Religion and Student Understanding
Medium Post 2
Despite the United States being a secular nation, public schools tend to promote Christianity over other belief systems. In locker rooms, people pray together as a team, and when religious tropes are discussed within book, Christian beliefs are what they are compared with. Schools tend to promote enough of a relationship with at least the Bible that even atheists know the general story behind Jesus and the book of Genesis. What would happen, though, if a non-Christian religion was associated with schools?
Despite not actually having a school associated with any religion, Stuart Grauer takes the plunge in his article, “Making Connections Between the Qur’an and Our Values as Educators,” to compare the values of his school to the values displayed in the Qur’an. Grauer’s article discusses how he made connections between the Qur’an and schools, and also with the Qur’an’s practices and his job as a teacher. This comparison also follows the “valuing world cultures” challenge of the ERC’s Grand Challenges. Grauer comparing his school and his career with the Qur’an shows how the European culture that dominates in the United States is interconnected with Middle Eastern cultures that are found around the world as well as in the United States.
If students were to read this article in class, the activity that accompanied it would need to address biases they hold against the Qur’an. Especially living in Montana or other states that are less diverse, stereotypes and misrepresentations stick for a lot of students because it is the most frequent representation they see of diverse groups. One way to bring to light these issues is to have students, before reading the article, write a text impression based on the article title or key words in the title like “connections, Qur’an, values,” and “educators.” After reading the article, students would then compare what they believed the article to be about to what it really was about. The goal is for students to start asking themselves why they made the assumptions they made before reading the article, how they can change for the better to not make those assumptions again (if they were derogatory), and how they can help change other people’s viewpoints so they do not think in a biased manner as well.
A lesson could also be expanded by having students do a similar exercise as Grauer. They can take their core beliefs, if that comes from a religion or a person or just their own set of principles, and see where those occur within the Qur’an. Then, students have a minimally increased viewpoint on some Middle Eastern religions. Obviously, though, much like the second Essential Understanding associated with Montana’s Indian Education for all program, the beliefs and religious identity of each person differs depending on their own experience. There may be an overarching idea that exists, but just like every culture and religion, individuals ultimately decide their behavior and beliefs.
Having students participate in this lesson would also incorporate the Montana content standard for reading informational texts in an ELA freshman/sophomore class:
RI.9–10.3 Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.
