As religion is very tied to world history we decided to take our students on a field trip to visit religious centres for the three major monotheistic religions. We visited La Mezquita de Omar, the Metropolitan Cathedral in San Jose and the Centro Israelita Sionista. Our students got to share their religious knowledge and experiences with each other, learn from religious leaders and compare cultural norms.
The girls brought scarves to cover their heads upon entering the mosque. Some boys thought to bring kippahs from their bar mitzvahs to give to friends. Our more devout Catholics stood in for the priest who was meant to give us a tour but had to leave early to visit with the pope on his trip to Panama this weekend. We all had tea at the mosque and a tasty kosher lunch at the synagogue before taking our tour. All in all, we all enjoyed learning and sharing our own religious beliefs/experiences with one another and had a lot to say walking back into our history classes with these newfound experiences and knowledge.
