Test of faith Last year, Wellesley Middle School students on a field trip were filmed praying in a Roxbury mosque. After being battered by nationwide criticism, why is the public school still determined to stand by its religion curriculum?
By Linda K. Wertheimer August 28, 2011 "REMEMBER, THE REASON WE'RE GOING TO THE MOSQUE IS TO CONTINUE OUR LEARNING," Jonathan Rabinowitz tells his sixth-grade social studies students. Dressed in a button-down shirt and khakis, the lanky 38-year-old teacher stands in the aisle of a school bus idling behind Wellesley Middle School. He holds up a hand to quell chatter and giggles from the 11- and 12-year-olds. "I want to be proud of your behavior. Make us proud in how you ask questions." Katie Pyzowski, her hair pulled back in a headband, sits quietly in a window seat as the din of her classmates resumes. Just a few days earlier, the then 11-year-old, who sings in her Episcopal church youth choir, had felt conflicted about visiting other houses of worship. "I feel kind of like I'm intruding on the holy places," she had said. "It makes me feel like I don't belong there." Now, though, she says she feels more excited than nervous. A short drive later, the bus pulls into the parking lot in Wayland of the Islamic Center of Boston, a rectangular brick building that could pass for offices if not for a few touches of Middle Eastern architecture, such as triangular arches. A few greeters - including three women in hijabs, the traditional head covering of Muslim females - are waiting outside. "I've never been to a mosque before," Katie says. Neither have most of her classmates, which is part of the school's reason for this trip - to bring course work to life with real-world examples. For more than a decade, Wellesley Middle School has been an outlier among the country's public school systems because it requires sixth-graders to study the world's religions for a full semester. After years of uneventful field trips to mosques and temples, it drew a maelstrom of criticism in 2010 when a video was made public showing Wellesley boys on a field trip appearing to pray in a Roxbury mosque. These days, the mere potential for controversy is enough to convince the average school to steer clear of teaching about religion. But just a year after the uproar engulfed Wellesley Middle School, it did something that makes it even more unusual among its peers: It took students to a mosque yet again. "I felt it was important to establish we can teach about religion," says Joshua Frank, the school's principal at the time. "There is nothing like being inside a mosque, inside a temple. These experiences are powerful for kids. They are going to remember them long after they forget Mohammed was born in 570 AD." But Diane Moore, a Harvard Divinity School scholar and author of Overcoming Religious Illiteracy, says Wellesley's difficult experience affirmed her belief that public schools should avoid such field trips. There are just too many risks, from giving students the impression all temples are the same as the one they visit, to crossing the constitutional divide between church and state. "You've got this very fine line," Moore says. "There are so many opportunities for this to go awry." ... http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2011/08/28/battered_by_nationwide_criticism_why_is_wellesley_standing_by_its_religion_curriculum/ _______________________________________________ Medianews mailing list [email protected] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
