|
Message |
| Posted By: |
firebird |
| Response to: |
Making Friends With God,
Posted by: YetAnotherBuddhistMonk |
| Date: |
19-Mar-2001-04:19:19 |
| Subject: |
Re: Making Friends With God in the classroom |
this is an interesting topic to me.
(thanx)
my undergrad degree was in philosophy/world religions & i did some grad studies in education. i will more than likely be working in the field of education.
i was one of the very very very few students accepted into the M.Ed program who'd not majored in education (essay writing skills, can't emphasize this enough).
anyho, in one of my grad studies classes in ed, i proposed as a final project, that religions be taught in the schools beginning at a very early age. my argument for this proposal was that religious beliefs have been at root of many of the major wars throughout history. if people could come to understand & accept other's personal belief systems from an early age, it might act as the root of further understanding on many other levels as well.
it was progressive geographic area. the idea was very well-received by professional teachers within the class' forum.
for my presentation, i stood at the front of the class & explained 5 of the world's major religions (Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity & Buddhism, which leaves out alot, i know) in the simplest forms possible. this can easily be done since children, being free of the conceptual limitations/burdens of adulthood, understand things very quickly when they're explained in their own language. & there are zillions of childrens' books available out there re world religions, if one searches in the right directions.
so i read a children's story from Tibet...of a child being reborn again & again in different areas of the world, in different walks of life, until finally realizing that everything they'd sought after elsewhere had been right at home with them/in them all along.
i received a round of enthusiastic applause for this presentation and i see no reason that this sort of curriculum couldn't be included into the public school systems.
why cut-out religio/spiritual teachings/orientation/practice completely at the expense of one (Christianity...& all not sharing this system of belief) when instead, all of them could be taught in more detail than they are at present, perhaps fostering further receptivity and acceptance of diverse spiritual traditions, rather than negating them all completely.
just a thought. :)
i won't even get into how i think meditation could/should be included into the education system as well. this'll probably take *teachers* learning to cultivate this themselves. (could be a long way off? ;)
so....i wonder if Bush's proposal to support socio-religious-oriented public programs would include...the Hari Krishnas?
;) |
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