Religion at Menlo Alice Shaw| Arts & Lifestyle Editor
Menlo has always prided itself on being a diverse and inclusive school. It has a community filled with students of different genders, sexualities, races, and religions. This last characteristic of Menlo’s accepting community has proven itself to be quite questionable after an assembly on Friday October 10, during which senior Joe Klein spoke about the implications and rationale behind the drawing of a red swastika on his 2014 Menlo yearbook during Day on the Green. For Klein, this symbol and act of hate by a Menlo student made him understandably rethink his opinions on how accepting our community is toward students with different religious beliefs. But, did the rest of the Menlo community react in a similar way? According to Dean of Students Tony Lapolla, Menlo is a school that advertises itself as a place that upholds good morals and has an accepting mindset. “I very rarely hear stories of students at Menlo being disrespected because of their religious affiliation or beliefs.” For Lapolla, Menlo is a community that upholds many morals that can be found in any religion, while maintaining a liberal perspective. “I believe that if our student body is able to uphold the morals and academic code that we pride ourselves on having, Menlo is definitely a place where students should feel comfortable expressing their religious beliefs and affiliation,” Lapolla said. When Klein was asked after the assembly about his general feelings towards religion at Menlo, he explained that while Menlo celebrates a secular name, some of its choices indicate otherwise. “I think of Menlo as almost borderline militant atheism. Despite its secular name, we celebrate Christmas break and Easter holiday, we don’t call fall break Rosh Hashanah. Because of things like this, it’s hard for me to view Menlo as an accepting place for different religions,” Klein said. Senior Idalys Nava-Monje, who feels that Menlo is too lenient with the jokes its student body makes regarding religion, also agreed with this. “I feel like there’s always someone making a God joke or a church joke, which makes people scared to express their religion,” Nava-Monje said. Junior Polly Finch also agreed that Menlo could do a better job of making students more comfortable expressing their religion. “Personally, while I feel comfortable expressing my religion because I am primarily atheist and that’s the most commonly practiced religion at Menlo, I can see how others who practice less popular religions are hesitant to express their beliefs,” Finch said. While all students commented on the fact that Menlo is located in a very sheltered place, which makes people scared to defy the status quo, they agreed that having more discussions about religion and its presence in the Menlo community would serve as a catalyst to helping students feel like they can be more open about their own beliefs. While Menlo teaches World Religion’s freshman year, a class that educates all students on different, practiced religions, Menlo students generally feel that the topic of religion should be discussed more. Sophomore Alistair Shaw feels that while World Religions is a fantastic course that all students are lucky to take, after freshman year Menlo doesn’t really address religion in any way. “Menlo has a Diversity Club and an LGBTQ club, both fantastic clubs, but no club on religion of any kind. I think that the first step to helping students feel comfortable with expressing their beliefs is to talk about religion,” Shaw said. Finch and Nava-Monje also felt similarly, suggesting that religion be brought up in advocacy sometime to help students start talking about their religions in a safe, monitored setting. Overall, while Menlo is a very accepting school and welcoming of all types of students, it certainly could do more to help its student body feel more comfortable expressing their religious beliefs.
World Relgions Run Down
World Religions mandatory course despite Menlo’s secular standing by Nicola Meyer | Staff Writer
Menlo Students In Favor of World Religions Class as Freshman History Course (5 being the most favorable)
Sophomores across the country take World History; juniors take U.S. History. However, there is no universal history curriculum for freshmen. Instead of focusing on content, freshman history courses in the U.S. emphasize note-taking, citations and analytical writing in order to better prepare students for courses they will take in the future. At Menlo, all freshmen are required to take World Religions, which seems unusual, given Menlo is a secular school. The administration could have opted to offer other common freshman courses such as Ancient History, Geography or Medieval Studies; however, they believe teaching religion will largely benefit the students. While the Bay Area is more seular than most places, an overwhelming majority of the world’s population is religious.“We live in a religious world, where religion [...] drives human behavior whether it’s incredibly selfless acts of service or religiously motivated violence,” World Religions teacher Andy Kitt said. The course is trying to incorporate more current events in the hope that students will better apply their knowledge. “[To see where religious behavior comes] from is really important for understanding the modern world and understanding other people,” Kitt said. While the course covers a variety of religions, memorizing long lists of religious facts is not the focus. “We like [the course] because it’s not exactly a history class but it allows us to cover some history, some sociology, some religion and some anthropology,” Upper School Director John Schafer said. The ultimate goal is for students to understand people of different backgrounds and leave the class with a more open mindset. The class also allows students to reflect on their own beliefs, while simultaneously learning about the beliefs of different cultures world-wide. World Religions is designed to offer students a new perspective on religion without forcing certain beliefs upon them. The teachers also concentrate on making students feel comfortable about whatever views they may hold. “Although I identify as Jewish, learning about other religions did not affect me in any negative way. The class was a great way to empathize with different people,” senior Jennie Greenstein said. Often times, it is the secular students who are the most outspoken in class, but the teachers always work to make sure those students with more traditional beliefs are not excluded. Menlo constantly evaluates their current courses, World Religions included. As the school progresses and the world evolves it makes sense that the course should change along with them. Menlo plans to keep adapting how World Religions is taught and what they will emphasize the proceeding year. Menlo is proud of the course’s success and will continue to teach freshmen to think differently about the world, a major part of that being to think the role of religion.
