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INTERDISCIPLINARY WORLD HISTORY AND WORLD LITERATURE

I’m Okay, You’re Okay: Teaching Tolerance through World Religions

Pat Carney and Anne Wallin

This interdisciplinary course in world history and World Literature for high school students at Standley Lake High School Jefferson County is taught in two consecutive periods each day the class meets during the semester. The purpose of this approach is to enhance the study of each discipline while drawing connections between the two areas. It is our hope that students will come to appreciate expressions of each civilization as they study these literary works in historical context.

FIRST SEMESTER TOPICS:

Religion is an important aspect of historical and literary studies. No universal agreement exists about religion. To encourage norms of acceptance and tolerance in classroom discussions, we examine the vocabulary of intolerance, such as ethnocentrism and xenophobia. We study various belief systems to learn about these and to understand others. Our purpose is not to proselytize. We recognize that there are many views.

Our approach to teaching religion is that some aspects can be explained while much is difficult to understand. We encourage students to keep on open mind. The question is posed: why are people attracted to religion? Ordinary people care about three things: their family, money, and death or life after death. They look to religion for guidelines to answer such questions as: How should we raise our children? Is there more to life than wealth? What will happen to me when I die?

Ancient Civilizations: Middle East, Egypt, India, and China

• A basic belief of animism, an early belief system, was that the gods controlled the forces of nature. Polytheism was the belief in many gods. Polytheism’s chief characteristic was flexibility (gods specialized in types of problems, such as the god of the Nile). Prayer and worship played a significant role. People had to ask for things in the right way to appease the gods or suffer the consequences of their mood swings.
• Monotheism began with the Hebrews. They were first to develop an ethical world view and concern for the individual. Their all-powerful God was fierce and harsh at first and wise and forgiving later. He spoke to people through prophets to reveal his law, the details on how to live life. The most important of these were the Ten Commandments which held human life in great respect.

World Religions

For each world religion, the question is posed: How did this belief system provide answers to basic concerns over family, money, and death?

• Hinduism developed as a blend of ancient Aryan traditions with religious beliefs of peoples the Aryans conquered. We introduce the important concepts of brahma, atman, reincarnation, and karma. In this religion, the goal of life is to free the soul from imperfect desires and unite with the universal soul.
• Buddhism was formed in reaction to Hinduism by Siddhartha Gautama, who sought a solution to the question: What were the causes of human suffering? His solution was the Four Noble Truths and the Middle Way (Eightfold Path). These two religions have coexisted for centuries in India.
• Confucianism began in reaction to a period of warring states in China. The goal was to organize a good society. It is a social code based on high moral ideas. Major concepts are the five relationships and filial piety.
• Taoism, developed by Lao-tse, was also concerned with how to achieve a good society by becoming attuned to the tao, a universal force.

Classical Civilizations of Greece and Rome

• We introduce Greek polytheism and Roman adaptations from the classical world. Christianity is presented in historical context. We ask that our account be discussed as information and it is not intended to offend anyone. Important concepts are the Messiah, the New Testament, major features such as the attraction, salvation, compassion, miracles, faith, and martyrs. The question is posed: How did Christianity provide answers to basic concerns over family money, and death?

Enrichment: field trips to sacred places: Jewish Synagogue, Greek Orthodox Church, a Buddhist Temple

Medieval Civilizations

• In the Middle Ages, the Christian church in the West was a powerful institution with its own government, laws, courts and system of taxation. Its teachings influenced everyone in feudal society.
• In 1054, a split occurred in the Christian church as the Eastern Orthodox Christian religion was formed over certain practices.
• Muhammad began a new religion, Islam, which spread over much of the Middle East and northern Africa. Its major concepts are the Five Pillars of Faith, the Qur'an, and the caliph. The question is posed: How did Islam provide answers to basic concerns over family, money, and death?

Enrichment: Guest Speaker on Islam

Early Modern Civilizations: Renaissance, Reformation, and the Age of Absolutism

• The Renaissance took its inspiration from classical antiquity. The revival of learning and emphasis upon man and his unique abilities contrast with the medieval emphasis upon the glory of God and the sinfulness of man.
• The Reformation shattered Christian unity in Europe. We present the causes of this change and the variety of Christian groups, such as Lutherans, Calvinists, and Anglicans, that grew out of this period.

SECOND SEMESTER TOPICS:

The Age of Reason and Revolutions

• We discuss the attacks on established religion by Voltaire and the philosophes. They challenged Christianity for its rejection of science, otherworldliness, and belief in man’s depravity.
• Deism, their creed, advocated that God’s existence could be deduced from a contemplation of nature. It drew on the scientific view of natural harmony, which implied the existence of a mechanical God who had created the universe.
• We also discuss an incident in late nineteenth-century France, the Dreyfus affair, which highlights anti-semitism. The false condemnation of this captain in the French army on the basis of forged evidence for passing secret information to the Germans was one of the most divisive issues in modern French history.

