World Religions Class Elective for Highschoolers?

[Mickey]

I was talking to my cousin about religion and public schools. I said that I didn't think religion belonged there and she disagreed.

I have always felt that to give every religion fair time and justice, you'd spend the entire day teaching religion. And those who advocate prayer and religion in schools usually only advocate THEIR religion and THEIR prayers...if you tried to teach their child about Wicca or Buddhism, they'd have a fit.

Well, my cousin said that she thinks having a Major World Religions class as a high school elective would be a good idea. She said that she found that course in college fascinating. She said it wasn't a class trying to convert you to any religion, it just touched on the world's major religions and their history and effects on various countries and people of the world over the years.

At first I was like, "No way! Religion does not belong in public schools!" But after thinking about it, I don't think I would be opposed to the idea--a world religions elective in high school.

What do you think? Would that work? Or would that be opening a can of worms? Would people then also be wanting electives to be classes specifically in Catholicism, Presbyterianism, Judaism, Hinduism, etc.?

[arianna]

MM! I for one am for teaching children about other faiths and cultures but, perhaps a class strictly on World Religion maybe a bit too much for the average high schooler and/or teacher. Why couldn't they just go into further detail about faith and the different religions while teaching ancient history. This is possibly the best way to incorporate the daily life experiences and home life, ie. religion, chores, diet, family interaction, into a class where it can be seen in context. You wouldn't be comparing one religion to another and it would be ideal to allow the student to see the evolution of our modern day religions as well.

A class lesson plan and information the children receive are only as good as the teacher. Although there is a base of information a teacher must cover in the year, it's up to him/her to decide how they choose to present the material. That could mean spending one week focusing on what are deemed "undesirable" religions and spending the remainder of the time focusing on what he/she feels is the best religion. This may be fine if you agree with their beliefs. If not, what choice would you have as a parent. Do you step up and speak up against it ? Doesn't that bring us right back full circle to where we are right now deciding if a World Religion class is a good idea ?

Not everyone in life no matter how much they preach about the subject themselves, are as open minded as they claim to be, especially when it involves their children.

ßß!

[KarlaB]

I actually had a religions class in high school and we visited different churches. The teacher was awesome and never pushed his views or one particular religion on us. :)

[Mickey]

Great point about it being open to abuse if the teacher decided to focus on one religion over the others s/he may find more or less desirable. I hadn't thought of that.

Is the mention or discussion of any religion in school strictly prohibited? If a student were to come out and ask, "What is Hinduism?" would the teacher be able to briefly explain or do they have to say, "Ask you parents or look it up in the library." Are there even books on religion in public school libraries?

I agree that the incorporation of religion in the teaching of various cultures and history would complete the picture, but I can see where a world religions class could be a problem.

Thanks, Ari!

[Lynda/WA]

I think it would be preferable to teach history by including what shaped the people. Probably the major factor in history is religion. Unfortunately it is too difficult to be objective. Now we've reached the point we so many schools either exclusively allow christianity(ie Christmas and Easter celebrations) or the more likely senario of blocking out Christianity but allowing others under various guises. At least one HS here does teach a World religions class. Many others taught about Buddhism prior to the Dalia Lamas visit and then sent students to speak with him. At the same time they said it would be illegal to include the 10 commandments as a document the influenced the founding fathers. It's things like that that make me say we shouldn't include any religion in schools. I do think you can include it in a generic way. Instead of teaching about the religion itself you could teach the event and say what the motivating belief was.
My preference is consistancy whatever you do.