So you weren't taught it in RS?

The only time religion was mentioned was in my world history class when we did a unit on it in high school. The thing was we really only went over some similarities, differences and the rest was its historical significance...so i guess it doesn't apply to the topic much but I never had to take a religious studies class. My university "requires" one, though apparently I can take another class to substitute it.

And this is all in America..?

At my school we are not required to take a religious studies class, in fact we don't even have one.

Wow... At my old high school we had to take a half course GCSE in RS.

I don't think it should be required. It would be fine as an extra-curricular. Then again, I suppose it doesn't hurt to study religion, but it doesn't really serve a purpose in our learning process and therefore should not be required.

I agree, it was a waste of an hour a week and nobody bothered to revise for the exam.

Where do you live? That's ridiculous that they would require such a class.

Lancashire, England

Ah, that's surprising. I live in the U.S. Are people more religiously diverse there? I can see why you might have an RS class.

Yeah, a huge religious diversity were I live. Our course was centered around Christianity and Islam. I mean, it's to be expected considering the U.S. has tighter immigration laws in comparison to the UK's. But still, nobody in my year really cared. A few kids opted to take it as a full course but I just saw it as a waste of a GCSE.

I can see a religiously diverse area supporting religious studies. It promotes religion in general. In the U.S. most people are either Christians or Atheists. There are others of course, but very few. We don't have RS because Christians have private schools and religious extra-curricular acticities, and Atheists probably wouldn't support it either. So it's not really something I've had any experience with it.

Yeah we have religious schools here too. In fact, I attended a Christian primary school and sixth form.

Was it required or did your parents make you go? It sounds ridiculous that a Christian school would be part of public education.

The primary school is in my village, so it was the only one I could attend. As for my sixth form, I optionally chose to go there, I was not forced into it.

The school thing makes sense then, but what is sixth form?

After high school (which we finish at 16) we can go to college for 2 years or sixth form for 2 years where we study Advanced levels or courses in stuff like health care or train as electricians etc. After this two year period, we apply to university (however, this is generally only possible if you study A-levels). Note: GCSE's are general certificates in secondary education (everyone does these). A-levels (advanced levels) are, as the name implies, a higher qualification and are generally required to apply to university (only the more able students do these, generally B grade and above). At colleges, you get a mix of people doing A-levels and other various courses (e.g. a course in media, or mechanics) with only some progressing to do a university degree. At a sixth form however, everyone studies A-levels with most of the students going on to get degrees at university. Sixth form is also harder to get into then college, to get into my sixth form you had to achieve 5 A grade GCSE's, where as colleges generally accept students that have C grade or below. Consequently, this is the first real split in UK education based on intelligence.

That's pretty fascinating. I had no idea our education systems were so different between our countries.