Essay

Hello everybody,

So here is my essay,

Best wishes for the end of this year...

"La Vale"

Respect, Religion and Education: How are they related?

Have you ever thought of how many different beliefs can be found inside the classroom? Many teachers assume that all students think the same. Also, students who represent the majority of something might be a little rough with those who think differently. Some teachers think that the solution is to create a lesson focused on the minority, and others in the majority, but here is my opinion:

According to the results of a survey that I personally did in Plaza de Armas, Santiago, the majority of people answered to the question “What’s the main religion in Chile?” that they believe in the Catholic Church and in second place, the Evangelistic one. This doesn’t mean that we don’t have other options to consider. However, when it comes to teaching, we need to see the majorities in order to get a respond that tries to represent the class in a lesson.

When we consider the majorities in the classroom, our aim is try to accomplish all those doubts that seem important to solve. We shouldn’t consider a minority to make a lesson plan because our lesson will be a waste of time for many inside that space. But if we consider them, not to create a lesson but to boost the amount of students who are learning, then, we should do it with any kind of subject.

Respect is one of the things that everybody understands but sometimes doesn’t use it as it should be.
Have a look at these definitions taken from http://www.itsnotok.org/whatisrespect.html and reflect a little bit about them.
Respect is...
Respect is...listening with out interrupting
Respect is...taking your partner's feelings into consideration
Respect is...keeping an open mind
Respect is...agreeing to disagree
Respect is...trying to understand your partner's viewpoint
Respect is...loving yourself
Respect is...trust and honesty
Respect is...giving each other space
Respect is...nonviolence
Respect is...direct communication
Respect is...building a person up instead of tearing them down
Respect is...friendship
Respect is…not pressuring the other person

So how many of those are being part of your conception of respect? Are you really doing that? What about your students?

Nowadays, we are seeing clearer what bullying is, what autism is, what ADD means, among others. The thing is that even if that was part of a classroom 50 years ago, people couldn’t or didn’t want to go further on these issues. But today, a new generation of teachers is trying to do completely the opposite. As part of those topics, we can find discrimination towards people’s different beliefs. And there is when the role of respect takes place.

So, the question is what can we do about it? Well, we can’t find ourselves explaining our students what respect means because they actually need to see it in practice. Theory will be never enough if we don’t bring it to the classroom in concrete examples.
I would recommend having a look at the Elizabeth’s movie (The Golden Age version) and watching with your students the fragment where the Queen Elizabeth tells her advisors that she will not punish her citizens for not believing in the Catholic Church.
She clearly shows respect for others’ beliefs.
I wouldn’t use the whole movie because what we are trying to focusing now is on the show of respect and not history. But if you need that your students understand this part of the history of England then go ahead.

The movie has a really good plot but it should be for a sophomore or senior class due to the amount of information and complexity that it has (sometimes).
Basically, one of the ideas I would like to suggest you is to take a fragment of the movie and create an activity where the students can form groups in order to discuss what they think, reflect, see the topic’s relevance and create an analysis of the way the Queen gives freedom of thoughts during the clip and, how we can see that reflected on our days.

To sum up, respect can be tested in how students react towards different beliefs in the classroom. This can lead to a discussion about it that can later integrate and consider the conception of respect and the activities presented on my suggestion.
We do need to take advantages of these useful resources to improve our own way of teaching, learning and likewise our students.