Opinions from Students and Teachers How Thou Shalt & Shalt Not Teach About Religion Mathew Nelson | Freshman World Religions Teacher There is a significant difference between teaching religion and teaching about religion. The former implies that there is a degree of formation in one singular religious tradition (or problematically, a type of proselyting) involved in the educational experience. I was the Chair of a Catholic Theology Department before coming to Menlo School, and I am keenly aware that at Catholic schools this is typically (but not always) the approach. At my former school, I tried to steer the department away from this paradigm of religious instruction, although my perspective is that the Diocese of San Francisco will do whatever is necessary to bring Catholic schools into conformity with their “disciple-making” agenda. The latter signifies a purely academic, interdisciplinary approach to the study of religion that seeks to prosper students’ consciences in order to cultivate good citizens in a pluralistic democracy, and enable students to discern their spiritual natures. Now since this is an opinion piece, I will state my opinion: There is a two-headed monster from Greek mythology, Charybdis and Scylla, of which we must be wary. The first I have already described, where teaching religion is a sectarian enterprise. The second is the danger in thinking that in a secular environment religion is trivial and inconsequential, and therefore should be given the least amount of attention possible. Thinkers like Richard Dawkins or the late Christopher Hitchens might hope that religion shouldn’t exist on the planet, but the fact of the matter is that religion has been, is, and will be with us for a very long time to come. Ignoring the full depth and breath of these traditions; their influence upon history, literature, politics, the human psyche, cultures, and current events; and the affect they are having on people all around us will only make students ignorant, insensitive, and obtuse. That is why I am so excited about World Religions at Menlo! Teaching about religion – drawing principally from history, and then from philosophy, theology, psychology, sociology, literary studies, etc. – becomes a dynamic investigation into the essence of the human being and her encounter with nature and others. Teaching about Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and the like is to wrestle with the big existential questions of life, and dig deeply into the marrow of the human experience. Yes, we study the history of religion, but we also investigate the traditions, as they exist today – i.e. “lived” religion! Borrowing from my former professor at Harvard, Dianne Moore, this approach is called the “cultural studies” model of teaching world religions. In my World Religions classes, we survey each dominant religious tradition and scrutinize salient historical moments in the past – the formation of the Indus River Valley Civilization and the Vedic Period in Hinduism; Al-Andalus and La Convivencia in Spain between 711 and 1492; and others – from an interdisciplinary perspective. Then we take our learning and apply it to contemporary events and controversies that pertain to religion (and they are many): the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting in 2012; the controversy of Urban Outfitters featuring Lord Ganesha on one of their duvet covers; and the current debate about the place of tolerance in Islam. Our study of religion is dynamic, relevant, and crucial to our becoming active participants in the “life of the mind” today. In my teaching of religion, I reinforce the idea of students as meaning-making beings, who are learning and growing into informed citizens. Religion is really interesting, and can be a lot of fun if taught well! That is what I strive to do.
A Well Rounded Education Jack Hammond | Online & Sports Editor Although Menlo is a private school, it is secular and does not require theology courses or have mass on campus. However, all freshmen take a World Religions course that focuses on giving students key knowledge on religions worldwide. The first semester’s curriculum focuses on both indigenous religions and popular religions of Asia such as the Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism. The second semester’s curriculum primarily looks at the large monotheistic religions in Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Although some may think it is hypocritical that Menlo teaches a religious course, I think it is very smart to include this class in the required curriculum. The class emphasizes historical facts and viewpoints of the religion instead of how to convert and why you should. I never once felt uncomfortable in the class and instead learned how each religion views the world through their unique doctrines and gods. There are so many different beliefs and the class does a great job of comparing the outlooks of the religions studied. The comparisons, such as creation or afterlife, helped blend and differentiate the many religions of our world. I attended Woodside Priory for middle school and was required to take a theology course every year. The courses often focused on biblical study and history, but its openness helped make the material less overwhelming. We often discussed and analyzed viewpoints based on different authors of pieces. The classes not only built religious background but helped mold discussion and research skills. Kids in my class who did not associate with religion or worshipped other religions still took the class and got something out of it every year. With diverse opinions, the classroom environment was enhanced greatly. I am a Christian and believe in being open to hearing about other religions. Having different perspectives is key to helping mold one’s identity and I believe every religion has the right to worship their own god or deity. For example, students in my World Religions class came from different backgrounds and worshipped many different religions, making the class more intriguing because of firsthand experience. The role that religion has played in shaping our current world fascinates me. I think learning about something so important as religion, even from a historical perspective, is key in understand the foundation of our world. If this class were to be replaced with another course, students would miss out on an essential part of history and the present.