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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.