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TEACHING SIKHISM AT KEY STAGE 3
W Owen Cole
Chichester Institute of Higher Education
INTRODUCTION
This article does not assume that
children have previously learned
anything about Sikhism. It is based upon a
number of principles which I consider
important when teaching about any religion.
These are:
•
We should teach about people, ie Sikhs not
an abstraction called Sikhism.
•
We should teach about a religion as it is
practised. Our subject is the religion,
beliefs, values and practices, of people
living now, not history. Therefore we teach
as much of the journeys of Guru Nanak, for
example, as is needed to help him to be
understood, but we are not going to cover
all his missionary Journeys or all the
exploits of other Gurus.
•
How Sikhs view the world should
underpin our teaching, otherwise specific
aspects, eg sitting on the floor to worship,
putting the Guru Granth Sahib to rest at
night, wearing a turban, can appear to be
nothing more than quaint, and perhaps,
amusing features of a strange way of life.
(This should be our approach regardless of
the religion being investigated; going to
church or eating Easter eggs can be just as
odd taken out of the Christian world view
context, as can wearing a Manchester
United shirt if one is female and living in
Chichester).
SIKH WORLD VIEW
The key principles which underpin Sikhism
are:
•
The belief that human beings are ignorant
of God’s destiny for them. God, as the
Supreme Guru, the Guru of the human
Gurus, offers spiritual enlightenment
through the message they were given to
preach.
•
There is one God who is creator of the
universe and immanent in all human beings
and other life forms whether they realise it
or not.
•
The one God who is neither male nor
female created one humanity. Women and
men are equal. This equality means that
there are no priests in Sikhism. (Sometimes
Sikhs use the word ‘priest’ to describe the
men or women who conduct services but
the essence of Sikhism is the rejection of a
separate class of men known as priests!)
WHERE TO START
I wouldn’t start from here, to use the reply of a
man who was asked the way from
Heckmondwike to Barnoldswick! Sikhism is
best understood if one has some knowledge of
Hinduism so students should ideally have
some awareness of that religion. OK, Christians
seemed to manage very well when they were
totally ignorant of Judaism but we now know
how much they missed and many of us would
link antisemitism with an uncritical readiness
to accept what the New Testament says about
Judaism. So too, the Sikh scriptures contain
derogatory remarks about many Hindu
practices. Teach these and children will
receive a very biased view of the Hindu
tradition. Ignore them and the importance of
some Sikh teaching is lost.
The SCAA syllabuses are valuable in that they
inform us of Sikh priorities. They are
however, defective in that they are piecemeal.
Pupils will be able to name the parts very well,
but will they have a picture of the whole, an
idea of what it means to be a Sikh in terms of
beliefs, the values which arise from them and
the practices through which beliefs and values
are expressed?
The suggested place to begin the study of
Sikhism is the gurdwara and Sikh worship.
Both models one and two suggest that
worship should be explored at KS3, and also
the Guru Granth Sahib, Sikh ceremonies,
especially initiation (not baptism, please, that
is what Christians do), and essential beliefs.
From the gurdwara as starting point some,
or all, of these can be examined depending
on the time available. In the process every
effort should be made to visit a gurdwara
whether this has been done at an earlier KS
or not.
The model syllabuses are comprehensive in
their recommendations of what should be
covered to the extent that some teachers feel
overawed by the amount of content. They can
never do justice to it in the time available. I
would like to allay this fear. Knowledge is
undeniably important, sometimes we have
forgotten that in RE, but understanding is what
matters most. If children cannot remember the
names of the 5Ks we should not be too
worried so long as they know why Sikhs wear
them and consider them to be important. (They
can always look up the facts).
AN ACTIVE LEARNING APPROACH
COULD INCLUDE:
The model syllabuses by their very nature
do not suggest how Sikhism might be
presented or explored. This is done in some
of the books on teaching Religious
Education which are listed in Teaching
World Religions edited by Clive Erricker,
Heinemann Educational, 1993. There is also
an approach to Sikhism suggested by Carrie
Mercier (p.104), and a list of recommended
school text books (pp. 185/186) which was
up to date in 1993. A list of basic resources
is provided at the end of this article.
Artefacts can sometimes be obtained from
gurdwaras but the most convenient source is
Articles of Faith.
SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES MIGHT
INCLUDE:
Practising gurmukhi writing.
Visiting a gurdwara and using a camcorder to
record important items and activities.
Model making: A gurdwara, float carrying a
model of the Golden Temple as used in
procession known as nagar kirtan.
Greetings cards for weddings, or Vaisakhi.
Learning some Punjabi and writing it in
gurmukhi script (the Mul mantra would be
suitable).
Preparing karah parshad.
Inviting a Sikh for a specific purpose such as
helping edit the camcorder video. (NB
Visitors are resources not teachers and should
be briefed carefully and used as such. A
turban-wearing man may be prepared to
demonstrate how to tie a turban.) If a Sikh
child volunteers, fine, but they should be left
free to make their own response to the whole
topic. They may be embarrassed or not well
informed and may not actually be able to tie
a turban even if they wear one.
It is up to the teacher to decide upon an
approach which is suitable to his/her class.
Lesson one might begin with groups of
children given photographs of things
happening in a gurdwara (in colour; enlarging
photographs in books may be possible, the cost
is not prohibitive and it can be done legally)
and asked to find specific information about
them from a series of resource books and a
video or videos, followed by a pooling and
sequencing of knowledge, The topic may then
develop its own momentum.
BASIC RESOURCES
For the teacher:
Teach Yourself Sikhism, W Owen Cole,
Hodder and Stoughton, 1994
A Popular Dictionary of Sikhism, W Owen Cole,
Hodder and Stoughton, 1990
For the classroom
The Sikh World, D Singh and A Smith,
Macdonald, 1985.
The Guru Granth Sahib, Piara Singh Sambhi,
Heinemann, 1994.