Interview
On March 1st, Lena Bröder will resume and complete her traineeship to become a teacher of Catholic religion in the secondary schools of Münster: she had stopped it when she had to go on a tour of the country after having been crowned “Miss Germany” in 2016. Now, despite her very real chances of finding her place in show business or in fashion, she decided to go back to her teaching job. In a long interview on the website of the German Catholic Church, katholisch.de, she spoke of the current challenges to religious education and of her choices. “When I became Miss Germany, I had already completed over one half of my traineeship, and this motivates me”, said Bröder, who pointed out that her choice does not mean to disavow what she experienced: “Religious education lives on experience. At first, the kids will probably be intrigued – Bröder said –, and curiosity is exactly what we, as teachers, want of our students, always”. Looking at the problem of the critics made to religious teaching in schools, the teacher pointed out that “there are religious and Biblical topics but one also studies issues such as the meaning of life, love, life and death. These are matters everyone is interested in. And generally one should tell critics that religious education is sanctioned by the Constitution”. According to Lena Bröder, “the beauty in teaching religion is that you can link it to anything” and “classes are no longer boring”.
