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Program in Religious Studies and Education |
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PRSE Alumnus ProfileJim Norton
The problem was that he needed them to be familiar with the basics of Christianity in order to understand much of the symbolism in the literature he was teaching. "I feel like we're walking this line in this discussion nationally where people don't want to impinge on anything, anywhere," the 27-year-old from Staten Island, New York, says about fears to include religious education in public schools. "We shy away from teaching religion academically—intellectually—because of fear of what happens in terms of lawsuits, in terms of impinging on the First Amendment, in terms of various ramifications." But religious ignorance interferes with education and public discourse: "If you're a better reader and a better thinker, the more you can pull together," he points out. "Moreover, if there's going to be any sort of balance or any sort of legitimate dialogue in politics or about education, people on both sides have to address religion." Jim, who was attracted to the "social-intellectual endeavor" of the PRSE, tutored at a Boston day shelter for homeless women during the past two years and will be student teaching at Newton North High School starting this fall. Unlike the day shelter, where his math problems became a big hit, similar to crosswords, Jim will be student teaching English to sophomores who did not pass the MCAS exams and seniors. He's looking forward to the younger students: "Working with this age group, it's really great. They're changing so much at that stage. They're constantly reinventing who they are. There's so much potential." Posted July 2005
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Before coming to HDS, Jim Norton taught at a private school in California, where he observed the overall lower level of cultural literacy that politicians harp on—students not being able to identify Adam and Eve, let alone discuss the five pillars of Islam—yet Jim also realized that some of his students knew the intricacies of the Tao-te-Ching and other esoteric (in this country) subjects.
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