Industrialization and Ideologies

• We present Herbert Spencer’s social Darwinism, which applied the theory of Charles Darwin to society. It held that humans, like animals, were subject to the law of "survival of the fittest". This racial theory encouraged Europeans to believe they were superior to other peoples and cultures in the world. Such thinking fostered anti-Semitism and discrimination against other ethnic groups.
• Also in this unit, we discuss Theodor Herzl’s Zionist movement, which called for the establishment of a Jewish state. It can be viewed as a reaction to the growing pressures on Jews that had been experienced during the Dreyfus affair in France.

Imperialism

• In this unit, we discuss the process by which Western missionaries brought Christianity to Asians and Africans and influenced and/or destroyed their native religious practices. This aggressive nationalism was fueled by racial theories used to justify imperialism.

World Wars

• During World War II, six million Jews were killed under the Nazi regime in the Holocaust. The Nazi death camps still bear testimony to the inhumanity of human beings.

Enrichment: Guest Speaker on the Holocaust

The Modern World: Latin America

• The Catholic Church plays an important role in Latin American nations where the majority of people are Catholic. Members of the Catholic clergy in Brazil and other Latin American nations have spoken out on such issues as poverty and social injustice.

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I’m Okay; You’re Okay: Teaching Tolerance through World Religions Lessons

Night by Elie Wiesel

Rationale: Night is powerful, mature book that is also short (109 pages) and easy to read. It gives students insight into Judaism as well as the Holocaust. Hopefully tolerance is learned when students connect what happened when one man’s intolerance was allowed to spread.

Objectives: students will 1. Read, write, talk, and think about the novel Night. 2. Gain an understanding of the Holocaust. 3. Learn about Judaism. 4. Understand that indifference contributed to the atrocities of Hitler. 5. Realize that indifference can and does allow social injustices today. 6. Have tolerance for humans.

Lesson I: Indifference

Introduction: Two days after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, Elie Wiesel, author of Night said the following: "If there is one word that describes all the woes and threats that exist today, it’s indifference. You see a tragedy on television for three minutes and then comes something else and something else. How many tragedies have we had recently? The Challenger, Chernobyl, the earthquake in El Salvador. . .And then there are the wars and those still in jail in Communist countries. Because there are so many tragedies, a sense of helplessness sets in. people become numb. They become indifferent. Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil. The opposite of love is not hate, it’s evil. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference. Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies. To be in the window and watch people being sent to concentration camps or being attacked in the street and doing nothing, that’s being dead. One should not, one cannot, one must not turn one’s back on memory. It is an exalted way of seeing one’s life in its totality. Of course, there are tragedies, but there are also ways of winning battles and overcoming despair. I have always believed in God, though I have my quarrels with Him. In the Jewish tradition, one may say no to God if it is on behalf of other people. Sometimes I ask the questions and He does not answer—and I go on asking questions. I believe that one can be a good Jew or Christian or Buddhist and be with God or against God but not without God." (US News & World Report, October 27, 1986, page 68)

Assignment: 1. Find an example of injustice in the newspaper. It can be an event that affects one individual, or several individuals, or even an entire country. The people affected by the event may react with n attitude of indifference or with one of indigence. Cut the article out of the paper and summarize it in your own words. 2. Tell why you think the people acted indifferently or fought for justice.

Class Activity: Indifference

Indifference is defined as lacking a feeling for or against something; apathy; detachment. In particular, an indifferent person is unwilling to take action to correct a wrong either out of fear or lack of concern.

Many people feel that the atrocities of Nazi Germany and the concentration camps was, in fact, permitted by the indifference of people around the world.

Below are some scenarios taken from newspaper stories in which people acted indifferently in a variety of situations. First, read all of the scenarios. Second, decide which is the example of most harmful indifference and which is the least harmful third, rank the remaining scenarios from 2 through 5. Finally, write one or two sentences stating the reasons for your choices.

Put the letters of the scenarios in the spaces by the numbers.

Most harmful indifference Least harmful

1._____ 2._____ 3._____ 4._____ 5._____

A. Old Lady An elderly woman is walking out of the grocery store with her arms full of groceries and her purse over her shoulder. Two boys about 13 years old approach and demand her purse. She refuses to give it to them They knock her down and grab the purse from her. She screams and a number of people look over to see her on the ground and the boys running away with her purse. The boys are wearing a red bandanna that could mean they are members of a gang. Several onlookers would like to help the lady, but they are afraid of what the gang members might do in retaliation. All of the onlookers ignore the plight of the lady, and so the two boys run away easily.

B. Food Drive A high school in an upper middle class suburb sponsors a food drive near the Christmas break. A few teachers give extra credit grade points for students who bring in canned goods. Those students bring many items. Most of the other teachers are too busy with school work, tests, and grades to get involved except to make the announcement to their classes. The students in the classes with no grade incentive bring in a pitfully small number of goods. Most of them are too busy with their jobs, social life, sports, and activities to remember to bring food for the hungry.

