France Grapples with Teaching Religion in Schools Amid Secularism Concerns

"There will always be a parent who is outraged to see extracts from the Bible or the Quran in a textbook, or to learn that students will be visiting a church or a synagogue."

This is how Isabelle Saint-Martin, author of the book "Can we talk about religions at school?", addressed, in an interview with LCI, one of the reasons that explains the controversy around the teaching of religions at school. However, she believes that the debate should not be avoided, as this contributes to fighting stereotypes.

The specialist also recalled that the "Debray Report", commissioned and published in 2002 by Jack Lang, after the September 11 attacks, already emphasized the importance of recognizing and teaching religious facts at school.

In other words, "talking about religious facts rather than religion allows to clarify a rather sensitive point, namely that it is not a question of giving students a specific course in the history of religions, for example, one hour on Christianity, Judaism or Islam," she said.

Isabelle Saint-Martin also recommends that "we could further exploit the possibilities offered by works of art to address religious facts." Especially since "by studying a painting or a sculpture, we are immediately led to see something concrete, we are immediately situated in an era, a given time." According to the specialist on the subject, this could contribute to the appeasement of the debate.