A New Model Of Teaching Religious Tolerance

Hailey Woldt
10/17/2012 11:36 am

Every morning at the Kaleidoscoop School ("kaleidoscope" in English) in the small town of Zeewolde, The Netherlands, children gather to light a candle and pray, or not, for themselves, those close to them, and the world. There is no compulsion or exclusion when it comes to prayer or belief in this interconfessional school, with roughly a quarter Protestant, a quarter Catholic, and half atheist, agnostic or non-denominational students. While the school teaches children ages 4 through 12 the basic subjects as its first priority, it is within an open and non-dogmatic environment. The mission of the school is to give the children the "baggage" -- a Dutch phrase -- or the knowledge they need in order to make a decision for themselves about religion ("Een interconfessionele school die kinderen bagage mee wil geven om een eigen gefundeerde keuze te maken&quot .

After the prayers in the morning, there is a discussion about how they feel and compare their worldviews. For example, one child's grandmother may have just died. The child may feel sad and then wonder, is she in heaven? Another child may then chime in and say that his parents don't believe in heaven, or another may say could be reincarnated. The main aim of the school's teachings is to show that there are a variety of ways to think about these questions and that there is no single "right" answer.

Kaleidoscoop is fully funded by the Dutch government. Rather than having a strict separation of Church and State, the government supports all religious, atheist or secular schools, except for those who wish to have no state regulation at all (only roughly 5 percent of schools). In Contrasting Models of State and School (2011), Charles Glenn notes that The Netherlands has the most "pluralistic" school system in the world, where parents have the most freedom of choice to provide schooling that corresponds most closely with their convictions. This system developed out of a civil society centered approach to education rather than one more centralized and state-run.

Aart Wouters, a co-founder and principle of the school, grew up in the 1960s in The Netherlands under a society strictly divided along religious lines. There were the "four pillars" of society -- Protestant, Catholic, atheist or agnostic, and smaller groups such as Jews and Orthodox Christians. They each had their own schools and even their own television stations, a legacy which remains even today despite the "depillarization" and secularization of society.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hailey-woldt/teaching-religious-tolerance-is-scary_b_1962185.html