“Rather than being avoided or dismissed, adolescent spirituality should be recognized for what it is—a wellspring of curiosity, imagination, justice, interconnectedness, and compassion.”
An excerpt from E. Toshalis’ (2008) “Adolescent spirituality in public schools” in M. Sadowski’s Adolescents at School: Perspectives on Youth, Identity, and Education.
As someone who grew up in a Christian home and community, I greatly appreciated Toshalis’ chapter on spirituality in schools. Spirituality is a word or idea that has become increasingly more taboo throughout the years. However, as Toshalis stated, at the root of spirituality one finds, “a wellspring of curiosity, imagination, justice, interconnectedness, and compassion.” Are these not the very elements upon which we strive to base the education we offer our students? I am by no means suggesting that proselytizing be allowed in schools, but I do not think that silencing all talk of spirituality in schools is the right answer, either. In France, the separation of Church and State was taken so far as to require students to remove any and all religious symbols before they walk into the school building. This gives Toshalis figurative comment about “check[ing] central aspects of themselves [students] at the door when they enter school” a very literal meaning. We live in an age where prejudice against a variety of faiths abounds and I strongly believe that it would do the world a lot of good to learn more about other people’s faith so that it ceases to be the big, scary, misunderstood and misinterpreted thing it is oftentimes portrayed as.
I really like this point about spirituality. For many people, religion and spirituality is a big part of their identity. I think if adolescents are spiritual this is something that should be acknowledged. Though it is true that schools have separation of church and state, I think that schools often have a tendency to try to make everyone the same for fear of differences. I think things like advisory programs, where students and teachers can discuss more socio-emotional and personal subjects can be successful in respectfully acknowledging the differences with others.
Hi Cherie, I love your idea of the spirituality. For a long time, I always has the questiont that why religious belief is a tatoo in education system since even presidents place their hands on the Bible while taking the oath of office. For me, America is closely linked to relegion and it is not uncommon to notice someone you ran into has the belief. So it is hard for me to understand why relegion and education is seperated. When I was in London, I noticed relegion and education are twisted together. There are many Church supported schools. So I am really interested on what makes the huge difference between the attitutes toward relegions.