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On Religious Education

Many parents are concerned about the religious education of their children. But often times they do not realize that religious education is different from moral and spiritual education. Moral education refers to the nurturing of students to appreciate the validity of core values and to help them integrate these values with daily behavior until they become second nature. Spiritual education is the appreciation of the transcendent aspects of life, without necessarily conditioning the mind with dogmas and belief systems that they may need to unlearn later.

Moral and spiritual education are wholesome and are to be encouraged. But schools must be careful with what ordinarily goes as “religious education.” The latter usually means praying in a certain way, or learning biblical stories, or believing in certain ideas of God or sin or salvation. These are forms of indoctrination that usually are not well thought out, and which eventually confuse the young minds.

In one kindergarten school I was involved in, I overheard the religion teacher asking the kids loudly: “Who woke you up this morning?” Then I heard the children answer in unison, “Jesus!” Evidently, that’s how they were taught to answer by this teacher.

After the class I approached the teacher and told her that it seems better that children are not told things that are evidently not true, and I mentioned what I heard from her that morning. I said that it is highly probable that some of them were forced to wake up by their parents or their nannies, and they may have resented such waking up very much. Now they are told that it was Jesus who woke them up. Obviously it is not true, and second, the children may unconsciously transfer their resentment of being forced to wake up to this unknown man called Jesus. The teacher tried to justify it but obviously religious education cannot be taught with well-meaning lies.

Another teacher tells the story of Adam and Eve as our first parents. When these children grow up, their biology teacher will tell them that human beings evolved for millions of years from more primitive species. Which one will they now believe: science or tradition? Usually they accept science and reject the Adam and Eve story, which only makes them doubt their religion more.

In religious education, we must avoid teaching children about things they will eventually need to unlearn. If we need to tell stories from the Bible, tell the children about stories of goodness, like the Good Samaritan. But tell them also about moral tales from other cultures and religions. This will prevent the unconscious development of prejudice against religions outside of one’s immediate environment.

Some teachers ask: How about fairy tales and nursery rhymes? Does it mean that we don’t tell children these stories because they are fictitious? No. Fairy tales are told as fairy tales, not historical facts. As the child grows up, there is no conflict or contradiction involved because they were never told that these were historical facts. But religious stories are a different matter. Even after they have grown up, people are told that these are factual, when in fact they are simultaneously being taught through science and history that some of these things could not have happened.

Many religious beliefs are controversial that theologians themselves debate about their truths for centuries. Let us not feed young children’s mind with things that even theologians are not sure about. Besides there is no need to clutter their young minds with these, such as whether Jesus is God or man, or even who God is. By telling them stories about the acts of the Lord as recounted in the Old Testament, children often develop weird and frightful images of God.

Tell them about goodness, kindness, considerateness, or compassion. If they grow up with these, then they will tend to live the true religious or spiritual life, regardless of whether they grow up Catholics, Baptists, Muslims or Buddhists.

Moral and spiritual teachings should be nonsectarian. It should draw out the natural goodness in children, not indoctrinate them with concepts and beliefs. When a certain age is reached, they are now ready to consider the more conceptual aspects of beliefs. Let them explore these with openness and understanding, rather than be indoctrinated.

What World-View Shall Be Taught?

Should teachers be completely neutral about beliefs and world-views? This is not possible. Any education or system of teaching is necessarily based on a view of the world. Rather than avoid this issue, we must face it with clarity and wisdom.

It is essential for a school to try to integrate knowledge based on time-tested insights or wisdom, and see specific life-skills in their proper perspectives. This in effect will constitute the philosophy or worldview of the school itself.

In doing so, the school must take care that it does not become dogmatic in a narrow sense. A Roman Catholic school will tend to impose a worldview based on the official teachings of the church, while an Islamic school will base it on the Koran. With due respect to the world religions, a sectarian education has its disadvantages, even harmfulness, because it tends to give priority to dogma rather than Truth. A good school must give allegiance to what is true, based on reasonable epistemological norms, above any sectarian doctrines.

To my mind, the school world-view should be rooted in what is known as the perennial philosophy, or ageless wisdom. They are essentially compatible with the deepest principles of all the great religions, without getting confused by theological dogmas. The tenets of such a wisdom include such principles as:

• The unity of life and universal brotherhood – all life is one, and hence the suffering of the world is also our concern. Human beings must avoid causing suffering to other people and creatures.
• The higher and lower nature of the human being – all the great spiritual traditions affirm this dual nature; the higher must be awakened, and the lower purified and integrated with the higher. This is essentially character building in the highest sense.
• The law of cause and effect – our thoughts and actions produce either benefic or malefic results. Each person must be conscious of this law of life and must take care to choose thoughts and behaviors that will not injure others or oneself.
• Responsibility for one’s life – this concerns self-reliance and self-mastery. Human beings must learn to take charge of their own life rather than allow themselves to become unconscious pawns of society as well as the forces of the environment.
• The perfectibility of human life – this concerns the age-old view that from our imperfect state, human beings can grow to levels of maturity variously called self-actualization, self-realization, or perfection.
• The pathway towards perfection – the perennial philosophy affirms the existence of time-tested ways in which such perfection can be attained. It is not secret, nor is it exclusive to any single religion.
• The central role of character – the development of character is an important foundation in education and in life. This is the basis for inner peace, spirituality, social harmony and human happiness.
• Non-violence – the conflicts in life and in the world cannot be solved with violence. Violence is the way of the animal which has not learned reason and higher values.
• Responsible global citizenship – we are all responsible for what happens to the world: wars, crimes, environmental destruction, etc. We must collectively help in making this world a better place to live in.

The perennial philosophy should not be taken as another world-view that competes with other religious views. Rather it is a synthesis of the essentials of wise living. It has withstood the test of time and has found resonance in the minds of the wisest people in history, whether East or West. The educator must have reflected deeply on these issues so that the principles of the wisdom are not simply borrowed but rather have becomes part of one’s own personal insights and wisdom.