The debate about religious teaching in schools came to a head this week when surveys suggested that Irish children don't know even the basics of Catholicism, writes Louise Holden.
John Carr of the Irish National Teachers Organisation called this week for a complete overhaul of the religious education system, and the introduction of a broad programme of religious education alongside instruction in specific faiths.
Meanwhile, in the pages of the Irish Catholic, there's a running debate about the merits of the current religious education programme for primary children, Alive-O, which one teacher complained required a dose of LSD to teach.
Gina Connolly, a Dublin primary teacher, explains why the Alive-O series of textbooks, in use in Catholic schools since 1996, has such a psychedelic reputation.
"The series doesn't teach the Catholic faith. At the end of the Alive-O programme the pupil does not have the knowledge required of a Catholic. With other subjects, such as maths or English, teachers have a number of programmes to choose from. This programme is a one-horse show."
The problem, according to Connolly, is that the series overlooks hard concepts such as original sin and the meaning of the Catholic Mass in favour of softer subject material. "Knowledge of the faith is essential if students are to continue with the faith beyond school," she says.
A poll carried out by the Iona Institute and the Evangelical Alliance revealed this week that some basic elements of Catholic teaching are lost on the average 15- to 24-year-old. Only 5 per cent of those surveyed could name the first commandment, compared with 25 per cent in the wider population. Only 10 per cent could explain the term Immaculate Conception, and one in three 15- to 24-year-olds did not know what Easter was supposed to celebrate.
This revelation has put fear in the hearts of some Catholics. Without a collective epiphany in adulthood, this youngest generation will not carry the basic teachings of the church into the 21st century.
This fear is compounded by an MRBI/RTÉ survey published this week, in which four out of five Irish parents said they would let their children choose their own religion rather than compel them to join the Catholic Church.
In the pages of the Irish Catholic, the debate about the teaching of religion at primary school has gradually generated more heat since Sr Anne Nealon wrote an ostensibly benign article in defence of the programme last January. Her call for parents and teachers to appreciate what the colourful, child-friendly series has to offer was met by a barrage of counter opinion pieces and letters to the editor accusing the Alive-O programme of paying as much respect to catechesis "as The Da Vinci Codedoes to scripture".
"Whatever are our Catholic schools at?" asked an incensed Martin Daly, president of the John Paul II society, in the March 15th issue of the Irish Catholic. "Witches, fairies, aliens, sex ed, all part of catechesis. Pity the unfortunate teachers who have it foisted on them across the country."
Brendan O'Reilly is the National Director of Catechetics, and he was central to the creation of the Alive-O series. He has taken on the critics in the Irish Catholic and is happy to defend the programme, but admits that it is in need of review.
"The present programme dates from the 1970s. It was originally conceived by the bishops and has been reviewed three times since then. In the meantime we have seen the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the General Directory of Catechesis. It is time for the syllabus to be reviewed in line with these developments, and we are currently working on a new syllabus, which we expect to become available in about 18 months."
Unlike the old religious education syllabus, this new version will be publicly available. This will change the delivery of religious education, as it will allow educational publishers and other groups to create their own takes on the syllabus and offer a choice to schools, which will then allow different bishops in different dioceses to choose unique programmes of religious instruction for their own schools.
Brendan O'Reilly is keen to point out, however, that the new syllabus will not reduce the teaching of religion to the nuts and bolts of catechism, despite current complaints about the Alive-O series. "The catechism of the Catholic Church is divided into four sections: what Catholics believe, what Catholics celebrate, how Catholics live and how Catholics pray. In former times, people believed that teaching religion was a matter of knowledge. One major insight of the new General Directory of Catechesis is that there is a great deal more to the communication of the faith than simply passing on knowledge."
IT SEEMS UNLIKELY, then, that calls for the return of hard concepts such as hell and original sin to the classroom will be answered. It may be the case that individual bishops, if they are so inclined, will be able to extract a knowledge-based version of Catholic teaching from the syllabus that is produced next year, and do away with some of the more "holistic" approaches to religious education that are currently in vogue.
"At the moment there is an effective monopoly on the teaching of religious education in Catholic primary schools," says Raymond Topley, head of the department of religious studies in St Patrick's College in Drumcondra. "I think that critics are justified in saying that there is a cause for concern with the current programme. It relies too much on human experience and not enough on doctrinal matters. From recent correspondence in the Irish Catholic and elsewhere it would seem that there are parties interested in producing their own books, using their own methodologies."
Meanwhile, teachers will continue to struggle with the fact that they must teach changing populations of pupils with a variety of faith backgrounds and none, using a programme that is based (some would say loosely) on Catholicism. Any primary teacher that wants to teach in a Catholic school must do a diploma in religious education as part of their teacher training. Given that the overwhelming majority of national schools are under Catholic management, this means that teachers of all faiths and none must take the diploma if they are to have a realistic chance of getting a job.
It's a tough call for a teacher who doesn't practise Catholicism. "I spent the first couple of years in the job feeling like a real hypocrite," says one Dublin teacher who, for obvious reasons, prefers to remain anonymous. "However, I've come through that and have found a way to reconcile myself to the task. You can view religion as a teachable phenomenon or as something that gets you out of bed in the morning. I've picked the former."