Christian hostility in schools: growing hostility in Austria!

Christian hostility in schools: growing hostility in Austria!

Wien, Österreich - In Austria, the situation for Christian students and teachers is alarming at elementary schools. These people are becoming increasingly exposed to hostility and discrimination. A teacher reported that a student named Christian was laughed at because of his name. In addition, it is striking that in ethics lessons are increasingly made statements that indicate "Christian hatred". For example, children expressed the desire to "kill" Israel and referred to a worksheet with the Davidstern while they called, "Islam is the best and only religion".

These incidents reflect a deeper problem. In the school playground there is between the children between "Muslim or Christ?" Differentiated, and questions like "Do you eat pig?" are the order of the day. The case of a child who cried when it learned that his favorite teacher is Christin was also worrying. In view of such extreme attitudes, affected teachers demand the introduction of a mandatory ethics lesson from elementary school.

religious fundamentalism and prejudices in schools

As the teacher continues, she observes religious-foundal attitudes among her students, who come not only from Islam, but also from Orthodox and Coptic Christianity. These settings are very pronounced; In this way, students expressly prejudices towards homosexuals and speak out for such discrimination. For example, a student said that he would violate a gay son and received approval from his classmates.

These problematic settings are also manifested in violent actions, such as burning rainbow flags. Teachers at vocational schools in Vienna notice a similar trend. Statements about women reflect a subordinate role that is justified in the context of religious teachings, especially from the Koran. Despite these alarming developments, no ethics lessons are planned in the current government program, and parties such as the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS are not planning to expand this subject to the whole secondary level.

The role of ethics lessons in education

Ethics lessons have established itself as an important part of the education system in Germany, especially in the past few decades. It conveys values, knowledge of religions and worldviews as well as philosophical questions. Ethics lessons serve as a replacement for students without religious instruction and is designed differently depending on the state: as a compulsory elective or a decent subject. It should be neutral and enable the students to reflect on and question the students, which is particularly important in terms of the prejudices and discrimination observed in Austria, as in an essay by Agnes Gmoser specialist portal pedagogy reports that ... .

In Germany, there are also many efforts to expand ethics lessons into a compulsory subject, especially in federal states such as North Rhine-Westphalia. This shows the potential to reduce prejudices and to encourage pupils to take a respectful examination of various worldviews and religions, which should also be an important orientation for Austrian education policy wikipedia explains that ... .

While countries like Germany have introduced as a strategic instrument to promote tolerance and understanding in recent decades, Austria remains after this regard. Teachers criticize the missed opportunity to expand such educational offers in order to reduce prejudices against various religious communities and to promote respectful exchange among the students.