Before coming to college I had no intention of taking a religion class. I was prepared to sign up for what I was used to— the standard history, English, art, and Spanish classes. What I didn’t realize was how much of an absolute scramble for classes registration was going to be. Anyone who’s gone through it knows precisely what I’m talking about. Not getting the classes I initially wanted ultimately led me to sign up for Religion 101 on a whim.
Going into this class, I assumed I’d learn about each of the world religions. I thought by the end I’d have a pretty good understanding of the main beliefs of each religion and how these religions function in our world. However, this class really wasn’t what I was expecting, but I love it. My class is less focused on actual religion itself and more focused on learning how to think. We have questioned social constructs in society and have discussed how our positionality— i.e. gender, race, religion, etc. — changes the way we view the world. I love it because for the whole hour and fifteen minutes I’m curious. And when I leave the class I’m often still turning over ideas in my head.
So much of school is grade-focused and work-centered. The reality is that grades and work do matter, as we all want good jobs and successful lives. But in all the grades we sometimes lose sight of why we’re even in these classes.
This religion class has pushed me to think about so many topics that I wouldn’t have looked into on my own. We had a Gender and Religion assignment where we had to find examples of differing views Americans have of Muslim women and veiling. For the assignment, we had to find examples of the “dominant discourse,” which was to find examples of what Americans are saying with regard to Muslim women. Some of the content was really difficult to read. One of my sources was about how Muslim women face road rage and hear people yell racial slurs out of their windows while driving. The article then talked about how these women now plan their long drives at certain times of day when they’ll feel the safest. While this is an extreme example that doesn’t characterize all Americans, reading this led me to think a lot about the way minorities in America feel when some individuals allow unjustified, racist fear dictate their actions.
I’m not going to get into more of the details of my paper, but my point in giving this example is that I feel that after having done this paper I just understand more about the heavy societal problems of today. I think that’s something to take pride in. It’s worth trying to separate the thinking and curiosity from the grades and sometimes allow classes to be fun and interesting.
To conclude, I highly recommend Religion 101. Not only was my teacher just hilarious and fantastic, but the class taught me to be curious and discover topics I might not have otherwise looked into. The class pushed me to refocus my view of school and to remember the purpose of education.