Does teaching attract otherwise-progressive religious types?

[The Free Joy State]

I never had any teachers who inappropriately tried to inject their faith into the classroom in K-12.

I suppose if you go to a religious school you'd get religious instruction, but that's what your folks sent you there for, isn't it?

I don't know what it might be like outside of NYC.

Fun fact, in college my professor for a Mass Media course was Sr. Camille D'arienzo, who is a radio personality in NYC.... and in her college course, she STILL did not inject her faith into the curriculum.

If a nun can avoid teaching religion in a class that has nothing to do with religion, then what's the excuse of any layperson forcing their views on students?

I had some teachers who injected their faith into everything -- and I do mean everything -- in early primary. But they weren't remotely liberal, they were "believe as we believe and do as we do or you will burn, burn forever in a fiery lake".

From year two (age 7) onwards, I had many wonderful teachers (and some less-great ones) and I am not sure what faith (if any) any of them had. Not one of them ever told me, nor raised it in my classes, nor injected it into my curriculum (even when teaching RE). It wasn't relevant.

[Katganistan]

So the federal government, not the state government would know what a PArent would want to teach their kid the most. Got it

Which is why we have some parents teaching kids that dinosaurs weren't real, their bones were put there to fool scientists, by God.

Or that dinosaurs and humans existed at the same time.

Or stupid shit like not teaching their kids ANYTHING about avoiding pregnancy and STIs....

Yeah.

[Resilient Acceleration]

During elementary school, my teacher told us that the country's secular 1945 constitution is treason engineered by conspiratorial Christians and that we should return to Sharia law. During middle school, a teacher said to us that those who blasphemed against the Quran should be sentenced to death, and during high school, my chemistry teacher thought that climate policies (which will make things such as gasoline more expensive) are a bad idea because the world is going to end before the end of this century anyways, since the apocalyptic signs (such as the spread of LGBT) are already widespread.

[Forsher]

I never got the impression any of my teachers had any religion whatsoever. Except maybe my economics teacher but I already knew him before he was my teacher, so that's different.

Having an impression someone has a religion is weird in NZ. Unless they're Sikh or wearing a crucifix, you'll assume they have none.

[Picairn]

Hey GuessTheAltAccount, Google Scholar and Google Search are free to use.

Snarky one-liner done, now I'm going to provide you some studies.

According to a literature review by Häusler et al. (2019), professors and teachers are generally less religious than the American population. However, contrary to public perception, a large majority of faculty professors and a smaller majority of schoolteachers are religious or do believe in God. The review also presents evidence that the religious beliefs of teachers have a substantial influence on their professional life, namely in teaching, interacting with students and colleagues, self-regulation, coping, and health management.

In 2007, Gross and Simmons examined the religiosity of American college and university professors in a representative poll (N = 1471, weighted). They report that these professors tend to be less religious than the American average: 31.2 % of them regard themselves as nonreligious; 76.6 % indicate to believe in God, compared to over 90 % of the general population (Gross & Simmons, 2007 p. 4). According to another survey, conducted in the preceding year by the American Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) (N = 40.670), 81 % of all college professors regard themselves as a “spiritual person”, 64 % as a “religious person”, and 61 % say that they pray or meditate (HERI, 2006, p. 3). Furthermore, this study found that high spirituality levels were positively correlated with certain pedagogical orientations like “Focus on Students’ Personal Development”, “Student-Centered Pedagogy”, “Civic-Minded Practice and Civic-Minded Values” and “Positive Outlook in Work and Life” (HERI, 2006, p. 7).

There is also empirical evidence for the significance of teachers’ religiosity at US state primary and secondary schools. A high percentage of schoolteachers understand teaching as their “calling in life” (about 45 % according to Serow, 1994 and 59 % according to Hartwick, 2007). This calling mostly has a religious dimension (“being called by God to teach”). It seems to be fuelling a high commitment and can be seen as an indicator of the consistently reported fact that teachers “work hard to integrate personal and professional identities” (Sikkink, 2010, p. 162). Serow (1994) reports that teacher students who feel called to become teachers show significantly higher confidence that teachers can contribute to social change, a greater desire to help others and higher appreciation for the work with young people. In European teacher research the feeling of “being called to teach” does not occur in usual teacher research (see e.g. Rothland, 2011, p. 285).

A survey of ~1,400 professors conducted by Gross & Simmons (2007) found that while college professors are predominantly liberal, they are more moderate than extreme. Specifically, Table 3 (p. 25) indicated that 44.1% are liberal, 46.6% are moderate, and 9.3% are conservative, with community colleges housing the biggest percentage of conservatives (19%). Nonetheless, "moderate" doesn't mean "independent", as 51% of professors are Democrats, 35.3% are Independents (with Democratically-leaning Independents outnumbering Republican-leaning ones by a ratio of more than 2:1), and only 13.7 percent are Republicans (p. 32).

I don't know what percentage of college professors are atheist liberals or religious liberals, but I'm guessing that there is at least an overlap between religious and liberal professors.

