State Of Virginia Changes School Curriculum for Hinduism

January 19, 2009

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Hinduism Today

http://www.hinduismtoday.com/hpi/2009/1/21.shtml#1

HPI has just become aware of the successful outcome of Hindus in Virginia to change the State's curriculum for teaching of Hinduism as part of world history. Rakesh Bahadur, with others, spearheaded the effort. The entire curriculum revision for the State may be downloaded at the URL above. One can then search "Hinduism" to find the changed sections.

In the original "Standard," as these descriptions of what a course should cover are called, there were listed two "essential questions" and six items of "essential knowledge for Hinduism."

Previously, the essential questions for Hinduism were:

What are the characteristics of the Hindu religion? How did Hinduism influence Indian society and culture?

The first of these was changed to be: What are the beliefs of the Hindu religion?

This brings Hinduism in line with Christianity, Judaism and Islam where the term "beliefs" is used and not the undignified and non-religious term, "characteristics."

See also: Hinduism, Schools