Quote:
Originally Posted by Schroeder
Well actually all religious classes were voluntary were I went to school. You could either do the religious stuff or something called "Werte und Normen" (might translate into "Values and Norms"  . |
School has changed drastically in Germany over the past 25 years. I finished Abitur in 1985, and changes came in several different waves of politic and pedagogic experiments since then (which all failed, imo). What age are you? Maybe that explains the differences in our experiences. Back at my time, in three different federal states and 4 different schools that I witnessed, religion always was meant to be mandatory, either Protestantic or Catholic. You needed a special request by the parents that needed to be accepted by the school's director, in order to get freed from the duty to go there. I did it my own way, although not with the explicit intention to get freed: I asked so many and intense critical questions that I got kicked out for the remaining year, in three classes. There was a school conference, my parents had to talk with the director, they refused for principal reasons to sign a declaration that they were asking the school to free their son from religious classes for confessional reasons (although back then they still were members of the church), and a lot of further tam-tam took place. It must not be pointed out that I remained unimpressed, and they finally gave up and simply fired me from all religious classes to come, treating the case silently as if my parents had requested it. It seemed to me a critical reflection of religion and it's institutions was not welcomed. There is nothing like starting young
Oh, and I talked my parents into leaving church membership behind, some years later.
