Author: Woodward

Teaching Buddhism at Key Stage Three

Jim Robinson

To hijack a Buddhist simile, all
syllabuses for Religious Education are
like fingers pointing to the moon.
They are not designed to provide detailed
lesson plans or even schemes of work but are
frameworks round which each individual
teacher weaves some form of coherent pattern
that matches the specific needs of pupils in
their particular school. What is taught will
then depend on the RE teacher’s specialist
skills (or lack of them), time allocation, pupil
groupings and resources.

Although Buddhism is one of the major world faiths that can
be taught alongside Christianity, it tends to be a ‘poor
relation’ amongst the six world religions commonly taught in
schools. There are several reasons why this should be so:
lack of places of worship to visit; lack of suitable visitors;
lack of confidence on the part of the RE teachers or support
teachers; lack of suitable resources. Nevertheless, teaching 
Buddhism can and should be the same as teaching about
any other world religion.

The statutory conference for religious education set up by
the local SACRE in order to write an Agreed Syllabus
should have representation from each faith
community, including the Buddhist community. 
So technically speaking, Buddhists
have had some say in the formation of
Programmes of Study within the agreed
syllabus. This is certainly the case within my
own LEA of Oxfordshire and with the SCAA
Model syllabuses during 1992-3 in which six
working groups representing the six world
faiths of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism,
Islam, Judaism and Sikhism met to define the
key areas of knowledge considered appropriate
for pupils at the different Key Stages of study.
The Working Group Report was the result of a
brief in which representatives from each faith
community were asked if they had to choose the key things
they would expect or wish their own children to know and
learn at each Key Stage what would they be ? The Buddhist
working group chose the Three Jewels - Buddha, Dharma
(Buddha’s teachings) and Sangha (the community of
believers) to be developed at each Key Stage. So, for
example, at Key Stage 3, pupils would be expected to
learn that Buddha is an enlightened being who understood 
the truth about the way things are and that he discovered 
the way to overcome suffering and unhappiness
(dukkha). In the story of his enlightenment pupils should
learn that the Prince Siddhartha Gotama gave up everything in
search for the way to end suffering, that his
enlightenment was a source of compassion and
wisdom and that all living things have the
potential for enlightenment but that humans
are best placed to attain it. While learning
about the Dhamma/Dharma or teaching, pupils
should learn about the teachings of the Buddha
as exemplified in the Dhammapada (the most
famous scripture of the Buddhist canon
including the Four Noble Truths and the
Noble Eightfold Path), Buddhist practice
such as living by the Five Precepts, festivals
and daily ceremonies, types of meditation
and its purposes. Finally, while learning about
the Sangha or community of believers/monks
and nuns the Report recommends teaching
about the ordained functions (eg. to teach,
guide and counsel) and lay person’s function
(eg to work towards enlightenment).

It is worth noting, however, that the model
syllabuses are not mandatory but rather
exemplary and can be either taken on board
wholly or partially by LEAs seeking to
formulate new agreed syllabuses, or ignored
altogether in the case of those LEAs who
already have their own agreed syllabus. There
are two Models. Model 1 is structured on the
knowledge and understanding of what it
means to be a member of a faith community,
while Model 2 is structured on key beliefs of
religions. The key beliefs of each religion in
Model 2 are set out in progressive stages from
Key Stages 1 to 4 with suggestions as to how
these may be explored in relation to children’s
experiences. Examples of the latter when
studying Buddhism at Key Stage 3 may vary
from encouraging pupils to think about events
that change people’s lives (when studying the
life of the Buddha), the value of stillness and
quiet (when studying meditation), and how we
learn from example (when studying the role of
the Sangha). This highlights the leitmotif of
the entire Syllabus range -that pupils should
learn about religion as well as from religion.
Also included are Model Attainment Targets
and a very useful Glossary of Terms. There is
an Alternative Model but this is only available
on request from those who drafted it and not
officially through SCAA. It presents a
thematic approach to world faiths and is more
limited in scope than the two official Models.

