Religion in Education

[Raven_Writer]

I searched the board before posting incase this was already brought up, and I found nothing. Before I continue, I want to make sure that people understand that I'm not trying to make a "What's your religion..." or "How do you feel about religion..." thread, just a "In YOUR OPINION, is this right...".

Here's the story that created this thread:
In my AP English class, we're reading "Crime and Punishment" (Part I to be exact). During class, my teacher started bringing up a lot of references to Christianity. After about 20 minutes of listening to all these references, I asked the teacher to politely stop doing it (by raising my hand and whatnot). When I asked this, the teacher got a major attitude with me and this, and told me no, because of a bunch of reasons (I kind of tuned her out after she got an attitude).

Another story (happened to my friend):
In math class, she was taking a test, one with an extra credit question. When she got to the question, it said something about the famous satan/apple/adam/eve incident. ** Mind you this isn't really all that bad, since it was an extra credit question, so you weren't forced to answer this...and sorry for not really remembering the whole thing, it was a bit ago. **

One last story (also happened to my friend):
In her computer class, she had to do this worksheet for her daily assignment. One part of the worksheet said "Who were the first couple on Earth?" After reading this, she stood up & fought with the teacher because she (and I) feel that it shouldn't of been put on the worksheet...and to no suprise she lost (the people in class are rather ignorant and such...so she just kind of didn't do it instead).

My question to this is, do you think religion should be brought into public school teachings were it is not ment to be? If this had happened in a religion class, it would be ok (because you know, religion class talks about religion). But to be discussing a topic that has no relevance to the material presented, isn't that going a little to far?

This wouldn't be necessarily so bad though, if it wasn't one-sided. If, for example, the teachers referred to above, had used another religion along side of it, it'd be better (but still wrong in my opinion).

Please do keep in mind that I'm not asking what your religion is, I'm just asking if you think that brining religion into material in discussion is a justified thing to do.

[DarkJedi613]

I think it's ok to be brought into the classroom in some respects. It can be discussed and in fact I think we should all learn about the different religions (which is part of the NY Global History Curriculum), for a better understanding of them and the people who practices them. I do not feel, however, that it should be assumed that everyone knows stories from the Bible, etc. Although sometimes it DOES have relevance to the topic, in which it would be ok to teach, but not promoted.

Personally I feel teachers should not give there opinions about anything in class, unless its part of a dicussion and other people are sharing. I.e. teachers should not teach there opinion.

[Joe Matt]

I'm all for religion in a historical context, and some of the stories and ways in each religion. I'm all for that, I mean, how can we describe the whole middle east situation now without going into religion? What about the Inquisition? The Crusades?

Now, the moment that it goes from history to preaching, then I'm against it. There is a difference between knowledge and belief.

[KenWittlief]

religion has been a part of humanity forever. I think somewhere around 90% of the earths population participate in some form of religious belief.

Its a major factor in who we are, and why we do what we do as a species.

In public schools one religion should not be promoted over another. No relgion should be taught as the correct belief system

but to competely ban all references to any aspect of any and all religions, to act as if religion does not exist, that would be bizzare. That would be like pretending physics doenst exist and no one were allowed to mention it.

The idea of the first couple raises many scientific and mathematical questions. Whether you believe in creation or evolution, most likely there was one original human. The entire human race must have decended from one original person. It is interesting to calculate, based on our knowledge of population growth, how many years ago that person existed.

Also the field of genetics has attempted to trace back all genetic traits to a single ancestor. To call the original couple Adam and Eve can either be taken literally or as a mythological figure of speech.

If a physics question asked how big would the wings on Mercurys feet have to be to allow him to fly with a glide slope of 10 to 1, would you think someone was imposing their religious beliefs on you?

[Joshua May]

As part of a history lesson, yes, religion should or at least can be brought up because religion has played such a dominant role in human history, the crusades, the inquisition, etc. Mind you, I'm saying the history of the religions, not the history that the religion says occured (ark, adam and eve, etc) in class, the other is not acceptable.

Such questions as are on that worksheet and extra credit question, however, should most certainly NOT belong in a public classroom. Now with Pride and Prejudice, if these are literary references that are a clear part of the novel and play some role in it, then ok, but if the teacher is using this as a religious platform of some sort, then, no.

I think learning about religions isnt a problem unless the teacher themselves shares there morals and beliefs about a specific religion.
Im Catholic, and everyone in my italian class is Catholic too..so since basically the majority of all italians are Catholic, she tought us one class about Catholicism in italy and etc, like we went online and picked our saint name, etc. It wasnt a problem to any of the kids in class because we were all catholic. But itd prolly bother the people in class that werent catholic or christian of some sort.
Other than Italian class, my freshman year in Social Science, aka history, we learned about all different types of religions.

[Brian Lesser]

I'll put it like this...

If you're able to be mature about and respect other people's opinion's regarding religion, then yes...

If you want to learn about other religions so that you can gain a higher level of respect and tollerance, then yes...

