Students in GT Humanities are visiting the Preston Meadow Lutheran Church, Plano Masjid, and Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple Thursday before visiting the Stonebriar Food Court as they complete their study of religions.
“A big theme of Humanities I is how world religions developed before the modern era and how those often ancient worldviews still shape our world today and shape the history both in the past as well as the history that is being created right now,” humanities teacher Sarah Wiseman said. “So, we want students to be able to experience that firsthand.”
For Wiseman, the best part of the trip is always watching students share their culture and faith with each other.
“I just really enjoy these different places and seeing kids from different faiths getting to talk to their friends and share a piece of themselves that they maybe have never shared with their friends before,” Wiseman said. “It’s always really cool.”
For many students, like sophomore Elliot Lainez Garcia, this field trip presents a unique opportunity to visit various places of worship beyond their own faith.
“I’m excited to see different types of religious places,” Lainez Garcia said. “I’ve never been to the mosque or a Hindu temple, so it’s interesting to experience different cultures’ religious centers.”
For other students, visiting these places of worship will provide a deeper insight into the beliefs and ideals of different religions, one that textbooks may not offer.
“I’m more excited to learn about the different cultures and like the different aspects of religions because I know during the field trip we’ll get to talk to their religious leaders there and understand their perspective of their religion,” sophomore Mahi Kosuri said. “And I feel like that’s really interesting because we see one thing as an outsider but like to actually be practicing and teaching the religion to somebody? That’s a whole different perspective.”
Additionally, the trip allows students to truly examine the exchange these worldviews have had with globalization over the course of history
“This year we’re exploring a lot of how the world is after globalization really begins to take place and how that impacts different cultures as people come into contact with a variety of cultures that they’ve never seen or even thought about before,” Lainez Garcia said. “So by us going to these different places, we can see how that’s impacted those cultures historically and nowadays.”
For Wiseman, the field trip is ultimately a way to show students the tremendous role faith plays in history and through that, foster understanding and compassion among her students.
“If we could pick only one thing that we want kids to walk away from, the enduring understanding we want, is for students to know that like the world is shaped by people’s worldviews and that understanding those worldviews is a way to understand the world and to create compromise when conflict occurs and to create better understanding and compassion,” Wiseman said. “I just really hope students walk away with a greater appreciation for the role that faith plays in the lives of Americans and that that doesn’t necessarily mean Christianity, it can mean a lot of different things.”
