Let's talk about religion...

While I was glad to see Gallo point out that it is a great idea to talk about religions objectively in school, I was disappointed in the list of books he suggested. I believe only one of them looked at religious faiths outside of Protestant Christianity. Several of the books Gallo introduced focus on religious cults, conservative Christians in America and “fear-based faiths”—I’m not sure if I am equipped as an educator to lead my students through these books.

When I taught a unit called Cultural Crossroads for my tenth grade college prep. English classes, we read several short stories where a person’s religious beliefs and traditions were tested within his/her own culture or by people outside of his/her culture. These stories sparked wonderful discussions about my students’ faith, their family values and traditions that they had. The main project for this unit involved my students researching some tradition in their cultural heritage, creating a 10 - 15-minute presentation about this tradition and sharing what they learned during class. Through the short stories and their peers’ presentations, my students were exposed to many cultures and learned a lot about their classmates’ religious traditions. I saw many students share their faith proudly with the class as they showed us pictures of their families at religious celebrations, had us try traditional food for specific religious festivals, played religious music, etc. My students respectfully took in each presentation and asked thoughtful and considerate questions about their peers’ traditions. We covered Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Hindu traditions and their subgroups.

Talking about religion allowed my students to examine similarities and differences between various traditions and values. I really enjoyed seeing my students openly share and discuss their faith, but the best part of this unit was the respect that my students shared with each other as they talked about religion.