Therapeutic religious education

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The Therapeutic religious instruction (TRU) is a concept of religious education, which was developed in 1971 after the didactic principle of problem-orientation Protestant from the late 1960s, religious education had begun to renew in Germany, which until then from the conception of the "Protestant teaching" was controlled. In addition to the principle of problem orientation, the conception of the TRU owes important insights to psychoanalysis , which are made fruitful in the TRU for both social and school criticism.

Emergence

The term “therapeutic religious instruction” (TRU) was brought up in conversation from 1969 by Dieter Stoodt, professor for religious education in Frankfurt am Main. He was concerned with “the processing of socialization processes” by “stabilizing the damaged people”, their increased “professional competence” and increased “ self-determination ”. Of course, Stoodt did not develop a specific concept. One such was presented in July 1971 by a 12-person religious education vicar's course of study at the Ev. Regional Church in Württemberg in Stuttgart. After three months of work, he published the fundamentals of the TRU together with the course leader Leonhardt Bohn and the course assistant Friedrich Gehring in a special issue of the Stuttgart religious education magazine "draft" with practical examples under the title "for discussion". The main impulses came from Bohn, a secondary school teacher trained in psychagogics and director of studies at the pedagogical-theological center of the Ev. Regional Church in Württemberg. The course assistant Friedrich Gehring, Wuerttemberg vicar , presented the concept in practice through teaching samples at various locations in Baden-Wuerttemberg. a. in the department of in-house television at the Heidelberg University of Education under the direction of Professor Ernst Meyer, where other lessons of course participants were also recorded on video tapes.

Conception

diagnosis

The conception of the TRU is based on the assumption that the conflicts in schools come to a head in religious instruction and that the misery of the school represents the misery of society. In the rapid economic reconstruction after the Second World War, the desire for self-development among those in power and those who were ruled was suppressed by adapting to the pressure to perform and the pursuit of profit, which gave rise to a widespread weakness of the ego, which was promoted by the church through the sermon of uncritical obedience. These social framework conditions regularly lead to the fact that the students had to suppress essential instinctual needs from early childhood due to the repressive and abusive upbringing. The problems and conflicts of children and adolescents are therefore often repressed into the unconscious and are therefore not reached by the cognitive work customary in school or, if spoken to directly, are averted due to the same fears and threats that suggested the rejection in the educational process.

The school therapeutic method

In order to bring the repressed problems and conflicts to the fore, they have to be offered in the media: the problems that have been displaced into the unconscious through stories, pictures or role-plays are approached in such a way that the children and young people can talk about them without speaking about themselves must be able to express oneself in the anonymity of a protective incognito. So z. B. in a conversation about a blind man who hit his dog, indignation can be indirectly developed, also with regard to his own injuries and humiliations. The media are particularly suitable when they offer various possibilities for identification so that the students can all identify themselves as possible; However, in addition to adapted behaviors, there should always be unadapted behaviors so that taboos can be broken linguistically.

The teachers have to forego evaluations and create a space that is as free of domination as possible. On the one hand, they remain for the students representatives of the school's demands for adaptation, but they evade the typical teacher behavior and thus become a puzzle for the classes. But only by renouncing the repressive role of teacher can healing, i.e. H. I-strengthening happen.

Reactions

Apart from the somewhat benevolent opinion of Hartwig Weber, there were more or less violent negative reactions from church and educational science. The Ev. Oberkirchenrat in Stuttgart refused the usual printing fee for the magazine “draft”. Study leader Bohn's influence on vicar training was reduced by significantly shortening the course time. Bohn went back to secondary school, where he soon stopped practicing conception like most of the course participants. Course assistant Gehring was released from his position as an assistant and transferred to a "special school for behavioral disorders" (today "special school for educational assistance"), where he was no longer allowed to give religious instruction.

Further development

In the following years, Stoodt defined the therapeutic aspect of his idea of ​​religious instruction in the sense of a "socialization-accompanying RU with a pastoral accent". As a central goal, he stated that the students should “develop productive conflict and problem-solving behavior”. In doing so, he avoided the harsh school and social criticism and the corresponding violent conflicts with the representatives of the previous school system, which were typical of the Stuttgart concept. His teaching unit for a 9th secondary school class with the title: "Discipline / Self-discipline" is indicative of the primary school students' transition to professional life by supporting them with socialization. For example, the question is dealt with as to whether secondary school students should become young workers or should aim for training.

After the temporary transfer to the special school, Gehring was able to continue working as a religion teacher and parish pastor or pastor for religious instruction in the sense of the Stuttgart conception and to document specific lessons, u. a. publish a two-year teaching process and teaching drafts. The method of making individual and socially repressed things aware and editable through media encryption remained characteristic of his practice. Among other things, special attention is paid to the pedagogical objective of initiating personal development that leads from identification with the aggressor to identification with the victims, whereby the central Christian competence of the ability to empathy and compassion is developed. In this respect, this conception in the current pedagogical discussion is a contribution to competence -oriented lesson planning in religious instruction , which not only imparts intellectual, but also personal Christian competencies in long-term learning processes.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dieter Stoodt, reflections on "therapeutic religious instruction", in: Arnoldshainer Protocols 7.74, ed. v. Evangelical Academy Arnoldshain, responsible: Martin Stöhr, Arnoldshain, p. 5
  2. ↑ On the discussion, special issue of the magazine “draft”, July 1971, p. 2
  3. ↑ On the discussion, special issue of the magazine “draft”, July 1971, p. 4 f.
  4. ↑ On the discussion, special issue of the journal “draft”, July 1971, pp. 6–18
  5. ↑ On the discussion, special issue of the journal “draft”, July 1971, pp. 34–38
  6. ↑ On the discussion, special issue of the magazine “draft”, July 1971, p. 18 f.
  7. ↑ On the discussion, special issue of the magazine “draft”, July 1971, p. 20 f.
  8. ^ Hartwig Weber, Therapeutic Religious Instruction? In: Der Evangelische Erzieher, 25th year, pp. 195–204, Hartwig Weber, student initiative capitalized. New methods in teaching, Stein / Nürnberg 1973, pp. 65–87
  9. ↑ Friedrich Gehring, Overcoming racist violence as a challenge for religious education, in: Deutsches Pfarrerblatt 9/2015, p. 506; pfarrerverband.de - The website for Protestant pastors in Germany March 31, 2016
  10. ↑ Controversial therapy, in: Der Evangelische Erzieher, 25th year, p. 216
  11. ↑ Controversial therapy, in: Der Evangelische Erzieher, 25th year, p. 218
  12. ↑ Der Evangelische Erzieher, 29th year, p. 214
  13. ↑ Deutsches Pfarrerblatt 9/2015, p. 505 ff
  14. ↑ "Christians and the Bundeswehr - Peace-Ethical Assessment of Foreign Operations", in: GierMachtKrieg, material booklet Ecumenical Peace Decade November 6th to 16th, 2011, ed. v. Discussion forum on the Ecumenical Decade of Peace, responsible Wiltrud Rösch-Metzler, Stuttgart, pp. 30–33
  15. ↑ Deutsches Pfarrerblatt 9/2015, p. 508