[Shu Song]

No faith should be forced upon someone. There isn't a clear line between religious references in class and down right preaching. My english teachers would make references to the bible all the time, in context, of course. None of that bothers me.

Now, what does bother me is if your history teacher, in teaching religions is obvious biased(to say the least) towards one religion. Like saying that anything other than Christianity is heathanism. Given that school trains us all to think a certain way, I'd rather that way be the open minded way.

Thankfully, I've never had or known of a teacher who did, because my town is a very open town, very accepting of everyone's differences.

[Adam Y.]

In her computer class, she had to do this worksheet for her daily assignment. One part of the worksheet said "Who were the first couple on Earth?" After reading this, she stood up & fought with the teacher because she (and I) feel that it shouldn't of been put on the worksheet...and to no suprise she lost (the people in class are rather ignorant and such...so she just kind of didn't do it instead).

No.... Bad move on her part. You have to about in a completely differnt way. I would have put in a sarcastic and completly correct way.

The idea of the first couple raises many scientific and mathematical questions. Whether you believe in creation or evolution, most likely there was one original human. The entire human race must have decended from one original person. It is interesting to calculate, based on our knowledge of population growth, how many years ago that person existed.

Ummmm.... is it person or person's?? Also it would probably be pretty hard to figure out when the first humans started popping up just by using a mathematical model of growth. There is pretty good evidence that suggests that human beings came really close to extinction on one occasion.

[bombadier337]

I don't mind christianity being taught, but I'm probably a little biased. What did make me horribly mad was a history teacher who basically tried to disprove religion the entire year. I don't mind learning about other religions objectively, but I do mind having a teacher trying to force his or her beliefs (or lack thereof) upon me.

Also, as far as evolution is concerned, I believe in both the Christian beliefs and evolution. If you look at a day (as in "On the first day...") as a figurative term, everything still follows the same order. I don't think it is wrong to teach the theory of evolution in schools.

[nehalita]

It's alright as long as other religions are acknowledged. according to my religion, the first couple on the earth was not Adam and Eve, so i don't feel i should be marked points off of it.

don't get me wrong, i love learning about other religions. but when one is given precedence over the other, i feel out of place and i just don't belong. i have run into incidences where i have been told that because i am not Christian, i will not go to heaven. of course this is their opinion but i don't like being told this as if it were their decision.

as for that extra credit question, if it had to do with knowing background information, then it's not fair; i don't even know that story and i should be given an equal opportunity to get extra credit. but if it was just using the people/objects as examples, then i feel there is nothing wrong with bringing it up.

[Raven_Writer]

Originally Posted by nehalita

It's alright as long as other religions are acknowledged. according to my religion, the first couple on the earth was not Adam and Eve, so i don't feel i should be marked points off of it.
...
as for that extra credit question, if it had to do with knowing background information, then it's not fair; i don't even know that story and i should be given an equal opportunity to get extra credit. but if it was just using the people/objects as examples, then i feel there is nothing wrong with bringing it up.

For the first statement, that's how I've always felt. I'm okay with religion topics in school, as long as you more than one side to the story...but that never happens. I've read that A & E weren't the first people either, so which would I say? [I'm just supporting this claim].

I can't remember so much on the extra credit question, but I had to do the worksheet one, and I didn't do that. My friend didn't leave it blank though, what she did was put something like "This shouldn't be here because there shouldn't be religion brought into school" (something along the lines of that).

And to Brian Lesser, please to explain to me how you have to be mature to respect other people's opinions, and also you have to respect other people's opinions to be mature (I worded it like this because of the fact that w/ "and", both have to be true; correct me if I'm wrong though and I'll edit this).

[KenWittlief]

so what was the right answer to the question and what did the 'first couple' have to do with computer science (on the test) ?

was it really some odd computer science question? is some syntax called a 'couple' in the language you were useing?

did it mean the first humans or the first couple, as in romeo and juliete? Celopatra and Marc Anthony? Ben and Jaylo? Ben and Jerry?

[JoeXIII'007]

Touchy issue, very touchy. As far as religion in the classroom or anywhere in the public arena is concerned, you will not get anyone to join your faith/religion if you're going to be biased, closed-minded, or absolutely unknowing with what you're dealing with or with what else is going on in the outside world.

As a Christain myself, I get fairly terrified when another christain comes to me or I see him or her being arrogant and a bit beyond defensive of his or her position and is not in the know. It is this sort of stuff that I see destroying religion. It isn't just Christains, it is the Islamic terrorist extremists, and others.

Raven, it is the sort of stuff you experienced that give religion a bad rep, something that could've easily been avoided.

-Joe

I did not mean to offend anyone in the posting of this. If I did, I apologize.

[KenWittlief]

Id be interested in knowing what the teacher was saying that upset RavenWriter when discussing Crime and punishment. Religious and biblical themes are an intergral part of the novels plot/story. I dont know how you could discuss the book and ignore that part of it?