The Classroom as a Tolerance Lab
LAW, RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS AND EDUCATION IN EUROPE, Myriam Hunter Henin, ed., Ashgate, Forthcoming
20 Pages Posted: 26 Nov 2010 Last revised: 2 Dec 2013
Date Written: November 26, 2010
Abstract
Education is one of the main battlegrounds between religious and non religious people. There are three major sets of challenges: the challenge from religious symbols in the classroom, the challenge from religious syllabuses in schools, and the challenge from students’ selection at the entrance. I propose a model to deal with these issues, which I call “Classroom as a Tolerance Lab,” and which I distinguish from more conventional constitutional strategies of fitting diversity such as Integration and Accommodation. The Tolerance Lab promotes social cohesion by creating actual spaces where mutual understanding between religious and non-religious people is possible.
Keywords: Law, Religion, Diversity, Tolerance, Pluralism, Rights, Integration, Accommodation, Education, Classroom, Multiculturalism, Republicanism, Liberty, Equality, Solidarity
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