I've been reading lots of religious references on our discussion board in the context of morals, homosexuality and transsexuality, and gay marriage, and I believe it is time to focus squarely on religion in school. So:
How should religion affect schooling?
I think it's far too easy to say "none". Generally I find people say religion ought to have no direct affect but the subtleties are there. Schools still celebrate religious Holydays, for example, and I would bet that the vast majority of teachers are dutifully religious.
Personally I think schools should take an agnostic position. This means that religious questions like "Does God exist?", "What is the purpose of life?", and "Is that immoral?" may be questioned by students in our classes but I, as the teacher, should
not give
any religiously based answers. The questions would, essentially, remain open-ended although student's mind would keep on churning.
It reminds me of the Socratic method and my 10th grade English teacher's style. We read the Bible (actually the New Testament), Torah (parts of Old Testament), Quaran (the Muslim canon),
Siddhartha (about the Buddha); and my teacher started lively discussions about the works but she stayed conspicuously silent on our direct religious questions that ever sounded like "Is that
true?" or "Is that the
right thing to do?"
What's everyone's opinion?