All Ages How should Religious History be taught in school?

[H.C. Heartland]

I am looking for ideas on how to teach religious history. In junior high (ages 13-15 approximately) I had a teacher who would teach the beliefs of a certain culture, for e.g. Egyptian by having the students as a team do a presentation. We had to dress a mummy, and explain the reasons for the death mask, the scarab, the Urn, etc. It was a hands on, fun project that I think can be applied to a variety of different cultures. What do you think? What is a good way to teach religious history in school?

 

[Krrizal]

Providing sourced excerpts from the original religious texts can provide an deep and interesting insight into how they are perceived by the original culture/group. And of course, visual aid such as posters, maps, and videos always help enhance the learning experience.

 

[shandrum]

In my school district, we teach religious history by very strict guidelines to ensure that we do not intermix our own religious beliefs into what we are teaching. We usually teach straight from the textbook. You can show documentaries as long as it relate to the subject matter. It is very cut and dry and pretty much laid out what we can and cannot do.

 

[Aree Wongwanlee]

Religious history should be taught as history. It should never be missionary work disguised as history. This means that there needs to be a detached stance when it comes to teaching about religious history. As for how, there are lots of ways to make it interesting. If mult-media equipment is available, then take a short cut and just show videos of religious festivals, then talk about how these festivals came about, ie talk about the history of these religious festivals. That will exactly be religious history.

 

[briannagodess]

Oh, wow! I love what your teacher did, with making you come up with plays about religion. I wish our religion teacher was that creative, lol. Anyway, I guess I could suggest:

• Making students watch documentaries about the history of a certain religion.
• Let the students play a game about religion and whoever loses has to do a report on one religion's history.
• Let them create drawings that portray the beliefs of religions and discuss it in front of the class.

Good luck!

 

[Stones]

I think that mоst publiс sсhооls shоuld аddrеss rеligiоn in thеir histоry аnd sосiаl studiеs соursеs. Thеrе's nоthing wrоng with асknоwlеdging оthеr rеligiоns аnd bеliеfs еxist, еspесiаlly if it hеlp studеnts gеt fаmiliаr with thе соnсеpt оf tоlеrаnсе tоwаrds оthеrs.
If yоu аttеnd а privаtе, rеligiоus sсhооl thеn it mаy bе pаrt оf thе sсhооl's оwn сurriсulum tо hаvе а rеligiоus studiеs сlаss. Thе оnly оthеr stipulаtiоn with thаt is thаt thеrе аrе sоmе studеnts аt thеsе privаtе sсhооls thаt dо nоt prасtiсе thе rеligiоn оf thаt pаrtiсulаr sсhооl. Sоmе pаrеnts simply wаnt thе асаdеmiсs аnd thе sесurity оf а privаtе sсhооl, аnd dо nоt саrе if it hаppеns tо а саthоliс sсhооl (оr аny оthеr rеligiоn).