7th Grade Humanities – World Religions Speaker Series
Posted by Ariel WarshawTo kick off our global studies in 7th Grade Humanities, we have been focusing on the complexities of culture and how these features shape societies. One key element of culture is religion. As we explore different continents and regions throughout the year, we will be considering how various aspects of culture – religion, but also economics, politics, geography, and more – influences the people of these places.
With this in mind, we started our course by analyzing the five major world religions in a broad sense. This gave the students a general lens for understanding these faiths and how we might apply this knowledge to our studies. In order to more authentically explore various faith traditions, we invited leaders from these faith traditions into our classroom – we always love when they visit! The guests answered questions, provided historical context, and overviewed the basic belief systems and cultural practices of their respective faiths from a non-devotional perspective.
Humanities 7 students welcomed the following visitors to our classroom:
Monday, 9/16: Judaism – Rabbi Evan Schultz, Senior Rabbi, Congregation B’nai Israel
Tuesday, 9/17: Christianity – The Reverend Vanessa Rose, Senior Pastor, First Church Congregational
Wednesday, 9/18: Buddhism – Venerable Shim Bo, Buddhist Chaplain at Sacred Heart University
Thursday, 9/19: Islam – Imam Omer Bajwa, Director of Muslim Life at Yale University
Friday, 9/20: Hinduism – Venkat Gade and Mahabala Salian, Board Members, Chinmaya Mission Fairfield-New Haven
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