Religion classes in school - Megathread

shadowcrane91 said:Can you point out a single place in my posts where I said I'd have a problem with religion class being during the opposite shift....????

I have zero issues with that.....

Take my first graders, for instance...... five of my kids take an elective computer lab taught by our teacher..... three of them don't stay for after-school care...... so they have a one-hour gap before computer lab and just hang out in the hallway..... and nobody's complaining.... everyone just dealt with it.

And how on earth do you know those kids went home and then came back for tech and PE???
Maybe the situation was such that for some families, it wasn't even worth the trip home.

This is just as pointless. They’re sitting there for an hour with zero supervision, just waiting around for computer class to start. 🤷

Wouldn't it be better if we just had a dedicated classroom with a teacher on staff specifically to handle this? Something like an after-school program setup, but during school hours. You’d have someone paid to sit there and focus entirely on the kids who are falling through the cracks. It doesn't need to be some massive logistical nightmare. Just give them a small classroom and one staff member to keep an eye on them. Simple.

Look, what I was getting at is that we’re talking about the local elementary school right here in our neighborhood. It only took me about fifteen minutes to get home, and my route is actually on the longer side. Nobody sat around waiting at the school after the morning session ended; we just headed straight home, grabbed a bite to eat, rested for a bit, knocked out our homework, studied, and then headed back for afternoon classes. You also kind of have to look at the schedule—you don't exactly walk into a day packed with heavy subjects if you've already got afternoon sessions lined up.

You might not be complaining about religious studies being scheduled during the opposite shift, but plenty of people are. Honestly, I don't know how they'll handle things when they run into the mess we used to deal with. Imagine having a ton of classes, only one gym, and just one PE teacher. There’s no way everyone can get into the gym during their regular shift, so you end up having to show up during the opposite block just to make it work. And look, I live in a major city; I don't even want to wrap my head around how this works in smaller towns. In those places, teachers don't have enough hours at one school, so they’re bouncing between two or three different ones. There is zero chance you can coordinate all that so it actually works for everyone without someone getting screwed over.

Would you really be just as okay with it if, say, your kid decided to wander off to the corner store during a 45-minute gap in their schedule without anyone watching—and then got hit by a car in a crosswalk? Or would you suddenly go dark and start screaming about why the school let them out in the first place, acting like it was somehow your fault for sending them to class instead of letting them roam the streets alone?
It’s honestly wild how many parents sing the exact same tune when everything is going smoothly, but the second something actually goes wrong, suddenly it’s all the school's fault, they’re the ones responsible, and they should have been babysitting the kid every second...

Or maybe it’s better if some kid just picks her up at the park and starts bullying her while the parents aren't looking? Oh wait, that doesn't happen here. I was just scrolling through the Women's Empowerment Network and reading this thread where half the users were claiming they suffered verbal and psychological abuse from their peers back in the day—traumas they're still carrying around now. Most of them complain about being bullied and isolated during elementary school. Apparently, that was just "how things were" back then. Because clearly, kids today are all sunshine and rainbows and nobody bullies anyone in our schools anymore.

Sending kids to the store without cash????

I don't know about you guys—I always hand my kids the money first before they even head out to the corner store or the bakery....
And yeah.... they walk across the street by themselves whenever I send them....
And yeah..... a car could totally hit them right then, too..... and yeah, I can't help but worry about my poor kids....

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briskbison55 said:I mean, Isaac Newton wouldn't exactly agree with that claim. Neither would Faust Vrančić or Roger Bacon.

I can't say I've ever heard any of them weigh in on whether religious education belongs in the public school system.

Sarah Hall53 said:Would you really be just as okay with it if, say, your kid decided to wander off to the corner store during a 45-minute gap in their schedule without anyone watching—and then got hit by a car in a crosswalk? Or would you suddenly go dark and start screaming about why the school let them out in the first place, acting like it was somehow your fault for sending them to class instead of letting them roam the streets alone?
It’s honestly wild how many parents sing the exact same tune when everything is going smoothly, but the second something actually goes wrong, suddenly it’s all the school's fault, they’re the ones responsible, and they should have been babysitting the kid every second...

Why on earth would I expect the school or the teachers to watch my kid like a hawk?????
I mean, they aren't at school to act as nannies, and from what I know, schools employ teachers, not daycare workers....
If someone looks out for them because they want to, cool... if not, also cool... it's not their job.....

shadowcrane91 said:Why on earth would I expect the school or the teachers to watch my kid like a hawk?????
I mean, they aren't at school to act as nannies, and from what I know, schools employ teachers, not daycare workers....
If someone looks out for them because they want to, cool... if not, also cool... it's not their job.....

