Striking the Equilibrium: A Dialogue between Religious and Secular Education

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Religious education is often seen as contradiction to secular education because of their respective point of views. Their longstanding opposition and separation extend their influence to the current educational system. If the aim of education is to produce holistic individuals, then it must ensure the development of all the aspects of the person by providing balanced educational pedagogy. This is where religious education provides a balancing force to secular education.

METHODS

Since the paper is an ongoing study, it provided the backbone of the whole research enterprise. The nature of the paper is expository and argumentative. It exposed the ideas of different experts and results of studies conducted in foreign educational institutions regarding religious education. The paper argued in favor of integrating religious education in the secular curricula in assuring a holistic education. It provided a basis in applying the current research on the current Philippine educational system.

RESULTS

It is argued that while secular education provides a practical point of view to the students, religious education complements it with proper attitude giving them a chance to reflect on the values promoted making them responsible in their choices and pursuit of values. While both approaches orient in terms of responsibility, secular education touches it in a personal level while religious education discusses it in a wider perspective on the social level. Secular education enhances the person's knowledge and promotes modern technologies as means for personal betterment and progress while religious education provides students an opportunity to balance their needs with social responsibility, educating them to become productive individuals for social action and transformation. Religious education finds a meaningful life built in a hope in God/ Transcendence which is unbounded and last when the hope on technology fails to provide a lasting foundation for a meaningful life.

DISCUSSIONS

In the case of educational thrust, the paper presented how religious education serves as a balancing force in terms of (a) cultivation of values (b) responsibility, and (c) meaning of life. Holistic education can only be achieved if the cultivation of skill is balanced with the cultivation of the human spirit. The former is left in the realm of the secular while the latter is served in the religious sphere.