I was in a rural state school that taught RI years 1-6 starting 1997. My brothers and I had the good fortune of being excused from these classes, but that was a battle hard fought by my ideological parents.
Most didn’t bother.
It ruined any goodwill between the school and my family.
So what did I get with these extra 40 hours a year of schooling? A mix of sitting in the library sometimes semi-supervised sometimes not, sometimes sitting in the back of the room where the RI was taking place. Only for about a term was there any programme attempted, when we were about 6 kids opting out (which is a pedagogical nightmare when you think it through) this was quickly abandoned.
It’s nuts. It needs to end.
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