😵

Of course teachers are responsible for watching over students at school.

Is this some kind of joke?

Matthew Young35 said:😵

Of course teachers are responsible for watching over students at school.

Is this some kind of joke?

I have to wonder, isn't twinma actually a teacher by profession? Given that, her posts honestly have a certain eye-opening quality to them.🍿

Michelle Nelson4 said:I have to wonder, isn't twinma actually a teacher by profession? Given that, her posts honestly have a certain eye-opening quality to them.🍿

Nope... I work in childcare... that's not exactly "teaching" by academic standards...
In daycare, it’s all about caretaking and supervision, whereas school is supposedly more about actual education...

I dealt with the same thing—having gaps in my school schedule where nobody was watching us...
So, to me, it feels totally normal...

For the next 11 months, my kids are going to be stuck home alone for an hour or so twice a week when they get back from school until my husband gets off work...
And honestly, I'm fine with that too...

But...
There's always that tiny chance a car might hit them if they run outside...

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Sure, you can always just start over. 🤦

Besides, schools are educational institutions. They aren't babysitting services, but then again, it’s hardly reasonable to expect kids to just look after themselves, especially the little ones in elementary school.

melloworca6 said:Sure, you can always just start over. 🤦

Besides, schools are educational institutions. They aren't babysitting services, but then again, it’s hardly reasonable to expect kids to just look after themselves, especially the little ones in elementary school.

I don't know... I was basically walking around with a key around my neck starting in first grade.
I practically raised myself while my parents were at work... which is like, over 50% of my friend group.

So, to me, this stuff is totally normal.

But honestly, not much feels "normal" these days. For example:
It seriously makes me sick when I see a 7, 8, or 9-year-old whose parents still have to tie their shoes or zip up their jackets for them.

Like, are you kidding me????

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shadowcrane91 said:Why on earth would I expect the school or the teachers to watch my kid like a hawk?????
I mean, they aren't at school to act as nannies, and from what I know, schools employ teachers, not daycare workers....
If someone looks out for them because they want to, cool... if not, also cool... it's not their job.....

Right. That’s why professors volunteer to supervise recess instead of taking a break, grabbing coffee, or just chilling out... 🙄

shadowcrane91 said:I don't know... I was basically walking around with a key around my neck starting in first grade.
I practically raised myself while my parents were at work... which is like, over 50% of my friend group.

So, to me, this stuff is totally normal.

But honestly, not much feels "normal" these days. For example:
It seriously makes me sick when I see a 7, 8, or 9-year-old whose parents still have to tie their shoes or zip up their jackets for them.

Like, are you kidding me????

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My generation worked fine that way too, but you can't compare then to now. I know how much traffic there was back then versus how many cars are on the road today—it's a massive difference. And don't even get me started on anything else.

Look, I'm all for not raising kids to be helpless, and they definitely need to be encouraged to be more independent, but that doesn't mean letting them run around school unsupervised just because there's a risk of someone tripping in a pothole due to this kind of nonsense. If it were some unsolvable problem we just had to accept, fine, but here, it just takes a little bit of common sense and effort to organize things differently.

melloworca6 said:My generation worked fine that way too, but you can't compare then to now. I know how much traffic there was back then versus how many cars are on the road today—it's a massive difference. And don't even get me started on anything else.

Look, I'm all for not raising kids to be helpless, and they definitely need to be encouraged to be more independent, but that doesn't mean letting them run around school unsupervised just because there's a risk of someone tripping in a pothole due to this kind of nonsense. If it were some unsolvable problem we just had to accept, fine, but here, it just takes a little bit of common sense and effort to organize things differently.

There’s always some staff member wandering the halls anyway... at least in my kids' school, they're popping in and out every 10-15 minutes like clockwork.

I don't see why that wouldn't be fine. Are we seriously saying they strictly need constant supervision and someone to micromanage their entire 45-minute period????
Or maybe even more often if you know there's someone around who's prone to causing trouble????

In my kids' school, it’s a revolving door of janitors and cafeteria workers, and the principal spends more time in the hallways than in his actual office......

Personally, I think it's totally fine....

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shadowcrane91 said:There’s always some staff member wandering the halls anyway... at least in my kids' school, they're popping in and out every 10-15 minutes like clockwork.

I don't see why that wouldn't be fine. Are we seriously saying they strictly need constant supervision and someone to micromanage their entire 45-minute period????
Or maybe even more often if you know there's someone around who's prone to causing trouble????

In my kids' school, it’s a revolving door of janitors and cafeteria workers, and the principal spends more time in the hallways than in his actual office......