The Oxfordshire Agreed Syllabus for RE
states that at Key Stage 3 pupils will continue
to explore the beliefs that underlie religious
practice and start to relate behaviour,
experience and belief to each other. The main
Attainment Statement at this Key Stage is for
pupils to ‘be able to make connections
between religious belief and practice’. This
involves expressing their own ideas using
evidence and argument and recognising why
others have different views. Pupils should be
encouraged to build upon their own personal
experiences and to develop an awareness and
tolerance of the views of others. The
components of the Programmes of Study which
are known by the useful acronym CASK
(concepts; attitudes; skills; and knowledge)
encourage reflection, consideration and
thought as a prelude to discussion, expressing
feelings and responses in creative ways,
listening to others, making connections and
seeing things at a deeper level. All these are
ways in which RE contributes to the ‘spiritual,
moral and cultural development ‘ of the pupil.
At this level there are aspects of Buddhism and
specifically Buddhist practice such as loving
kindness, compassion, not harming living
beings (ahimsa) that lend themselves to this
kind of ‘development’. The Model Syllabuses
dwell on spiritual development as an area of
attainment also. They speak of the
development of beliefs, a sense of awe, a
search for meaning and purpose, self-
knowledge and self-respect, creativity, feelings
and emotions. A Buddhist speaker who is
interviewed about what it means to be a
Buddhist or initiates a discussion with a group
of pupils on aspects of practising Buddhism
would undoubtedly encourage this kind of
learning about religion and learning from
religion that the Model Syllabuses talk of.

The programmes of Study within the
Oxfordshire Agreed Syllabus can be taught
separately or brought together. For example,
while teaching about the life of the Buddha
(the Programme of Study ‘Forms of Religious
Authority/founders’) one can also teach about
reverence towards the Buddha, Dhamma,
Sangha and the Five Precepts (‘How Religious
People Express their Beliefs’), the Buddha
image, the stupa, the Wheel of Life, the Wheel
of the Law (‘Symbolic Meanings’) as well as
the Three Jewels (‘Main Beliefs’). It is also
possible to teach one aspect of Buddhism, for
example Rites of Passage and the role of the
Buddhist monk (‘How Religious People
Express their Beliefs’).

One of the topics I teach in Year 9 (Key Stage
3) at my own school is on Buddhist Monks
within the Programme of Study ‘How
Religious People Express their Beliefs’. The
Attainment Statement for this is:

‘understand how personal commitments have
effects on an individual’s actions and those of
others’.

THE CASK ARE AS FOLLOWS:
C-dana (giving), ahimsa (not harming living
beings), precepts (promises), ordination
A-consider own beliefs and values
S-research, discussion, expression of views
and responding in creative ways
K-know how personal commitments affect
individual and others.

THE TEACHING/LEARNING STRATEGIES ARE:
To teach pupils what it means to be a Buddhist
monk by watching video ‘Buddhist Monk’,
taking notes, asking questions. They should be
taught/understand about the robes, shaven
head, alms bowl, lifestyle and outlook of
monks eg alsmgiving shows reverence for the
Sangha (community of monks), what ordination 
involves (receiving new name, robes,
alms bowl, taking 227 precepts, taking refuge
in the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha). Discuss the
precepts eg. not taking alcohol, not stealing,
not lying or gossiping, not killing, the level of
commitment involved in becoming a monk.
Read textbook Looking for Happiness to get
idea of way to find true happiness and enlightenment 
(seeing things as they really are)
via the Four Noble Truths. This is important for
writing the letter about finding true happiness.

THE RESOURCES ARE:
Video:	Believe it or Not: ‘Buddhist Monk’
Textbook: Looking for Happiness
slides on Buddhist monk in Thailand
poster of ordination + head shaving ceremony
from RE Today magazine.

THE METHODS OF ASSESSMENT ARE:
Homework- ‘Man is his own master, in charge
of his destiny.’ Do you agree ? (essay).

Or

Write a letter to a friend about finding true
happiness (advice and reasons).

or

A day in the Life of a Buddhist Monk.

In my own school, after watching the Believe
it or Not video about ‘Buddhist monk’ in
which an ordinand states that ‘Man is his own
master, in charge of his destiny’, I asked Year
9 pupils to write a short response to the saying
about being in charge of one’s destiny, and one
pupil responded as follows:

“I do not personally agree with this statement.
To a certain degree yes you are the person in
charge of your destiny but there are more
things which could deter you from it or ruin it
completely than there are things which make
your life go as planned. There are many
examples eg if you wanted to join the RAF but
find out you cannot because your eyesight is
not perfect or if you wanted to join the army
but one day have a fatal accident or turn out
disabled. These are both things which are not
planned but still can happen to anyone.”

Another responded about how Buddhists find
true happiness as follows:

“Buddhists have many ways in which they find
happiness but they all fall into the category of
what is called Nirvana or enlightenment.
Enlightenment stands for seeing things as they
really are, to see the light. Nirvana is to stop
suffering and put it out, Buddhists do a lot of
meditation. This is said to be the key to open
the door to enlightenment. It helps them to let
go, see things as they really are, to see their
problems and the world’s problems as they
really are and to work on them.”

There are therefore many opportunities within
the teaching and learning about Buddhism at
Key Stage 3 that allow pupils to learn about
and learn from Buddhism. It is up to the RE
specialist and even the non-specialist RE
teacher to take the plunge and in a very
Buddhist way, try it for themselves rather than
take someone’s word for it.