My Students

The majority of the time my students act like the devil’s personal minions of torture but once in a while they do something that makes me chuckle. A few weeks ago I was lecturing to my freshmen about the Mughal Empire in India. One of the greatest Mughal Empire leaders was Akbar. He was known for his religious tolerance. In fact, he invented his own religion, a combination of Hindu, Islam and Christianity. I gave the students an assignment to create their own personal religions based on some values and ideals that were really important to them. What would your religion be called? What are some of your beliefs and rituals? This is what they came up with…word for word.

“My religion would be called Marlianism because we would worship Bob Marley. Instead of Father we would call him Uncle Bob. Smoking marijuana would be optional.”

“God would be called ‘The Great.’ The followers are called ‘The Greaters.’ The book of this religion would be called ‘The Holy Book of the Great.’ This book would have some rules that must be followed in order to be a good Greater.”

“In my religion there would exist at least two or three holy books. The first I would call ‘The Book of Life,’ the second would be ‘How to Survive with Big Mistakes’ and the third, ‘How to Die in Peace.’

I know you’re thinking: “Where do I get my hands on those holy books, especially, ‘How to Survive with Big Mistakes.’” I asked my student and it turns out that publication is indefinitely delayed due to a hold up in the editing department and apparently there’s a disclaimer on the front page of ‘How to Die in Peace’ that says if you have kids, if you rely on the U.S. dollar or if you are a Republican…too bad, you’re SOL. (he he he...just kidding!)

Below are some pictures of my freshmen at the Renaissance Fair. For my class they had to choose one famous Renaissance person to study and then create an information booth with activities meant to teach others about the impact their person made.

Despite the rotten students, some days this job can be very rewarding.

-Jen




Doesn´t Jay make a handsome Copernicus?