I think what hit me hardest out of all the readings on religious intolerance and discrimination were the chapters on antisemitism. One of the most disturbing things was the table on page 260 which listed how Christian canonical law had set the precedent for Nazi measures that oppressed the Jews. Some of the canonical laws were almost identical to Nazi measures. For example, a canonical law from 1267 prohibited Christians from attending Jewish ceremonies, and a 1941 Gestapo directive prohibited any friendly relations with Jews.
On the heels of these readings, came the news of the recent shootings in France. The first shooting involved three soldiers, two Muslims and one of Caribbean descent, and the second at a Jewish school where a rabbi and his two children ages 4 and 5 were gunned down along with a 7-year-old girl, the daughter of the school's principal, as they arrived for school. This kind of senseless violence is deeply troubling. French police say the bullets from both shootings came from the same gun and that the shootings appear to be racially motivated. I started thinking about how to prevent these kinds of things from happening in the future... How can we raise our children to embrace differences and discuss disagreements in a peaceful way? Why do people resort to these measures? Is the perpetrator clinically insane, or just hateful and convinced of their own superiority?
I found an article on the website tolerance.org, which contains classroom activities on tolerance, research articles, essays, op-eds, and news clips that highlight issues of diversity and difference. The article I saw that I think might help us to start thinking about solving this monumental problem of intolerance is titled: "One Nation, Many Gods." It discusses how the current generation of students will face an increasingly pluralistic society as adults and that addressing issues of intolerance should begin in the school system: '"Schools are the one place where all of these different religions meet," said one educator. "It follows that religious diversity must be dealt with in school curriculum if we're going to learn to live together (One Nation, Many Gods, 2007).""
The article went on to describe a pilot program for addressing intolerance, a 9th grade level course on world religions with a prescribed curriculum. It went for a test run in the bible belt town of Modesto California, and researchers found that students who had taken the course were more tolerant of others and more willing to defend other's rights to their own religious expression than they had been in the beginning. I am, therefore, officially on the world religions requirement bandwagon! Wouldn't it be interesting if we could influence the school district to require a course on religious diversity? And for any of you who are wondering, it is legal to teach about religion in public schools.
Do you think this is a valuable use of a student's time? Of the school district's limited funds?
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