How well does your "teaching about religion"
avoid the pitfalls of religious
indoctrination?
Source
Evaluate yourself on each checklist item. The items apply
whatever the religion-related subject matter.
o
1.
My approach to the teaching of religion at school is academic
o
2.
My approach informs students about various beliefs
o
3.
My approach is to strive for student
awareness and comprehension
o
4.
My approach to teaching involves students in learning about worldview
traditions and practices
o
5.
My approach exposes students to diversity in religious and nonreligious views
o
6.
My classroom manner evidences fairness regarding the spectrum of human
worldviews
o
7.
My goal is to educate about the worldviews
o
8.
My classroom’s approach to religion is not devotional
o
9.
I do not seek to conform students to any particular belief, religious or
nonreligious
o
10. I never press for student acceptance of any religious or nonreligious stance or
view
o
11.
I don’t let my classroom’s activities reflect the practices of any religion
or belief tradition
o
12.
I don’t let my teaching approach impose or seem to advocate any particular
view
o
13.
I neither encourage nor discourage any religious or nonreligious worldviews
o
14.
My methods do not promote or denigrate any of them
Evaluation. Ideal? [14
of 14]
Source [Adaptation]. Many of the checklist items above are adapted from the
public school guidelines
published originally by the Public Education Religion Studies Center at Wright
State University (1988). The purpose of those guidelines was to help educators
distinguish between teaching about religion and religious indoctrination.
Whereas the original guidelines referred to schools, the focus here is
what goes on in the classroom under teacher auspices.
