"Relgion in class"

Religion has always been a controversial topic among human beings. History has shown us that religion has not reached its own purpose but on the contrary it has distanced beings from one another.
Some schools have chosen not including religion as a subject, instead they prefer that each family can have the option to decide if they want to follow a religion or not. The article “Teaching Religion in schools” alludes an open discussion to express readers’ opinions about giving or not religions lessons at school; it is an interest material to identify that most of the people think that religion must not be taught in class.(1)But sometimes “Religion” as a topic can arise any time and as teachers, we must be prepared. It does not matter what you believe or what you think is best, you must give the tools to make them chose. Educators are models but they are also a guide to provide knowledge in order to help them to create their own critical thinking. We must be tolerant a not becoming an extremist, we must act as neutral because we can not disrespect others believes. For example, in the interview made to Bill Maher about its new satirical documentary, the political satirist wants to show the world, with his new satirical documentary, that religion is attempting against human beings life. (4)We can identify this kind of documentary as extremist and intolerant for people who really believe that religion is necessary and important in life. Also in a The New York Times article Maher also described religion as ambiguous and non real. (2)
Teachers have to be neutral in every controversial topic because we never know how student’s families think and how are they going to react if we give our own point of views. Most of the time, students think that what teachers say is the truth and nothing but the truth but they must know that educators are just a help to make them conscious of real life.


Bibliography:

-Maher, Bill. Personal interview. 30 Sept. 2008.
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95210724>

-Cameras Roll, and Faith Hasn’t a Prayer. The New York Times. 26 Sept.2008.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/28/movies/28lela.html?src=tp>


- Teaching Religion in Schools. American civil liberties union of Pennsylvania.
<http://www.aclupa.org/education/studentsrightsmanual/freedomofreligion/teachingreligioninschools.htm>

"Formality & Objectivity"

When we talk about academic writing, we refer to many characteristics that make it reliable. Two of these are: Formality and Objectivity

Formality: The main idea of this is to avoid colloquial language, such as “everyday speaking expressions”, swear words, contractions, abbreviations, phrasal verbs, “etc”.
For example:
-It is better to use the word “depart” rather “go”.
INFORMAL: She went at 4 pm.
FORMAL: She departed at 4:00 pm.

-We can use the word “opportunity” than “chance”.
IMFORMAL: You will just just one more chance to fulfill the objectives.
FORMAL: You will have one more opportunity to fulfill the objectives.

Objectivity: In academic writing, this concept aims for giving the reader only what is needed for him/her to be informed, it means, only the information, not what the author thinks or believe or what him/her has experienced in relation with the topic. The author should be more professional than personal for the ideas he/she gives.
For example:
“In my point of view this experience has been a great contribution…”

Exercise: Try to turn the following sentence, which is written in informal language, into formal language.
“Most people take drug overdoses because they find that it's difficult to sort out their problems clearly. That's why you should treat your patients in a clear way”.