Religious Instruction

During a high school humanities elective class--at Edina West, in 1979--representatives of major religions spoke, telling us of their ways.  An atheist also spoke--he may have advertised himself a humanist--I'm not entirely sure.  Another assignment had me observe ceremonies at eight or ten houses of worship--a practice I found so illuminating that I've continued it sporadically, for decades.

In public high schools, students should be instructed about world religions and about the religious and cultural practices/demographics prevailing locally.  During such courses, they should also be introduced to undiluted anti-religious thinking.  Students should be made aware of their own rights, as Americans--very much including:  You are free to accept or reject any religious beliefs you like.

During such instruction, I would resist inviting students to make presentations as representatives of their faith traditions:  Within the secular educational environment, teachers should honor a 17-year-old's denominational self-description just as they would were the teen to have self-identified a monetarist--as Dawkins might put it. 

Dogmatism should be challenged--and kids should become accustomed to exploring opposing viewpoints and turning over stones.  When society urges one to stop asking questions--when the inevitable Pieklo- or Fecke puritanical mediocrity of your day presents itself--one should be encouraged to author one's gentle-but-credible no.

I recently emailed Eden Prairie schools:

Within Eden Prairie K-12 education, at what stage--and in what class[es]--are kids taught about world religions?  What texts/materials are used?  Are outside experts invited into classes, as representatives of various religions?

Here is the unedited, substantive portion of the response--for which I fervently thank them:

We did some research and learned that students are introduced to World Religions at 7th grade Social Studies and have a more in-depth look at them during 8th grade.

At the high school, students take World Civilization I and World Religion is taught within that curriculum as well, during 11th grade. Here's a bit more detail:

Middle School:
 In 7th grade, religion is introduced as an aspect of our larger study of culture. Classes spend a couple of days at the most reviewing the major world religions. We have a supplemental reading for this cursory review, as it is barely addressed in our 7th grade textbook (Prentice Hall, World Studies Western Hemisphere).

 In 8th grade, some of the teachers revisit the major world religions as they review culture, but then each of the major religions is addressed through the regional studies. For example: Buddhism and Hinduism et al. when they are studying Asia and ancient civilizations; Christianity during the unit on Rome; and Judaism and Islam during the unit on the Middle East. The text materials include both the 8th grade history text (Globe Fearon, World History) and supplemental readings. Speakers may have been used occasionally in the past but are not presently a part of the curriculum.

At the high school:

World Civ I is really the primary place where this content is shared...In Chapter 2-10 we cover: Judaism, Polytheism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, Christianity, Mythology, Buddhism and Islam. It would be challenging to teach these cultures without infusing the origins of each of these world religions, and /or belief systems. We use the Torah, Tao Te Ching, The Analects,The Bible,the Quran, and the writings of other major historians. These teachers say they prefer that the students teach each other. They had students this term bring in their own religious texts for the other students to learn from.

In World Civilization II, they talk about the Christianity being the only religion in the west until the reformation (Chapter 12). Islam (Chap. 15) Those are the chapters that we have the bulk of discussions around religion.
 
I replied:
 
So Eden Prairie's curriculum--by design--does not expose students to any rigorous criticism of religion--and accepts each student's religious background [i.e. family/home religion] as 'beyond criticism'--right?

Students are at no point presented with any serious, articulate atheist thinking--is that correct?

Shouldn't a secular education explore anti-superstition, from time to time? Why doesn't Eden Prairie include any anti-superstitious perspective, within its curriculum? (Or do I have that wrong?)  
 
We'll give Teach the last word, hoy:
 
As we look at our curriculum, World Religions are taught in context with origins of world civilizations and cultures. It appears that our teachings of religions are not comparative in nature, but has to do more with exposure.

Eden Prairie School District's Social Studies curriculum is directly aligned to state standards and it does not speak to criticism of any religion nor directly speaks to anti-superstition.