Madam, - The class is "instructed to believe". This phrase was used by Michael Dungan in his letter (April 24th) on the continuing divisions on religious instruction at Dunboyne gaelscoil. At the recent INTO conference, the phrase used was "teaching as truth".
Children should not be taught in school anything supernatural "as truth". They must, instead, be taught how to decide for themselves what they believe in. Children should be taught "as truth" only that which can be shown to be true.
The present arrangements are clearly not working. You might have thought that the current level of Christian religious instruction entwined in the primary curriculum would produce young people who conducted themselves in accordance with that religion's code of behaviour towards others. "Love thy neighbour," Jesus said.
But many pupils, according to teachers at the INTO conference, are not behaving in a manner that would impress Jesus very much.
A Welsh head teacher once told me that he felt the most important thing was "to teach the children to care".
Replacing religious instruction with the driver education programme recommended by the former Minister for Education Michael Woods's in-depth feasibility study would reduce the number of deaths on the road by teaching consideration for other road users.
Replacing religious instruction with the environmental studies recently recommended by An Taisce would result in a populace that was no longer "one of the most confused countries within Europe when it came to environmental problems - 12th in the European league table". Appropriate environmental education would result in young people who cared about the environment. - Yours, etc.,
DEBRA E. JAMES, Cummerduff, Gorey, Co Wexford.