ABSTRACT
In schools where there are different religions represented among the children then the balance will be different. The ‘giving them the facts’ approach rejects completely the ‘confessional’ approach with its desire to teach children to be Christians. It adopts a completely neutral view of whether religions are true or false; they are around and children ought to know about them. Mosques began to appear in Bradford, Hindu temples in Manchester and Gurdwaras in Middlesex. Visitors walking round primary classrooms noticed that teachers spent less time standing in front of their classes and talking to them and more time moving round the children as they worked. Children were being encouraged to learn from practical activity, to discover things for themselves. To make the adjustment from thinking of religious education as teaching Christianity to thinking of religious education as helping children to understand religion can be difficult for both believers and unbelievers.
