Defenses against jealousy

Alumother
Sun, 17 Sep 2006 14:30:07 +0000

And here’s another perspective. My kids went to an alternative school through 8th grade. We had Kwanzaa, we had Chanukah, we had Diwali (Hindu festival of lights), we had Chinese New Year (gung hay fat choy in Cantonese…), we had Day of the Dead (Latin America). And then they always did a project in kindergarten on their cultural heritage. As a comical aside, one of my kids did Sweden because my stepfather is Swedish…

Anyway, I now am firmly convinced that all that early exposure has contributed to both my kids being extremely open to other cultures, emotionally, intellectually, philosophically. It’s true that when you learn young you learn for good.

So then, for high school, even though I am an atheist, the kids have gone to Catholic school. Because in this environment, it was the most socially conscious school to be found. And because of their background, they have each been able to learn about the Catholic tradition and their own opinions about religion without bias. Each has a different and highly personal feeling about religion, and I believe it has been extremely beneficial for each of them to be exposed to a religious system in depth, and to come from position neither of acolyte or inconoclast.