Chapter 2: Today's Students

One issue addressed in chapter 2 of The Joy of Teaching by Gene E. Hall, Linda F. Quinn and Donna M. Gollnick is that of religious diversity in schools. The section opens with a description of a situation where a teacher struggles to make his colleagues think in terms of religious diversity during the holidays. The authors then go on to provide facts and figures suggesting that religious diversity in the United States is only going to grow. They explain that much of the conflict stemming from religious diversity has roots in the strong Christian tradition that exists in the U.S., and in the world. The authors illuminate the fact that any teacher teaching in an "urban or metropolitan" area will have to find ways to contend with religious diversity in the classroom. The section closes by returning to the teacher from the opening, and talking about how he could have handled it differently to make new religious diversity easier to swallow for his fellow educators.