Teaching Religion

One of the greatest challenges facing teachers is how to teach the historical foundation of the "Big 3" monotheistic religions- Judaism, Islam, & Christianity. The major concern is what to teach given the historical record. Nobody wants to step on anyone's beliefs and no teacher wants to be fired for attempting Thucydides' akribeia (accuracy). Historical origins of religions are deeply rooted in their predecessors, a fact which often does not gel with the beliefs of a significant number of Americans. So, my main question is how to manage to fulfill Occam's Razor "Pluritas non ect sin necessitas" (Leave out that which is not necessary) on this subject. I would hope to be able to still give an accurate account with some detail, but I'm deeply concerned about having to constantly be looking over my shoulder while doing so.

Please let me know what you think!

Possible Project

I have been mulling over an idea for a student project for a unit in Roman history. One of the means that Octavian used to achieve supremacy was to discredit his opposition publicly. His minister of propaganda, Maecenas, managed to turn Mark Antony from a Roman hero to a foreign menace by using an army of literary giants to sway the public. 

My idea is for the kids to work in groups of 3. Each team is asked to act as Maecenas and develop an advertising campaign to discredit the enemies of the new regime. They will be asked to write 2 written ads with enclosed images. Students will also have to present a "television ad" through video(thereby bringing an element of the present). Since this idea is still in development I would love suggestions to improving it. Thanks!

Purpose of this blog

The goal of this blog is to discuss creative ways to relate content in ancient history. I have created and implemented lessons for Sumerian history and Greek history. The most crucial element to these lessons was adding an element of role play. For the Sumerian/Mesopotamian unit I decided to have a "People's Court" based on the Law Code of Hammurabi. Students were given slips to argue their cases as either plaintiff or defendant, and all of the mock cases were prepared beforehand and judged by myself based on the principles of Hammurabi's Code. The kids really enjoyed hearing about the Draconian measures by which they were to be punished, and were soon eagerly volunteering to be executed under Babylonian law. 

Let me know if you have had similar experiences with role play in your classroom.