I recently read four articles about religion in the classroom that were
valuable to my philosophy on the subject. I come from a background of strong
Christian faith, and I very much understand and value my rights as an American
citizen to practice the religion of my choice. Although I believe that the only
way to God is through His Son, Jesus Christ, I would never push my opinion on
anyone. I would never want someone else to force their beliefs on me, no matter
how right they feel they are. If asked my beliefs I have no hesitation in
explaining what and why I believe what I believe, but I respect that ultimately
religion is a choice, and that by forcing beliefs and religious ideology on
people will not create a true relationship with God.
In
light of my own religious background, I was extremely interested in what these
articles had to say about how to teach faith in the classroom. One main idea
that was seen throughout the reading was the difference between teaching about
religion and not teaching what to believe. That is the line that should never
be crossed, even though I have strong religious faith. I also liked the idea of
civic multilingualism. I think it is important that students, as citizens of
our country and members of our community, are able to see how religion
influences political and civic thought, as well as developing an atmosphere of
respect. There is a big push for tolerance by people in our society, but the
problem is that as long as there are views that completely contradict other
views, there cannot be tolerance. The goal should be respect. When you are able
to respect the views of another, you are able to understand why they support
what they support and can more effectively communicate and find compromise. You
don’t have to avoid having differing views or beliefs if both sides are
respecting each other. Tolerance avoids conversation where respect welcomes it.
Conversation does not always have to have negative consequences.
In my
own classroom, I would love to teach the different world views and religions. I
think it is important to be aware of the effect that religion plays in so many
of today’s world- and nation-wide conflicts and discussions. I am not afraid of
bringing up conversations about religion in my classroom, as long as I keep my
own opinion out of the conversation, and present all sides in equal depth and
accuracy. Students need to understand how their beliefs were shared with others
in history and how they led those people to make decisions and support the
causes they did. Students should not be afraid to stand up for what they
believe, but they should also not be taught to be ignorant of others’ beliefs.
By ignoring the topic of religion in the classroom, we are teaching students
that they should ignore the topics of religion with others. We are teaching
that we should hide what we believe in order to keep from having disagreements.
Instead we should be teaching our students how to talk about what we believe
and how to listen and understand what others believe. Students won’t need to be
afraid of offending or having misconceptions about others when they have
knowledge from the classroom that can help them to understand and talk through
beliefs.
My favorite quotes from How to Talk About Religion by Robert Kinzman:
"We should not accept the status quo of religious talk in the public square, which too of ten resembles a series of indignant soliloquies delivered with self-righteous certainty."
"Tolerance can be entirely ignorant - students don't have to know anything about other beliefs or ways of life to tolerate them. Respect, however, requires an appreciation for why religious adherents believe or live the way they do."
"Students need to recognize that the public square cannot simply be a mirror of their private beliefs, religious or otherwise."
"Good citizens don't need to abandon their convicitons that absolute truth exists, and they have substantial room to live their private lives in accordance with those convictions, but no one gets to fully impose his or her version of that truth in the public square."
"One thing teachers should always demonstrate passionate conviction about is that respectful conversation and reasonable disagreement are essential practices in a democracy."
