Fostering religious tolerance

Art Linkletter’s TV show “House Party” had a segment called “Kids Say the Darndest Things.” Listening to students is often like this segment, only there isn’t a tape delay and it’s usually in front of a live audience. Usually, the things kids say that are classified as “the darndest” are either cute, clever, or have something to do with politics, sex or religion.

Religion comes up relatively often in the classroom. In my experience, it comes up more frequently between Thanksgiving and New Year’s and in March and April. I think it’s because these are the times of year that many families are more overt in practicing their religion. Naturally, conversations that children hear and-or participate in at home get repeated at school. My job is to provide as much factual information as possible, create a culture of acceptance and respect, and to direct children to talk to their families about what their families believe.

My classroom has a bit more diversity than many in Maine. A recent classroom grouping included students from a variety of religious backgrounds – agnostic, atheist, Baha’i, conservative Protestant, Jewish, liberal Protestant, moderate Protestant, Muslim, Roman Catholic and Wiccan. This allowed me to create a rich atmosphere of acceptance and respect. I did this by inviting and welcoming presentations by the families who had less common religious practices. (I was comfortable presenting information on the more common religions.) As a class, we discussed differences and noticed similarities. And at the end of each conversation, I reminded my students to talk with their families about what each of their families believes.

About a dozen years ago, I had two students who loved to discuss Old Testament stories. The boy, Jake, attended Hebrew school and the girl, Kate, attended a Protestant church that taught the stories of the Bible. Jake and Kate would compare notes on the stories from the first five books of the Bible. They were both very comfortable with these conversations, and the other students contributed when a story sounded familiar. What interested me and what I tried to convey the students is that even though each of them was learning the stories from a different perspective, the stories that each of them related were the same stories.

Real acceptance and respect comes from positive personal relationships. These relationships can develop in classrooms in an atmosphere that encourages nonjudgmental discussions about faith, beliefs and religious practices. But teachers need to be comfortable with saying words such as “God,” “belief,” “prayer” and “worship,” and they must have a working knowledge of the world’s major religions. Parents and administrators need to trust that teachers will not proselytize for any particular religion and will provide factual information.

Fortunately for me and for my students, I had effective models for creating classrooms of acceptance and respect of religious differences. My grandfather was a minister who served as a chaplain in the Army on a troop transport ship during WWII. His duties required him to lead services for soldiers of Roman Catholicism, Judaism and the wide variety of Protestant branches, among others. His acceptance of this potentially conflicting role was shared with his children and in turn his grandchildren. His breadth of knowledge and ability to find the similarities in different religions made it easy for the rest of us to approach the issue with acceptance.

My hometown had an active “Council of Religion” so it was common practice to attend special events in different places of worship. Consequently, those different places of worship lost their strangeness for me and my peers.

Our students need to have the opportunity to understand and appreciate different religions if they are to grow up and live peacefully with one another. It is our responsibility as parents and teachers to make sure that they have this opportunity.

E-mail me at conversationswithateacher@gmail.com. Let’s continue this conversation.