Abstinence-only education (hereby abbreviated as AOE) is strongly associated with religious influence by Christian political movements in the 80s and 90s, and their greatest victory was the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (aka the Workfare Bill), whose one of the provisions included a five-year, $250 million grant for AOE (also known as Title V funding). The funding was continued through Community-Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) program and The Adolescent Family Life Act. President Obama would eliminate the CBAE program and despite reinstating Title V funding for another 5 years since 2010, he would change the funding to comprehensive evidence-based sex ed instead of AOE. In other words, the influence of Christian influence in sex ed significantly deteriorated with the election of Obama. However, Trump reversed the course and once again embraced AOE. See Shatz (2008), Williams (2011), and Fox et al. (2019) for more details. It seems to me that Trump's AOE proposals largely stopped from 2018 onwards according to this timeline and other news articles, I don't know why.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

So the federal government, not the state government would know what a PArent would want to teach their kid the most. Got it

What a parent wants them taught is not what they necessarily need to be taught. Some of the parents in my district didn't want contraception to be taught and now their kid has gonorrhea.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

During elementary school, my teacher told us that the country's secular 1945 constitution is treason engineered by conspiratorial Christians and that we should return to Sharia law. During middle school, a teacher said to us that those who blasphemed against the Quran should be sentenced to death, and during high school, my chemistry teacher thought that climate policies (which will make things such as gasoline more expensive) are a bad idea because the world is going to end before the end of this century anyways, since the apocalyptic signs (such as the spread of LGBT) are already widespread.

Are you from Malaysia?

[Resilient Acceleration]

During elementary school, my teacher told us that the country's secular 1945 constitution is treason engineered by conspiratorial Christians and that we should return to Sharia law. During middle school, a teacher said to us that those who blasphemed against the Quran should be sentenced to death, and during high school, my chemistry teacher thought that climate policies (which will make things such as gasoline more expensive) are a bad idea because the world is going to end before the end of this century anyways, since the apocalyptic signs (such as the spread of LGBT) are already widespread.

Are you from Malaysia?

Below it, Indonesia. The "Christian conspiracy" part is actually real since the constituent assembly did mandated sharia law, but it was changed at the last minute after Christian delegations from half the country threatened to break away if the constitution is implemented. Which, I mean around half of the country's territories (especially in the eastern regions) are 60-80% Christian in many areas, so sharia law would be a catastrophic mistake.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

Are you from Malaysia?

Below it, Indonesia.

It's funny how it seems like people from Indonesia are either lax as hell on religion or go full on extremist. I haven't met many Indonesians who were in the middle really.

[Resilient Acceleration]

Below it, Indonesia.

It's funny how it seems like people from Indonesia are either lax as hell on religion or go full on extremist. I haven't met many Indonesians who were in the middle really.

It's a divide that's been going on since at least a hundred years. The largest Islamic organization in the world, the NU, was established in 1912 (so 30 years before independence) specifically to fight off "hardline Arabic teachings" who sought to purge off traditional norms, and this nationalists-moderates vs fundamentalists dynamics haven't changed much since the last 50 years. People who are active online tend to represent both extremes of this spectrum.

Historically, the nationalists-moderates have always maintained dominance, with the education system being either state-run or Islamic boarding schools owned by the moderate NU or Muhamadiyah. With liberalization following the fall of the military dictatorship and the rise of internet-based religious evangelicals, this seems to be changing towards a more hardline direction though, with 60% of Gen Z self-identifying as "puritans".

[Borderlands of Rojava]

It's funny how it seems like people from Indonesia are either lax as hell on religion or go full on extremist. I haven't met many Indonesians who were in the middle really.

It's a divide that's been going on since at least a hundred years. The largest Islamic organization in the world, the NU, was established in 1912 (so 30 years before independence) specifically to fight off "hardline Arabic teachings" who sought to purge off traditional norms, and this nationalists-moderates vs fundamentalists dynamics haven't changed much since the last 50 years. People who are active online tend to represent both extremes of this spectrum.

Historically, the nationalists-moderates have always maintained dominance, with the education system being either state-run or Islamic boarding schools owned by the moderate NU or Muhamadiyah. With liberalization following the fall of the military dictatorship and the rise of internet-based religious evangelicals, this seems to be changing towards a more hardline direction though, with 60% of Gen Z self-identifying as "puritans".

Holy shit, 60% of the young people are MORE religious than the elders?

[Resilient Acceleration]

It's a divide that's been going on since at least a hundred years. The largest Islamic organization in the world, the NU, was established in 1912 (so 30 years before independence) specifically to fight off "hardline Arabic teachings" who sought to purge off traditional norms, and this nationalists-moderates vs fundamentalists dynamics haven't changed much since the last 50 years. People who are active online tend to represent both extremes of this spectrum.