C. Church Line A church service is held at noon in a church near downtown so that office personnel and business executives can attend services during their lunch break. During communion the clergyman notices that one line is much shorter than the other lines. As he watches to see the reason for the shorter line, he notices that people are moving from the short line to longer ones. He looks more carefully and sees that the short line is the one where a young, African-American woman is giving communion. He can not believe that devout Christians would hurt another human being solely because of her gender or race. He is indignant about this behavior, but he does not want to offend his congregation right at this moment, and so he says nothing.

D. Teen Beatings Two families live next to each other in a rather large apartment complex. One of the families has two teenagers who seem rather incorrigible, but they have not caused any serious problems to anyone’s knowledge. Often loud shouting, screaming and crying are heard coming from the apartment with the two teens. Also, it sounds as if the father is beating one or both of the teens with his belt, and yelling at them that they had better learn to obey his orders. One of the teens begs him to stop the beating. Occasionally, the teens have had black eyes after a night of violence. The person living next door would like to do something to help reduce the violence, but decides that the way a parent disciplines his/her children is not the concern of a neighbor. Thus, no action is taken.

E. Single Mom A young single parent with two grade school children lives next door to a retired couple. The children are in the first and third grades. Because the mother must work long hours to pay the bills, the children are home alone before they go to school and after they come home from school, sometimes very late. The couple worries about these two children, but they decide that the children being home alone is really none of their business. After all, the mother is probably doing the best she can, and they do not want to be involved. The children continue to be alone at least several hours daily.

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Lesson II: Found Poem Assignment

1. Copy one or two unique, powerful, or unusual sentences found in the book Night. (Thirty to fifty words is a good target for sentence length).

2. Break the sentences into poetic lines, arranging words and phrases in the most meaningful and surprising ways.

3. Arrange words on lines creatively: Add spaces between words (Clear Out) Delete space between words (mendie) Divide words into stanzas Add punctuation marks Add capital letters or lowercase letters

4. Write at least three rough draft patterns of your sentence(s) before you choose the final form. Place an asterisk (*) beside the found poem you think made the words the most powerful for the reader.

5. Format: A. Proper Heading B. Title: Found Poem C. words from Night, page ___ D. Quote the sentence(s) exactly as it appears in the book E. Poem F. At the end of your poem and to the right: arranged by (your name)

EXAMPLE

Rosalie Cunningham

World History/World Literature

Interdisciplinary Class Periods 2/3

Sentences from Night, 1982, page 62.

"For more than half an hour he stayed there, struggling between life and between death, dying in slow agony under our eyes. And we had to look him full in the face."

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Lesson III: Night, In Class Essay Assignment

Directions: Choose one theme from the list below and write for the ENTIRE class period. You may write this assignment in the form of a letter, a newspaper article, or an essay as long as you satisfy the requirements. Remember to pace yourself and leave time to proofread before handing your work in to me.

Theme topics (You must write a complete sentence which states what you believe Elie Wiesel says about your particular theme.)

1. Intolerance 2. Indifference 3. Social injustice 4. Profound despair 5. Moral crisis/loss of faith 6. Violation of human rights

Audience: Another junior class who has not read the novel.

Purpose: Inform and persuade the reader that your opinion about the theme you choose is true.

Requirements: The paper should have an introduction that clearly states the topic and your opinion on it. The body should contain SPECIFIC support from your thinking about this topic, from your own life experiences, from the reading and discussions in class, and from the videos you have viewed in the past three weeks. Be sure to include detail and specific examples and text from the novel and specific references to the videos. Make sure to include author and title of the novel and the exact titles of the videos.

Do not forget to conclude your paper so that your reader knows that you are finished.

Evaluation: Rubrics

Meets standard

• The topic is presented thoroughly with details and examples that make the writing clear and interesting.
• The paper is easy to follow, makes sense, and is easy to understand.
• The paper has an inviting beginning and an ending that works well.
• Ideas flow smoothly from one to the other.
• The writer is sincere and seems to care about the topic and getting his/her ideas across to the reader.
• The paper is original. The writing is concise with careful word choice and varied sentence structure.
• No major errors in language conventions.

Exceeds standard

• All criteria of the standard are met.
• Additionally, the paper stands out from the others. The introduction hooks the reader’s interest immediately, the writing is engaging, the writer uses colorful expressions and imagery, and the writer speaks right to the reader.

Emerging

• The paper is unclear and seems to have no purpose.
• The content is poorly explored and superficial.
• The writer does not deal seriously with the topic and/or does not deal with the topic in a personal way.
• Sentence flaws and errors in language conventions make this paper difficult to read and understand.
• The paper is flat and lifeless.

World History Association roupp@csn.net in partnership with:
Woodrow Wilson Leadership Program in History lpt@www.woodrow.org
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation webmaster@woodrow.org
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