= new reply since forum marked as read
it all going. class dismissed 
A lot of high-school classes are there for the purposes of social engineering. You expose people to different faith traditions to make them more tolerant and understanding of differences (however you may trash the dominant or fairly common mainstream views) for the purposes of building a New Liberal Person. That's not academics, that change-making.
For college, academic:
1. Views of religion. That can be everything from traditional "revelatory" views to anthropological and sociological views. Its' a survey, and those different views will come in handy. Look at general motifs and themes and purposes there or peel that out after a dry survey of approaches to religion. At this point, we're not talking "religions."
This should be covered as "religion is a system of beliefs" that can be codified and abstracted for a community, with due allowance for the fact that most people are in some ways heretics from the general code (if their religion even has the idea of "heresy"
. Or they're superficial consumers of "their belief system." You even wind up with circumstances in which the formal faith is out of sync with most believers. It happens, so discuss it. Most religions fail the "systematicity" test in practice, whatever some scholars and theologians may say about the theory.
2. Prehistoric religions based on archeology and their motifs. Apply the different views to these--they're mostly gone, so who cares? It's worth pointing out here how oral traditions can be reliable over the length of time it takes for a language to change so much as to be considered a different language, can contain a kernel of truth about prehistory, or can be thoroughly revised in the course of two generations.
3. Compare what we know of prehistoric religions to belief systems today. This is a good time to try to make sense of all the various animist and shamanistic faiths--whether Native American (north or south) or Siberian or African or Australian. The assumption that there's one for each is a narrow-minded Western construct, one that many advocates have gone with out of expediency. Highlight commonalities, but also point out severe differences while not overlooking that syncretism is a way of life for many small, less formalized faith systems.
4. Hit up the belief systems that many call "philosophies." Religion has a deity; but it's functionally a system of beliefs and values and that's its primary social and economic role. However, be prepared, because some atheists are so opposed to the idea that religion is primarily a belief and values system that involving one or more gods that they'll go bonkers. For them it's "religion" they hate or avoid, and any similarity between philosophies and religion is to be denied.
5. Do non-connected religions. Shintoism, the spectrum of religious practices we call Hinduism.
6. Do the three "family" religions--Judaism, including how it's evolved over time, Xianity, and Islam. Look at the origin of their sacred books, both traditional and "scholarly".
Readings, primary and secondary, are appropriate for each belief system. Secondary readings must include two types--scholarly sorts of readings, but also exegesis--what do mainstream or authoritative believers themselves write about the meaning drawn from their own sacred texts? The tension between what scholars say and what believers say go back to the different approaches and historical development of the value and belief systems. You can't diss the believers or ignore their interpretations, because to a large extent what the mass believes *is* the religion.
Understanding approaches to religion will give the kiddos the intellectual chops to explore new variations. Telling them what the basic beliefs/values are for each will give them a background against which to compare individual attitudes but also provide some clue as to what appropriate behaviors might be.