Personally, I think it's totally fine....

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Good grief. If the law dictates that a six or seven-year-old has to be sent to school, then damn it, I expect someone to actually watch them. I don't want a janitor darting around just to make sure a kid hasn't stuck their fingers in an outlet. We aren't talking about fourteen or fifteen-year-olds here; we are talking about children who barely know how to write their own names. Of course, the school needs to provide supervision, but that should be handled by qualified professionals, not the cleaning crew or the lunch ladies.div>

Matthew Young35 said:Good grief. If the law dictates that a six or seven-year-old has to be sent to school, then damn it, I expect someone to actually watch them. I don't want a janitor darting around just to make sure a kid hasn't stuck their fingers in an outlet. We aren't talking about fourteen or fifteen-year-olds here; we are talking about children who barely know how to write their own names. Of course, the school needs to provide supervision, but that should be handled by qualified professionals, not the cleaning crew or the lunch ladies.div>

Honestly, this whole issue would be solved if religious studies had the same status as any other elective—like being offered in a different block. Whoever has the class stays in class, and whoever doesn't goes home.

shadowcrane91 said:Can you point out a single place in my posts where I said I'd have a problem with religion class being during the opposite shift....????

I have zero issues with that.....

Take my first graders, for instance...... five of my kids take an elective computer lab taught by our teacher..... three of them don't stay for after-school care...... so they have a one-hour gap before computer lab and just hang out in the hallway..... and nobody's complaining.... everyone just dealt with it.

And how on earth do you know those kids went home and then came back for tech and PE???
Maybe the situation was such that for some families, it wasn't even worth the trip home.

Look, if you don't care about dragging your kid to religion class during the opposite shift, fine. But if some other parent starts losing their mind because their kid only gets an hour of supervision while yours is sitting through religion class—and they’re convinced the whole schedule should be flipped... then honestly, we don't even have a problem here...

Either we got it... 🤔
You only support religious studies in theory during the off-shift...

shadowcrane91 said:I don't know... I was basically walking around with a key around my neck starting in first grade.
I practically raised myself while my parents were at work... which is like, over 50% of my friend group.

So, to me, this stuff is totally normal.

But honestly, not much feels "normal" these days. For example:
It seriously makes me sick when I see a 7, 8, or 9-year-old whose parents still have to tie their shoes or zip up their jackets for them.

Like, are you kidding me????

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You keep hiding behind arguments about homeschooling, but that's not even the point here. You're missing the forest for the trees... trying to prove religion doesn't belong in the public school schedule isn't what this is actually about...
So why don't we just schedule religion as third period, German fourth, and English fifth? It makes zero sense. You’ve got kids taking religion and German who don't even get a break, while the English students get a whole hour gap... or the ones only taking German end up stuck with two hours of nothing... ridiculous...
Yeah, right. Like language teachers actually need to clock in every minute and stick to some rigid schedule...

You already said it yourself—the kids in my kids' class have to wait until AFTER regular school hours just to get some computer time...

There was this kid in my class who went to Islamic studies, and he was constantly wandering the halls causing trouble. One time, some guy from the local mosque came out of the restroom and decided it would be a brilliant idea to toss his backpack right into the toilet...

Both schools where the kids come to my parish for sacrament prep have religious ed right in the middle of the school day... as if there isn't one single school that's just an isolated case...

Look, we only have one single shift for grades 1 through 8 here...
So basically, religious ed can't be scheduled in a different block, and we can't just move everyone to the first or last period... which means it ends up stuck right in the middle of the school day.
And yeah, sure, a staff member—like a teacher or a janitor—might catch them out in the halls if they're wandering around...
But it’s not like they're being supervised for the full 45 minutes.
Honestly? I'm fine with it.

Am I allowed to actually have an opinion and say this is okay to me?????

Or am I supposed to just bow down to your collective consensus and pretend it's a huge problem????

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At my school, we only have one shift, so all the electives end up being in the afternoon (except for religion class, obviously 🙄).

shadowcrane91 said:Look, we only have one single shift for grades 1 through 8 here...
So basically, religious ed can't be scheduled in a different block, and we can't just move everyone to the first or last period... which means it ends up stuck right in the middle of the school day.
And yeah, sure, a staff member—like a teacher or a janitor—might catch them out in the halls if they're wandering around...
But it’s not like they're being supervised for the full 45 minutes.
Honestly? I'm fine with it.

Am I allowed to actually have an opinion and say this is okay to me?????

Or am I supposed to just bow down to your collective consensus and pretend it's a huge problem????

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If you work at a school, you don't get to have that luxury.