Prospect High School students among select group to pilot national religious studies program

Article originally in the Chicago Tribune

There is a desperate need in the US and the world presently for growth in the capacity to entertain ideas other than one’s own. Harvard University’s Religious Diversity Project, speaks perfectly to this urgent and pressing need.

IRFWP celebrates the efforts of this project, and especially supports the growth of such education in pre-University environments

Students at Prospect High School are among the first teens in the U.S. to participate in a world religions studies class created by professor and scholar Diane Moore, right, and others with the Harvard Divinity School. (Karen Ann Cullotta / Pioneer Press)

When a visiting scholar from the Harvard Divinity School recently delivered a lesson to a classroom of Prospect High School students, the teens were not intimidated to share their opinions with an Ivy League educator.

“It’s important with religious diversity that you can’t judge and take away someone’s rights just because that’s not the way you think,” said Prospect senior Susannah Evett, 17, expressing her reaction to a case study presented by Diane Moore, a religious studies professor and scholar at Harvard.

Moore, who has been working with Prospect teacher John Camardella to pilot new resources developed by the Religious Literacy Project at Harvard Divinity School for teaching religion in class, thought Evett’s takeaway was spot on.

“My heart sings when I hear that,” Moore replied.

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