Religion: Is religion taught or imposed in Chile?
Hello dear readers, I hope you are having a great week.
In this blog, I will talk about religion and what I think
about teaching it in schools.
In Chile, religion classes have been taught since colonial
times, and this was maintained after our country became independent from the
Spanish royalty. At the beginning of the 20th century, with the promulgation of
the 1925 constitution, Chile became a secular state. Therefore, the teaching of
religion in schools was abolished within the official curriculum. This was
maintained until the dictatorship, which in 1983 promulgated Supreme Decree
924, which reinstated the teaching of religion in our country's schools.
On the other hand, when I was in school, I constantly asked
myself if it was necessary to have that subject, because it bored me a lot and
I considered that it was a filler class to keep us in school longer. I was also
against the idea of teaching religion in educational establishments because I
believe that beliefs should be born from oneself and should not be imposed by
others.
Luckily, I was not the only student who thought that way, in
2019 with other classmates, we made a letter demanding the school authorities,
no longer have the subject of religion as mandatory and never again
discriminate against any student for having a different religion.
Unfortunately, the owners of the school did not care much about this and never
took it into account.
To conclude this blog, I believe that teaching religion in
schools is an act of violence because it attacks the beliefs of children, which
should come from themselves. Also, the fact of having religion classes, will
not reinforce their faith and values because both are formed with life
experiences.
I say goodbye, being very attentive to your comments.
Thank you for reading my blog.
Hi Seba, I share your opinion that religion should not be a compulsory subject, but I do not agree that it is a violent act, I even consider that you used a very strong word to describe it. Being part of some religion should be by choice and people who are part of it should not be judged for wanting to teach a little of what they have learned but obviously only to people who want to learn from those teachings. The initiative you took with your colleagues was good because from that each one would make the decision to follow the path they want, but how unfortunate that they have not taken them into account, hopefully one day the owners will reconsider the idea.
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