In Faith Ed: Teaching About Religion in an Age of Intolerance, Linda K. Wertheimer argues that American schools should do more to teach students about world religions because it reduces ignorance and encourages coexistence. She tells stories of students who have taken these classes and, in many cases, experienced personal growth. One such pupil is Celia Golod, who was a sixth grader in 2010–11 at Wellesley Middle School in suburban Boston. What follows is her story, as excerpted from the book.
Some students brought heavy baggage with them. Long before middle school, they were picked on because they were members of a religious minority. Celia Golod had been teased for being a Jew ever since her family moved from a largely Jewish area in New Jersey to the mostly Christian town of Wellesley. At the time, Celia was in third grade. During the first year in a Wellesley school, a kid came up to her with a ruler to measure her nose. Celia hid in a corner afterward. In fifth grade, around Christmas time, she clashed with peers who wanted to know why she did not believe in Jesus. They kept trying to tell Celia that she was wrong. “I just told them, ‘I’m sorry for what I believe in.’ For a little bit, it made me want to be Christian just so I could be like everyone else.”
When (Jonathan) Rabinowitz taught about Judaism in the global beliefs course, Celia often felt uncomfortable because it was her religion he was talking about. Sitting at her kitchen counter finishing dinner during my visit to her home, Celia was pessimistic about what the class could achieve. “People who do tease people about [their religions] probably will never learn,” she said.
Her parents, David and Lisa Golod, shook their heads in disagreement. Both lawyers, they saw the sixth-grade class on religions as something that could make a difference, even if their daughter did not see immediate effects. Religion aside, Celia was having a rough transition during her first year of middle school. She was, like all sixth graders, figuring out where she fit. Her parents thought her pessimism and skepticism could be a part of that angst.
“But maybe you’re making a dent,” Lisa Golod told her daughter. “Do you think, Celia, the fact that you understand more about Christianity makes you more understanding?”
Celia nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “I didn’t realize that Christianity came out of Judaism. Now we’re all related.”
Midway through the course, Celia’s parents saw their daughter gain more knowledge about her own religion. She had to give a PowerPoint presentation on Judaism to them and others as part of a class assignment and drew not only from her own experience in Hebrew school, but from outside sources. Then she had to interview Christians as part of an assignment about Christianity. The class led the family to have more conversations at home about religion, particularly as the students began their study of Islam. To the Golods, what the sixth graders were learning about Islam was the most critical part of the semester. “It’s important,” Lisa Golod said, “that they understand the good and bad. Religion sparks a lot of controversy. But there’s good in all of them.”
“My theory is there are terrorists in all religions,” Celia said.
Her father jumped in: “You know what those terrorists are called? They’re extremists.”
Celia acknowledged that she used to think that all Muslims living outside of America were bad. The perfect world, she mused, would be one where there were no religions. Religion leads to too much strife.
“But wouldn’t the world be boring without it?” her father asked. “She’s looking at the negative side of religion. Religion is important because at the base of all religions is a sense of community and a sense of right and wrong. It’s what humans do to instill ethics.”
In 2013, I circled back to Celia. Jaded as an eleven-year-old, she now seemed like a wiser thirteen-year-old. She did not view the course as a panacea for bullying or teasing, but thought it made a difference. As she moved through the middle school grades, she experienced less ribbing because of her religion. The defining moment? In some ways, it was her October 2012 bat mitzvah ceremony at Temple Beth Elohim. Roughly eighty of her peers attended, many coming from her middle school. She was amazed to see how excited her school friends were to attend her bat mitzvah—and not just because of the party after the service. Having heard about this coming-of-age ritual in the world religions course, they liked the idea of seeing it in person.
Celia thinks she grew more positive about the course’s ability to change attitudes partly because she matured. As a sixth grader, she was quick to judge everyone and their treatment of her. In an eighth-grade class about world food, students brought in foods that represented their cultures. Celia helped her mother make matzo ball soup. When Celia brought it in, students were excited and said, “Oh you eat this on Passover, right?”
The girl who used to feel like the odd one out felt special in that moment. “Did it make you feel prouder to be Jewish?” I asked. “Yeah,” Celia answered. The course also made her feel less ignorant about several religions, particularly Islam, which previously had seemed so foreign. She remembered the holidays of different religions.
This excerpt was reprinted with permission from the author. Source: Linda K. Wertheimer, Faith Ed: Teaching About Religion In An Age of Intolerance (Boston: Beacon Press, 2015).
Linda K. Wertheimer is a veteran journalist and the former education editor at the Boston Globe. She teaches journalism part-time at Boston University.
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