How Dare You Teach About Other Religions/Cultures!

[macphile]

Ah yes. "He is different from me! Therefore, he is an abomination!"

My family went to church every Sunday when I was a kid. I started questioning in junior high and went to being non-Christian deist (?) and then atheist and then...all manner of unspeakable adolescent horrors...and came back around. And I don't recall anyone "promoting" atheism or anything else when I was young. I just reached an age where I started to ask questions, and because I have a functioning brain, I was able to come up with some answers.

[wolfie]

My idea was covering Myths and Legends. Now I'm not sure if I'll be allowed to even mention the words "myths of <Asian country of choice>" without getting attacked for it. My lesson would've been covering Aboriginal myths and comparing them with ANOTHER mythology: in other words, looking at perspectives and teaching kids that just because it seems strange, doesn't necesarily mean it's a bad thing because they might see you as strange too. (sort of an anti-bullying theme)

Would it be safer if you restricted yourself to myths/legends of "dead" religions (i.e. Egyptian pantheon, Greco/Roman pantheon, Norse pantheon)?

[fireheart17]

Would it be safer if you restricted yourself to myths/legends of "dead" religions (i.e. Egyptian pantheon, Greco/Roman pantheon, Norse pantheon)?

Funnily enough, the school that I'll be teaching at for the next 4-5 weeks actually DOES teach the myths, but from a strictly historical standpoint!

[protege]

They are the parents that raised the kids who will go wild once away from home.

I have cousins who were like that. I've posted about Uncle Dick before, and yes, he got his nickname because of his "sparkling" personality Anyway, Dick is/was always a bit strict. Now, I have nothing against people who are "born again." If that's your thing, fine. However, start trying to preach to me, I have a problem.

One of his major sticking points, is that sex is evil. This is a guy who *flipped out* when his daughters were watching Top Gun at my grandmother's. There's one scene in the bar, when a couple of characters are talking about getting laid. He had no problem with the movie up until that point, and then started screaming about how it was "inappropriate" to watch

Several years later, Dick was trying to push my grandmother around...because I never went to church. Grandma's feeling about it was "Protege works hard all week, then comes down her to help me on weekends. He's tired, and needs his sleep. Leave him alone." Keep in mind that my grandparents were heavily involved with their church--they'd volunteer, went to Mass every Sunday, etc.

Uh, where was I going with this? Oh yeah. Because Dick was so strict with his kids, they went nuts as soon as they were out of the house. His son (who is 6 months younger than me), got into trouble with the law, campus police, and was thrown out of college for "academic" reasons. Two of the daughters had children out of wedlock, and at least one of them enjoys the booze--another of his pet peeves. With that said, I find it a bit hypocritical for him to bash other people for those things...when his own kids have done them!

I'm sure when all of that went down, he was whining about it, and probably blamed everyone else for it. But he alone is the real reason. Think about it, if you make something "taboo," people are naturally going to be curious, and find that something attractive.

[Andara Bledin]

The bosslady at my work has a sister who is hyper-religious. She runs a very strict household and has five children.

Bosslady, knowing where that would go, made a point to be more than just an aunt to them all, letting them know that if they ever needed anybody and their mother wasn't available, that they could come to her. So far, two of them have used her offer to get out from under their mother's overbearing thumb. It doesn't hurt that the sister lives two time zones away, so there's a huge physical distance as well. Of the other three, two are following in their mother's footsteps (for now) and the last is doing the wild child routine, for which the family members I have contact with worry.

^-.-^

[Silverharp]

. Think about it, if you make something "taboo," people are naturally going to be curious, and find that something attractive.

To quote Homer Simpson "Why are you kids so obsessed with my hidden door of secrets?"

[PepperElf]

i haven't read all of the replies but ... to me it somewhat depends.


From a historical standpoint it is one thing... like how i learned the basic ideas of say Islam and Hinduism in my social studies class because it directly affected how countries interacted with each other in history.


However at the same time, I would want to be sure a school wasn't trying to actually teach religion classes.

I mean yes, I was in a school that had religion as a subject - but it was a private school and part of the arrangement. but if a public school starts to promote religions, or perhaps tries to bias people against their own... then it could be a real issue.

Would it be safer if you restricted yourself to myths/legends of "dead" religions (i.e. Egyptian pantheon, Greco/Roman pantheon, Norse pantheon)?

actually... those aren't dead.

We had some on my last ship who worshipped the Nordic pantheon.

[Hyena Dandy]

Hence the quotes around the "Dead."