Sociology Essay Jolene Y.
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Subject: Sociology
Teacher:
Religious Schools
Religion has always been a touchy subject in today’s society, as any inappropriate language used, whether you mean it or not, will be marked down as “racial discrimination”. Thus, religious education in schools has been one of the most debated topics, as it concerns the education of our future generation, and consequently, the future society. Religious schools may prevent students from socializing with students from other religions and give a wrong concept of the society that we live in, but it helps shape children’s morals and improve their academic achievement.
Being stuck in a religious school prevents students from interacting with students of other religion. They’ll have no idea how to deal with people of other religion or even people with no religion at all! Gang fights between ethnic groups and terrorist attacks can be prevented by sending all students to public school. At school, they will be exposed to other religions and cultures, and eventually learn to accept others. The difference between different religions can be eliminated through interaction in a classroom. Giving religious schools preference by separating them and allowing them to study in a different school with a different social background is not only unfair to other students in public schools, but also, in a way, harming the students themselves. They get less exposed to the society they live in, and they are not fully prepared to live in such a society in future. Separate religious schools are seen as “antithetical to Canadian multiculturalism and tolerance, not to mention unity” (Todd, 2009). Religious schools say that having religious students in the same classroom as public students is a sign of racism, as the religious students don’t have their ‘rights’. However, “The curious thing is that, while the existence of Roman Catholics is considered a sufficient reason for spending public money on educational propaganda designed to increase their numbers, the existence of Communists and the existence of freethinkers is not considered any ground for spending public money upon schools designed to instill their opinions into the young” (Russell, 1930). There is no better way to let students of different faiths to get to know each other than being in the same classroom.
