Bias in SOR (1 Viewer)

[mr_brightside]

This is too anyone that attends a religious school..

Do u ever find the topics picked for SOR are always bias to the religion?

eg. i got to holy cross (catholic) and we also seem to be doin 'catholicism in __' and 'christianity blah blah'

tch Studies of Religion? Or Study of Christianity?

 

[fleepbasding]

Yes, this is definitely the case. It is the whole reason why catholic (and other religious) schools make the subject compulsory

 

[Danoz The Great]

That's usually only because the school has the resources - teaching staff, bibles etc - to be able to teach Christianity and Catholicism. Well, that's the case with my school.

 

[fleepbasding]

and this is coming from someone with a really disturbing avatar.

Yeah that is true, about resources- but in SOR 1 we don't use bibles anyway. Teachers can learn to teach other topics pretty easy I reckon. I mean SOR 1 is so basic.

 

[snapperhead]

Um...you go to a Catholic school so why wouldnt you do Christianity? Especially at 1 unit level? I mean, hello...easy marks!

But it should be noted that this isnt the case in most religious background schools (I detest the term "Religious School"), just those of Catholic background. (ie SOR being compulsory)

Read the syllabus. The Christian stuff is more slanted towards Catholicism than any of the other denominations .: that is why most Catholic schools will do Christianity over another religious tradition + studying Christianity will help you with all of your Yr 12 one unit options and content as Christianity flows through all of them

point of interest-> it was the Catholic system that kept SOR going at 1 unit level when they got rid of all one unit courses so be glad you have access to a one unit subject that (if you put some effort in) will give you a good set of marks at the end of the course

BTW:
Read http://www.boredofstudies.org/community/showthread.php?t=65288 noting point 5.
I would hate to lock this thread because of narrow mindedness and ignorance.....

 

[fleepbasding]

Um...you go to a Catholic school so why wouldnt you do Christianity? Especially at 1 unit level? I mean, hello...easy marks!

But it should be noted that this isnt the case in most religious background schools (I detest the term "Religious School"), just those of Catholic background. (ie SOR being compulsory)

Read the syllabus. The Christian stuff is more slanted towards Catholicism than any of the other denominations .: that is why most Catholic schools will do Christianity over another religious tradition + studying Christianity will help you with all of your Yr 12 one unit options and content as Christianity flows through all of them

point of interest-> it was the Catholic system that kept SOR going at 1 unit level when they got rid of all one unit courses so be glad you have access to a one unit subject that (if you put some effort in) will give you a good set of marks at the end of the course

BTW:
Read http://www.boredofstudies.org/community/showthread.php?t=65288 noting point 5.
I would hate to lock this thread because of narrow mindedness and ignorance.....

I don't think any-one was winging about having to do the subject. The discussion was about religious back-ground schools (didn't mean any-thing by "religious schools" either btw) especially catholic schools focusing the content on Christianity. Sure, it may make it easier to get marks, but we've already been over the content in years 7-11. We might learn something new about a culture other than our own, by studying religions other than christianity.

Either way, it was just a discussion.

Oh and that thing about dani danoz avatar was just a joke.

EDIT: Looking at my first post, I may have given the impression of having grievances about the subject. Apologies.

 

[sNiPeR_24]

Let's not forget the fact that Australia is a predominantly Christian country. Although we do have lots of religious diversity, the large majority of the populus is still Christian which would have an incredibly large influence on us having to study the tradition.

 

[acmilan]

I went to a catholic school, the only time we learnt about catholicism specifically is when the syllabus asked about it. If you wanted to specifically learn about catholicism then you would take Catholic studies in my school.

 

[snapperhead]

... especially catholic schools focusing the content on Christianity. Sure, it may make it easier to get marks, but we've already been over the content in years 7-11.

lol..you have answered your own question there

ie
1) Catholic Schools focussing on Christianity 7-11 (duh!)
2) Do Christianity in Yr 11 SOR .: you have to do Christianity in Yr 12 for the options otherwise you have to do twice the work!


It also should be noted that the SOR syllabus does not specifically mention Catholicism anywhere re you must study X, Y, Z except in the Christian Depth Study in Yr 11 where you focus on one variant re beliefs and rituals (otherwise you will be there all year if you have to look at everything)
Im guessing the original poster is in Yr 11 and has just finished the Depth Study

lol

 

[sNiPeR_24]

Exactly, snapper, and let's not forget that people like me who've been to Catholic schools from K - 12 probably find Christianity easier to do because it's our 13th year of studying it! If you're not going to do work on an easy topic you know a lot about (if you're in the same situation as me) then you'd have to be crazy

 

[green_fairy]

I went to a catholic school, the only time we learnt about catholicism specifically is when the syllabus asked about it. If you wanted to specifically learn about catholicism then you would take Catholic studies in my school.

