An immense amount of separation exists in the world today in terms of individuals differences: social, culture, and religious. Oftentimes, I have a since that people do not know how to coexist with each other and this seems to be a growing truth. I believe that each person that surrounds me should has an equal opportunity to make an impact on my life, change my ideas, or expand my horizons. I am not in the business of underestimating that. Since coming to John Carroll, I have begun to recognize that some of the people who I think I am going to serve have actually served a greater purpose to me or taught me so much more. Being attentive to this in my life has helped me gain a lot of experience with how to treat individuals more equally which is an important skill in my eyes.
In terms of intersectionality, it can be hard to grasp the idea that what makes each individual unique is truly a good thing. Despite what the world tells us, we must press on to see each-others differences and embrace them. In fact, the separation between church and state is something that I believe should be broken down because it still exists as a wall, standing tall. Coming from a public high school, I know the gravity attached to religion in a public setting. I feel as if there was so much pressure putting on not mentioning or integrating religion into the core. Any slip could result in serious consequences and I just don’t feel as if that’s a way to live. Hiding our identities from each other so that we don’t create controversy. I think it is challenging to not lean toward our bias in a public setting, but we should feel open up to live out our freedoms of speech, instead of shunning them.
The articles this week were interesting in raising points about what the wall between church and state is creating in relation to how it continues to affect us. In the piece written by Cheuk and Quinn it states, “The definition of “public” education is changing rapidly and radically in our current political landscape” (Cheuk and Quinn). An intriguing point is made known here, that we things are changing, and they are shifting quickly. We often feel like we may not have much control, but we must be awake to the world to embrace our power in the midst of this controversy.
In order to create a more even distribution of church and state we should emphasize the positive effects of being able to express our differences. I think we should work towards the goals of enabling every child to have a greater, more equal learning experience. In our history classes, we should not just discuss the triumph of America, but the whole story. The good, the bad, and the ugly. It is often said that we need to learn history, so things don’t repeat themselves. And it is also crucial to determine that there is no such thing as a single story, and we must constantly investigate for the truth.
Delaney's Educational World 