ABSTRACT
'Religious education (R.E) is dead, long live citizenship'. This partly humorous, partly fearful comment was scribbled by an R.E. teacher at the end of an in-service course, where she had been studying the connections between religious education, moral education and citizenship. In facing up to such intellectual incoherence, R.E. teachers should resolutely deny themselves the luxury of simply giving in. Instead they should exercise a tough minded realism, which may save both their sanity and their subject. Religious education is ultimately concerned with spiritual issues and questions. The palpable distress and unhappiness of R.E. teachers stems in part from the story of Everybody, Somebody and Nobody. Everybody is supposed to be attending to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils as demonstrated in their responses to community and citizenship. Somebody is meant to be coordinating policy and practice, while Nobody is, for the most part, uncertain what the words mean in terms of action.
