This morning I had occasion to drive by my elementary school, where I attended kindergarten through grade 4. That was back in the day when the Lord's Prayer was still said in schools, but this being a public school, times have changed. It's been a whole bunch of years since public schools stopped saying this prayer; in fact, the evolution of that "change in practice" began when I was...hmmm...maybe in senior elementary school? Or highschool? It wasn't a cold-turkey drop of the prayer; I remember that for at least a year or more (maybe the entire remainder of my secondary education, who can remember?) we had a minute after morning announcements for "silent meditation". Which, for me (like most kids I presume), translated into one more minute of closed-eyes, brief-but-welcome-cat-nap, before the school day began.
My understanding is that they don't even have "silent meditation" in public schools these days, under the premise that no element of any religion should be present in the public schools. As a melting-pot society, the idea is that it's only fitting to be fair to the entire school population. Which is why I was delightfully surprised when I drove by my old elementary school and read the announcement sign out front that said "Happy Hanukkah, Muharram, and Kwanzaa".
Now, this being January 5th, these celebrations (Jewish, Muslim, and African-American/Canadian, respectively) are technically over already, but I was glad to see recognition of these religious and cultural traditions at least at one public school. Christmas, of course, has been commercialized to the point of definitely NOT being strictly a religious celebration, and public school or not, Christmas always gets "air time" regardless of the politically-correct policy not to give recognition to any one religious tradition. With Christianity being the predominant religion in North America, it would be a difficult task indeed to try and eliminate this celebration from having at least some kind of presence in the schools, or in society at large.
However, again because we are a melting-pot society, I've often thought that the exclusion of all religious elements from the schools is a little backwards. Isn't the role of our schools to educate the next generation about the world we live in? And frankly, doesn't religion and culture play a significant role in the socio-economic and political environment in which we live? For a long time, starting in my late teens and early twenties, I wanted to learn more about different world religions myself and have felt that it's a very important aspect of our world, one that's important for all of us to have a better understanding of. There are many lenses through which we see one another on this planet, and religious and cultural traditions are a very deeply-engrained part of our collective psyche. Knowledge of the different traditions can only serve to increase understanding, awareness and respect for one another in our increasingly-global community.
Since the summer of 2007, I've been involved as a volunteer with a company called Encounter World Religions, as part of their "Visiting Schools" program. Although Encounter does mostly adult education about various world religions and traditions, under the schools program we visit mostly grade 11 World Religions classes to teach them about different traditions (other than Christianity, since in our culture most people at least have a familiarity with what that's about). We do this by way of either "House of Worship Tours" where we take students to visit usually three different houses of worship (mosques, temples, synagogues, etc), or with a wonderful presentation called "Sacred Symbols" that teaches the students about the meanings and purpose behind common symbolic religious items used in Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Sikhism. Call me biased, but I think the presentation is a beautiful, incredible, enlightening experience for both students and adults alike (and no, I most certainly can't take responsibility for creating the presentation; JW Windland, Encounter's founder, gets full credit for that, and I feel like applauding him every time I hear the presentation though he would likely be embarrassed - in a humble way - to hear me say that).
In order for a global community to truly be "inclusive" and respectful of all traditions, it cannot mean that we function as a community who excludes recognition of the fact that we do have an incredibly colourful and varied collection of traditions in our country, and in our world. When each of the different-coloured "threads" of religion and cultural tradition are woven together, it creates a rich tapestry which, if we step back and observe the big picture, is indeed a beautiful sight to behold.
Let's celebrate all the celebrations....
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