[IAEP] Astrology at Spirituality for Kids (was Re: Sugar Digest 2013-08-22)

[James Simmons]

My feeling on this is that religious instruction, presented as such, is OK.
Presented as something else it isn't. Sometimes there is a gray area. For
instance, hatha yoga can be taught as a religious practice and also as a
system of exercises with no mention of the original purpose of the
exercises. I think this Spirituality For Kids crosses the line. Teaching
kids that they have a light inside them and that they need to listen to a
True Voice is what a Vaishnava would call Mayavadi philosophy; the idea
that all souls are part of God and that self realization is to merge into
God, etc. While some Hindu traditions teach this, others would considers
these beliefs morally repugnant. Going back to hatha yoga, a Christian
would be offended if his child is taught anything but exercises, and a
Hindu would be offended if his child is not taught something besides
exercises.

Between Get Books and Read Etexts and the Browse Activities a child wishing
to study his own religion or others has a wealth of material to look at.
 Personally I'd leave it at that.  Sword is OK, and if there is something
for studying the Koran that's OK too. If I could figure out how a Python
program could make studying the Gita easier or more enjoyable I'd write one.

But Spirituality For Kids is different. It teaches kids religious beliefs
while pretending to do something else. That kind of thing can only lead to
trouble.

James Simmons



On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 5:31 PM, Bastien <bzg at laptop.org> wrote:

> Edward Mokurai Cherlin <mokurai at sugarlabs.org> writes:
>
> > However, the Orthodox teaching about Kabbalah is that one may not
> > study it before the age of 50.
>
> Done.  :)
>
> --
>  Bastien
> _______________________________________________
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>
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