Historically, the nationalists-moderates have always maintained dominance, with the education system being either state-run or Islamic boarding schools owned by the moderate NU or Muhamadiyah. With liberalization following the fall of the military dictatorship and the rise of internet-based religious evangelicals, this seems to be changing towards a more hardline direction though, with 60% of Gen Z self-identifying as "puritans".

Holy shit, 60% of the young people are MORE religious than the elders?

Based on interviews with 1,567 respondents in 34 provinces, the report suggests the country’s young generation is becoming more conservative. The report indicates that both generation Z (aged between 14 and 21 years old) and young millennial (22-29) respondents dominate within those who identify as “puritan & ultra-conservative”, accounting for almost 60%. https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconvers ... ive-132019

Based on the 2019 election results, this do seems to be the case.

Jokowi-Ma'ruf (the "moderate" candidate):
Age < 19: 43-49%
Age 20-29: 48-54%
Age 30-39 : 56-62%
Age 40-49 : 59-66%
Age > 50 : 61-68%
The reverse for Prabowo-Sandi (the "fundamentalist" candidate, quotation marks because both are incredibly obviously secular-nationalists who are just exploiting Islam to farm votes). Actually the fundamentalists won 51% of the Muslim vote, the moderates only won because they got 97% of the non-Muslim votes.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

Holy shit, 60% of the young people are MORE religious than the elders?

Based on interviews with 1,567 respondents in 34 provinces, the report suggests the country’s young generation is becoming more conservative. The report indicates that both generation Z (aged between 14 and 21 years old) and young millennial (22-29) respondents dominate within those who identify as “puritan & ultra-conservative”, accounting for almost 60%. https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconvers ... ive-132019

Based on the 2019 election results, this do seems to be the case.

Jokowi-Ma'ruf (the "moderate" candidate):
Age < 19: 43-49%
Age 20-29: 48-54%
Age 30-39 : 56-62%
Age 40-49 : 59-66%
Age > 50 : 61-68%
The reverse for Prabowo-Sandi (the "fundamentalist" candidate, quotation marks because both are incredibly obviously secular-nationalists who are just exploiting Islam to farm votes). Actually the fundamentalists won 51% of the Muslim vote, the moderates only won because they got 97% of the non-Muslim votes.

That's like the opposite of America where the younger generation is usually more liberal than the older generation.

[Samudera Darussalam]

It's a divide that's been going on since at least a hundred years. The largest Islamic organization in the world, the NU, was established in 1912 (so 30 years before independence) specifically to fight off "hardline Arabic teachings" who sought to purge off traditional norms, and this nationalists-moderates vs fundamentalists dynamics haven't changed much since the last 50 years. People who are active online tend to represent both extremes of this spectrum.

Historically, the nationalists-moderates have always maintained dominance, with the education system being either state-run or Islamic boarding schools owned by the moderate NU or Muhamadiyah. With liberalization following the fall of the military dictatorship and the rise of internet-based religious evangelicals, this seems to be changing towards a more hardline direction though, with 60% of Gen Z self-identifying as "puritans".

Holy shit, 60% of the young people are MORE religious than the elders?

One easy characteristic to spot is that there are more people who decided to veil now than before. What I used to learn when I was a little is that by wearing a veil, you have agreed to set yourself as a good moral example to others. Nowadays, people more likely wear it because they think that God commands them to.

---

On the op, it....depends? I went to madrasah before high school so those years are kind of irrelevant in this context, I guess?
At high school, my biology teacher said, to answer a question from a classmate about the compatibility between evolution and what they are taught in religious study classes:
"You are free to believe which one is true. I'm just going to say that evolution is a proven scientific theory."

At college, my lecturers rarely mention anything about faith, I think, except when they ask if the Muslims have already prayed before class.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

It's true. I strongly prefer ranked competitive sex.

I do like not getting the circus parade of increasingly antibiotic-resistant and virulent strains of sexually transmitted diseases. Maybe abstinence before marriage was right.

Or maybe not teaching birth control cause "my feelings will be hurt" doesn't encourage abstinence, it just makes unsafe sex more likely.

Btw STDs have existed since ancient times. This isn't new.

[Illu-chi]

I'm still in school, but only one of my teachers ever inappropriately started talking about religion and it was only a short amount of time. I have never done sex ed and I don't think I ever will. For some reason all my teachers have said that climate change is just a simple chge in the weather. When it comes to politics most of my teachers have never said there political beliefs, but when they do it tends to be about how good trump was doing or how we need a border wall. Stuff like that.

[Dakini]

I only had one teacher in high school who said anything religious. She was also the worst teacher I had in high school and I don't think she was especially progressive in general. She also e.g. told a Muslim student in my class to take off his "hat" after my school had forbidden all but religious headgear (he was wearing a Taqiyah). The rest of my teachers didn't talk about their religious beliefs, if they had any, because it was a secular public school and religion doesn't belong there.

I can think of two or three professors during my university career who were religious. Neither of them brought it up in the classroom, but I learned about their religiosity by interacting with them outside class.

[The Caleshan Valkyrie]

I’m progressive, but not religious... do I count?