Stereotypes (from Tracey)

Hey all,

I don't know what's up with this article--it seems like it's missing
the first few paragraphs or something--but that's how it appeared on
the website. Anyway, this came through with this week's "Religious
Diversity News" installment for the Pluralism Project and I thought
y'all might find it interesting.

I find the last comment particularly interesting--"we're all experts in
our own cultures and religions"--in light of what I discussed in my
paper about how most of the teachers I surveyed in SC seemed to think
that being a Christian equaled knowing a lot about Christianity or
being an "expert" in it... which I was arguing was not true... and it's
funny how this article is talking about the need for training in
different religions and yet it brings it back to the idea that the
average follower of a religion is the highest "expert" on that
religion. Interesting...


http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/education/11773263.htm

Posted on Mon, May. 30, 2005


COUNTERING STEREOTYPES

a class of fifth- and sixth-graders during a recent visit to North Star
Academy in Redwood City.

Life? Hope? Happiness? Love? the students guessed.

``I think it's if a girl is married or not,'' offered sixth-grader
Laura McVey.

``Yes, that's true in some places,'' Vijaykar said, adding that bindis
also symbolize the figurative ``third eye'' or the ``mind's eye'' that
helps people understand something -- not just see it. She said bindis
in ancient India originated from the practice of people putting
sandalwood paste on their foreheads to cool off.

One thing bindis don't symbolize is the caste system. But a popular
social studies textbook approved for classrooms across the state
teaches students that misconception.

``Caste is often shown with a mark on the forehead,'' reads a caption
in McGraw-Hill's ``Ancient World: Adventures in Time and Place'' under
a photograph of a girl with a bindi.

``That's completely wrong,'' said Kishore Sharma, a priest at Sunnyvale
Hindu Temple, who received a doctorate in Sanskrit at India's Banaras
Hindu University.

``It's a cyclical problem,'' Sharma said of the difficulty of teaching
about world religions. ``A teacher learns the wrong thing and
reinforces the misconception without even realizing it.''

Muslim stereotypes

Maha ElGenaidi, executive director of the Islamic Networks Group, an
educational outreach organization, said she encountered this growing up
as a non-practicing Muslim in Ohio in the early 1970s. ElGenaidi held a
lot of her own stereotypes because her school and the media portrayed
the alleged ``fanaticism, radicalism and oppression of women'' in
Muslim culture. It wasn't until she read the Koran, the Muslim holy
book, a few years ago that she learned those stereotypes aren't true
among everyday people who practice the religion.

``In all religious traditions, people tend to blame the religion for
what a few people have done in misapplying the religion or using it for
political ends,'' said ElGenaidi, who now practices Islam. ``Terrorism
and honor killings are often times reported as being justified by
Islam, when in fact, Islam unequivocally condemns both of these
actions.''

ElGenaidi's group develops curricula on Islamic history and culture and
provides presentations in classrooms across the Bay Area. She said
teachers are usually open to the presentations when they understand
that the goal is to supplement state curricula in an academic way that
doesn't have any hint of proselytizing.

California's education standards include lessons for sixth- and
seventh-graders on the history of world religions such as Christianity,
Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and others.

Lack of resources

Vijaykar said many of the teachers she's spoken with complain about the
lack of resources on world religions and are hungry for information.
She recalls a teacher at her son's former school, Redwood Middle School
in Saratoga, who invited Vijaykar to class several years ago to add to
her lesson on India and world religions. Vijaykar remembers being
outraged by a handout on various forms of the Hindu god.

The handout -- produced by Teacher Created Materials, an education
publishing company in Westminster -- listed Parvati as a goddess who is
``chief of all of the elves'' that roam the Earth. Company officials
didn't return requests for interviews.

``They might as well be talking about fairies in a fairy tale,''
Vijaykar said. ``It makes the religion sound silly and stupid. And it's
plain wrong.''

Diana Eck, professor of comparative religion and Indian studies at
Harvard University, had a similar reaction: ``Elves? That's just false.
That's ridiculous.''

Eck runs Harvard's Pluralism Project, which develops curricula about
world religions with the goal of promoting awareness about religious
diversity in the United States.

``Teachers who may not have a lot of training in religions of the world
-- including those like Hinduism that are extremely complex and
multidimensional -- should not be the only voice representing it in the
classroom,'' Eck said. ``After all, the traditions they're teaching are
not only practiced by people who live on the other side of the world
but by people who live on the other side of the street.''

One book that has launched Vijaykar into heated discussions -- mostly
with teachers -- is ``Homeless Bird,'' by Gloria Whelan, which won a
National Book Award in 2000. It is one of five books related to Indian
culture out of 606 novels the state Department of Education recommends
for middle-schoolers. Not one of the five books is written by an Indian
or Indo-American.

Urine and dung?

Vijaykar's biggest concern is a scene describing Indians at a religious
festival playing with colors made of urine and cow dung.

``It's disgusting,'' she said, raising her voice. ``How do you think
the Indian students in the room feel when they read this book? They
know it's wrong but how can they challenge a book with such
authority?''

Whelan defended her research in an e-mail to the Mercury News, noting
that she didn't try to represent the entire spectrum of India's diverse
culture. ``All I have written is all too true in small villages,'' she
wrote.

But Vijaykar said the book reinforces stereotypes: a girl forced into
an arranged marriage at 13 and required by her in-laws to work like a
slave.

Vijaykar said the book's references to the caste system and
widow-burning are important to discuss but they shouldn't be readers'
first and only exposure to the culture.

``It makes you think the caste system and arranged marriages are all
this rich ancient culture has accomplished throughout the centuries,''
she said.

Vijaykar said she hopes students and teachers of all faiths and
cultural backgrounds act as watchdogs in classrooms.

``We're all experts in our own cultures and religions,'' she said,
``and if it's misrepresented, we have to say something.''
Contact Julie Patel at jpatel@mercurynews.com or (650) 688-7550.