Hi Lexi, I enjoyed reading your post and learning that you have so much curricular freedom! I (along with my co-planning partners) also have quite a bit of curricular freedom, especially in our world history classes. While I love the freedom, it feels like a weighty responsibility, and I am interested to know what guides your choices. I agree with the text for today that, indeed, "all choice is political" and have felt very aware of that when switching from teaching the French Revolution to teaching the Haitian Revolution. That was a deliberate decision to represent other histories so that more of our students see themselves represented in history. But, it comes with risks because we know that we cannot include the histories and backgrounds of all of our students, and I don't want any student to feel excluded or disconnected to the class. Do you run into similar challenges with all of that curricular freedom? Perhaps the detours and context that you wrote about help?

Hi Michael, I really appreciate your post about pedagogical choices, and certainly agree about not simplifying complex or controversial issues. As a world religions teacher, I especially enjoy identifying and celebrating the differences among religions rather than attempting to boil them all down to having the same goals. I agree that our students deserve more than an oversimplification!

This vignette really stayed with me and definitely rattled around in my brain! The lines ‘Yes, I know;'..."but I do" make me think about the incredibly personal nature of religion for an adherent, whether they are culturally connected to a the religion or a devout practitioner, and that this nature can’t be fully understood by another person. I also thought of some of the fundamental religious understandings that I use with my students which can broadly apply to most religions, in particular, that religions are internally diverse. And so, one person’s experience with the pratice of a religion will vary from another’s. But, because this was about Islam, and not religions in general, there are so many misconceptions that come with this vignette. The colleague at the dinner party who questioned the drinking of wine wanted to show that they had enough knowledge of Islam to be confused by the consumption of alcohol. However, they also revealed that they had a narrow understanding of how Islam is supposed to be practiced, rather than an awareness of the many ways in which Muslims live their lives with nuance and complexity. It was as if the understanding of humans being complex and at times contradictory didn’t apply to Muslims because there is a ‘single story’ understanding of Islam and those who adhere to the religion.