Student Writing: Respecting & Tolerance For Other People's Beliefs

Well I'm now officially teaching High School until the end of the year. I have 2 classes - Humanities 8 (a mix of Social Studies & English with a creative writing focus) and Health & Career Education (HACE 9). For one of my first teaching assignments studying World Religion, I had my Grade 8 Humanities class write about their own beliefs and why they thought it was important to respect other people's beliefs.

The images above are an amalgamation of their thoughts.

Here are some of the statements that I thought were especially poignant...

1. Beliefs are important to all sorts of people in one way or another, but open-mindedness is just as significant.
2. When we can take the time to learn about one another’s beliefs, we get to see another type of thinking.
3. If people could consider other people’s beliefs and walk a mile in their shoes there would be a lot less fighting and prejudice.
4. Religion shouldn’t be seen as a way to judge someone but as a way someone has chosen to live.
5. We all need to understand and accept each other’s beliefs because that is the only way peace in this world will increase.