Religion...

...or rather - helping a 13 year old with his homework...

Ben's school likes getting the students to work together in small groups to research a project and then present it to the rest of the class who then participate in grading it.

In Philosophy (which Ben has to take because he opts out of religion on the grounds that we're not) the current subject for research and presentation is religion. A week or so ago he was wondering what religion to suggest to his group, foolishly I mentioned Scientology, and sold it to him on the basis that no one else would dream of doing it. Ben was unsure about it, but then Uncle Ed butted in with the mention of the SouthPark episode...and that was that.

A week later and the work is being done, so I've spent the afternoon being booted off my laptop so that Ben can Google on it while his does other more important things (like trying to track down his recently ordered game) and when I'm not being ousted from my seat I'm being asked to précis the history of the aforementioned 'church'. I don't know why he keeps asking me questions or for my opinion because we have quite different views on what the content should be, Ben doesn't think the dates matter (hmmm, that sounds like my reason for giving up on history XX years ago) and is unsure whether mentioning the fact that L. Ron Hubbard was a science fiction author is relevant.

I'm beginning to think that maybe I should have suggested he do a presentation on a religion that I actually know something about (without having to resort to the internet) like...like...like...shopping - does that count? Or maybe C of E, I bet none of the local kids will be researching that! I guess we should be thankful he decided not to go with Satanism or Paganism (although the research could have been rather interesting.)
I'm quite looking forward to hearing what religions the children chose, but whatever mythical story they decide to present you do have to admire the teacher's choice of theme in the subject pupiled by R.E. opt-outs in the run up to the Easter Bunny weekend!