On Religious Education
Understanding the importance of religious education from an early age opens doors of stability and emotional balance for children...
People receive their religious education usually within the family framework, or at school, from priests and teachers. All these sources work together for transmitting religious values to the next generations and for generating proper and civilized behavior.
The most solid kind of religious education is one that is acquired in the family, from a very early age, and then to be continued during school years and strengthened by activities organized by Church and society. During religion classes, kids get educated in the spirit of honesty, of promoting moral values, of loving God.
There are vivid echoes planted in the minds and souls of the young children who start acquiring moral values such as kindness, obedience, diligence, patience, love for the truth and justice. The connection with God is an irreplaceable, indissoluble thing, and one could even say that a school timetable without religion classes is like a body without a soul. Maybe the reason why teenagers and youth today feel so disoriented and misplaced is that they lack any root or connection with their ancestors, which could have been made through passing on religious truths and values on to the next generations. If we say that without religion we can be free and democratic, we are only fooling ourselves, for there are other things that take up our minds and souls: consumerism, television, the illusionary world created by the movie industry, the so-called "spirit of the age", and so on.
Unfortunately, we tend to overestimate ourselves and our spiritual resources when claiming to be free-spirited and outside the religious realm. We cannot even survive when being isolated from each other, much less without any spiritual support whatsoever. And we need to be given moral and religious directions starting from a very early age. Religious education should start from pre-school and primary school age. Education in general is an evolving, complex process developed in several stages and having precise objectives for the purpose of forming and developing intellectual, moral and physical skills of kids and youth, of people in our society.
Throughout the centuries, general education has been closely related to religious education. Thus, in ancient times, in the East, schools were generally located close to temples. In Western countries, monasteries were cultural centers around which there were schools both for future clerics (internal schools), and for ordinary people (external schools). In Romania for instance, even from the 11th century there were schools for preparing priests which were located close to monasteries and bishop centers, where they taught in Latin, Greek and Slavonian.
There are many universal thinkers that stressed the importance of religion and its education. In the Romanian context for instance, the cultural philosopher and aesthetician named Tudor Vianu wrote about the interaction of values and stated that, whereas other fields may have an integrative value, religion is in fact a value that gives an integrating meaning to the other fields of knowledge.
By religious education we have to try to cultivate the spirit and the mind. It helps us build a system of spiritual, ethical, aesthetic values depending on each individual's personality and to materialize this system in integrating behavior in the life of the community we belong to and of society in general. While we are aspiring to perfection, we compare ourselves with the divine being, with God because He is the only existential educational model. In the process of spiritual growth, religious education is not unilateral; it can be enhanced by strengthening premises from civic, aesthetic and moral education. Researches in the field of child psychology have revealed the fact that moral-religious education is possible from the earliest age, and pre-school kids with their will and characters features in full development are very receptive to grown-ups' influences.
If moral education stands for that part of the kid's preparation for life process that has as a purpose the knowledge, understanding and practicing of good in social life and adjusting to community life, religious education should be regarded as being closely related to moral education. Moral-religious education should start from the very first life years of the child. Then it should be continued depending on the child's development level, in order to form certain impressions, behavior skills and feelings into the kid's soul and mind and help him become a person who is open to communion with God and his fellow-beings.
The most solid kind of religious education is one that is acquired in the family, from a very early age, and then to be continued during school years and strengthened by activities organized by Church and society. During religion classes, kids get educated in the spirit of honesty, of promoting moral values, of loving God.
There are vivid echoes planted in the minds and souls of the young children who start acquiring moral values such as kindness, obedience, diligence, patience, love for the truth and justice. The connection with God is an irreplaceable, indissoluble thing, and one could even say that a school timetable without religion classes is like a body without a soul. Maybe the reason why teenagers and youth today feel so disoriented and misplaced is that they lack any root or connection with their ancestors, which could have been made through passing on religious truths and values on to the next generations. If we say that without religion we can be free and democratic, we are only fooling ourselves, for there are other things that take up our minds and souls: consumerism, television, the illusionary world created by the movie industry, the so-called "spirit of the age", and so on.
Unfortunately, we tend to overestimate ourselves and our spiritual resources when claiming to be free-spirited and outside the religious realm. We cannot even survive when being isolated from each other, much less without any spiritual support whatsoever. And we need to be given moral and religious directions starting from a very early age. Religious education should start from pre-school and primary school age. Education in general is an evolving, complex process developed in several stages and having precise objectives for the purpose of forming and developing intellectual, moral and physical skills of kids and youth, of people in our society.
Throughout the centuries, general education has been closely related to religious education. Thus, in ancient times, in the East, schools were generally located close to temples. In Western countries, monasteries were cultural centers around which there were schools both for future clerics (internal schools), and for ordinary people (external schools). In Romania for instance, even from the 11th century there were schools for preparing priests which were located close to monasteries and bishop centers, where they taught in Latin, Greek and Slavonian.
There are many universal thinkers that stressed the importance of religion and its education. In the Romanian context for instance, the cultural philosopher and aesthetician named Tudor Vianu wrote about the interaction of values and stated that, whereas other fields may have an integrative value, religion is in fact a value that gives an integrating meaning to the other fields of knowledge.
By religious education we have to try to cultivate the spirit and the mind. It helps us build a system of spiritual, ethical, aesthetic values depending on each individual's personality and to materialize this system in integrating behavior in the life of the community we belong to and of society in general. While we are aspiring to perfection, we compare ourselves with the divine being, with God because He is the only existential educational model. In the process of spiritual growth, religious education is not unilateral; it can be enhanced by strengthening premises from civic, aesthetic and moral education. Researches in the field of child psychology have revealed the fact that moral-religious education is possible from the earliest age, and pre-school kids with their will and characters features in full development are very receptive to grown-ups' influences.
If moral education stands for that part of the kid's preparation for life process that has as a purpose the knowledge, understanding and practicing of good in social life and adjusting to community life, religious education should be regarded as being closely related to moral education. Moral-religious education should start from the very first life years of the child. Then it should be continued depending on the child's development level, in order to form certain impressions, behavior skills and feelings into the kid's soul and mind and help him become a person who is open to communion with God and his fellow-beings.
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