MARYLAND, U.S., May 1, 2014 (Huffington Post): Over the past few months,
the Hindu American Foundation, Kaur Foundation and Sikh Kid To Kid worked
with the Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools to implement a three-part
training for teachers, involving cultural immersions at Sikh and Hindu places of
worship (separate trips), followed by a reflection session designed to improve
classroom approaches to teaching about the two faiths. The workshops were a
product of conversations between the groups and Maria Tarasuk, the social
studies supervisor for the Montgomery County Public Schools, who has long
advocated for community-based approaches to teaching about diversity.
Following yesterday’s reflection session, it was apparent that the school district
had helped to lay the groundwork for something sustaining in the county, and
replicable in other parts of the country. Tarasuk said the experience
was “powerful” for teachers. “It helped them connect on an emotional level, not
only with the content but with their students,” she said. “Because of that,
teachers are going to be much more comfortable sharing with their students. It
was a wonderful partnership between the schools and all the organizations
involved.”
Over the past month, teachers who attended the workshops (an early April visit
to area Gurdwaras, the Guru Gobind Singh Foundation and the Guru Nanak
Foundation of America, followed by a visit last weekend to the Chinmaya
Mission of D.C.) learned about several commonly misunderstood facts about
Hinduism and Sikhism. The Hindu American trainers helped to explain key
concepts of Hinduism such as dharma, karma, and moksha, and how they relate
to daily practice, including how Hindus worship the Divine. We also helped to
showcase the evolution and the development of Hindu history over 5,000 years.
The teachers learned, for example, that the Aryan Invasion Theory – long a
staple of textbooks – has been debunked (though the Aryan Migration Theory is
still popular among many linguists), and that caste is not intrinsic to Hindu
philosophy (caste is an Indian social practice).