Yeah thats the same as me. The only thing that shits me regarding bias in SOR was the topics we could do for our IRP. My school is a mercy school so what we could do our project on was limited to Catherine Mcauley and the foundation of the sisters of mercy in aus.

 

[skanoodle]

I kinda don't agree with whoever said that Studies of Religion I was slanted much more to catholicism....

I did the HSC for SOR I last year in year 11, so i know the course, etc... its equally slanted to both catholic AND anglican points of view... atleast in the christian parts i.e. (The Expression of Religion in Australia from 1901 to the Present).

P.S. A TIP TO ANYONE DOING SOR I this year....

Get that pinky/purple revise studies of religion I in a month... its is so awesome... it seemed like the past HSC exams have all been written from the book. Its pretty much all you need to know for every part of the exam except for the extended response question.

 

[snapperhead]

I kinda don't agree with whoever said that Studies of Religion I was slanted much more to catholicism....

I did the HSC for SOR I last year in year 11, so i know the course, etc... its equally slanted to both catholic AND anglican points of view... atleast in the christian parts i.e. (The Expression of Religion in Australia from 1901 to the Present).

P.S. A TIP TO ANYONE DOING SOR I this year....

Get that pinky/purple revise studies of religion I in a month... its is so awesome... it seemed like the past HSC exams have all been written from the book. Its pretty much all you need to know for every part of the exam except for the extended response question.

wouid disagree with the thought that the HSC in a month is thebest book...

level is at best a band 3 standard (this has been acknowledged by the authors) and it doesnt cover enough in the foundation studies...especially if you dont do their topics.

Recommend the Macquarie book instead...about the same price and it covers everything

 

[skanoodle]

Band 3 ay ?... i got a 43 - Band 5 hmmmm i wunder how that happened....

 

[snapperhead]

the standard of the book is band 3 (sorry if that wasnt clear..am typing with really banged up hands)..you were obviously bright enough to go beyond the crappy standard of the book+ it isnt really that hard to get at least a band 4 in SOR 1!! (especially if the standard set by the excell book is any guide!)

lol..
btw

I did the HSC for SOR I last year in year 11, so i know the course, etc

how does that worK
Did you do an entire two year course in one year?

 

[skanoodle]

Yeh, I did it accelerated, in that the class combined a whole 2 years of SOR into just 3 terms or so.

What happened was... over the christmas school holidays we had to study up on the whole preliminary course ourselves and face the equivalent of the year 11 yearlies when we started term 1.... and that was before we actually had our first class of SOR. That was the hardest bit.

Then, we did the equivalent of the four terms of year 12 SOR in about 3 terms or less... meaning we got assessment tasks every 5 or 6 weeks i think...

I had no choice whether i did it accelerated or at normal pace because i go to a selective school. (go figure) Amazingly, the range of overall hsc marks for SOR in the class was between 41-45 and there were about 15 ppl in my class.

 

[skanoodle]

Another post, i hope im not getting too far off the topic...

But, i found that the preliminary part of the course was kinda easy to take on, in that I'm a christian myself, so i knew a bit about the history of the church and I had a fair idea on the basic principles Christianity runs on, as well as a little understanding of how some other religions worked and the denominations of the church.

Also, in the extended response question of last years HSC... our teacher convinced us that the ethics option would be specific to a certain type of ethics, such as bioethics, or sexual ethics for example. So, i memorise a 1500 word essay on bioethics and how both Christianity and Buddhism dealt with it. This proved utterly useless... because the question on ethics referred only the sources of ethics. HOWEVER... the question ask to choose one sacred text from one major religion and write an essay about it... (i forgot the exact question)
To cut a long story short, i ended up writing an hsc extended response on the Bible... something that ive read a whole lot, being a christian... i was stoked...

 

[snapperhead]

Another post, i hope im not getting too far off the topic...

But, i found that the preliminary part of the course was kinda easy to take on, in that I'm a christian myself, so i knew a bit about the history of the church and I had a fair idea on the basic principles Christianity runs on, as well as a little understanding of how some other religions worked and the denominations of the church.

Also, in the extended response question of last years HSC... our teacher convinced us that the ethics option would be specific to a certain type of ethics, such as bioethics, or sexual ethics for example. So, i memorise a 1500 word essay on bioethics and how both Christianity and Buddhism dealt with it. This proved utterly useless... because the question on ethics referred only the sources of ethics. HOWEVER... the question ask to choose one sacred text from one major religion and write an essay about it... (i forgot the exact question)
To cut a long story short, i ended up writing an hsc extended response on the Bible... something that ive read a whole lot, being a christian... i was stoked...

and the lesson learnt was to always trust the syllabus and never your teacher!
Sounds like you answered the Sacred Writings question BTW..interesting that you were able to bluff your way through it if it was the SW question

lol

interesting concept re acceleration..wonder why they do it for a 1 unit subject though? (as opposed to an extension subject I mean)
'Spose it frees up time in a twisted way

*gives up trying work out how schools operate*