I went to a (very) secular private school. Seventh grade social studies was mostly dedicated to comparative religion -- we had a course book called "The World's Six Great Religions" or some such. I think it had the Big Three monotheistic faiths, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. There could be a lot of debate as to what the "top 6 religions" should include, but it was a pretty good overview of what a lot of the world believes, where they are alike, and where they differ. It was NOT, as most fundies would have "religious education" be, a course on "Why Christianity is right and all those other heathen faiths will send you to hell".
In 10th grade, we got to "Hero With A Thousand Faces" and more comparative mythology. It's a lot harder to get sucked up into fundementalism when you see that Christianity is just one more retelling of the same old story...
(Granted, my school wasn't perfect. We had a history teacher who informed us the Chinese Cultural Revolution had "a few excesses"(!). Helloooo, Captain Understatement!)
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branchandroot
Religious Education
Date: 2006-07-25 01:33 pm (UTC)In 10th grade, we got to "Hero With A Thousand Faces" and more comparative mythology. It's a lot harder to get sucked up into fundementalism when you see that Christianity is just one more retelling of the same old story...
(Granted, my school wasn't perfect. We had a history teacher who informed us the Chinese Cultural Revolution had "a few excesses"(!). Helloooo, Captain Understatement!)