they switch up the shifts—you know, having certain classes like foreign languages during the first or last period instead. But honestly, I don't really want to get sidetracked by scheduling logistics; I want to focus strictly on the weekly credit hour requirements. Look, let’s be clear about the law: according to Section 51, the daily instruction time for mandatory subjects in an elementary or middle school is capped at a maximum of 4 to 6 hours. Period. So, I just don't see how religious education—which is entirely elective—could possibly have any bearing on reducing the required hours for core mandatory subjects. It's like saying we're cutting back on math because we added an elective. It doesn't add up!

Maybe the statute was worded differently in the past, but looking at it now, increasing or decreasing the number of elective hours simply has no impact on the maximum number of mandatory subject hours allowed per week. At least, that's my reading of the text. I just don't see the connection being made here.

Rebecca Diaz said:If you can remember which specific schools you're talking about, please shoot me a DM. I'm pretty sure they're violating regulations.