The Odyssey Pre-reading for Ryan

Background Info

The beginning of the Odyssey takes place about 20 years after Odysseus left home to fight in the Trojan War. 

One way to look at The Odyssey is in contrast with The Iliad. The Iliad takes place near the end of the Trojan War. The story is contained to a few events over a short amount of time. The gods actively intervene and engage in their own political battles. The story largely focuses on Achilles rage, fate, honor, and kleos.

Kleos is an important idea in The Iliad and The Odyssey. For the Greeks, people earned and gained kleos from accomplishing great things, like success in battle. Achilles achieves everlasting kleos. 

At the beginning of The Odyssey, Odysseus' kleos is in question. Odysseus has not returned from war and no one has heard from him. His son, Telemachus, inspired by the gods, leaves home to find news of his dad and take responsibility for his life.

Through Telemachus' interactions and travels in the first chapter, the readers observe xenia. Xenia is one of the most important concepts in The Odyssey. Greeks had a duty and responsibility to travelers and foreigners. There are unwritten rules and customs that hosts and guests follow. 

Penelope, Odysseus' wife and Telemachus' mother, has been fighting off suitors for years. Meanwhile, the suitors take advantage of xenia, wasting Telemachus' inheritance.

Penelope and Telemachus need to act.

3 Main Chunks 

The Telemachy (Books 1–4): Telemachus’ call to action and search for news of his father.

Odysseus’ Journey (Books 5–12): Odysseus' adventures and encounters with lots of fantastical obstacles like Calypso’s island, Cyclops, Circe, Sirens, and the Underworld. Mostly told from Odysseus point of view to his hosts. 

The Homecoming (Books 13–24): Odysseus returns to Ithaca.

Teaching Kids Religion

Background

My daughter is being taught Christianity by her friends. I could make a good rant of that...

In general, I think it is wrong to only teach one religion to kids. I assume when kids only learn their parents' and or communities' religion, that decreases their ability to objectively and critically analyze religions as adults. They become too skeptical of other religions and not skeptical enough of theirs (I want to explore more). I think it is a barrier to truth.

Listen to my second more concise brainstorming here. Read my first brainstorming here. I think the first brainstorm is of higher quality, but you have to read/skim it, and it is a lot longer.

Introduction

I want to create a world religions series for kids. I'm going to gear it towards my kid, but I will share it for other kids and families too.

I identified my main ideas, questions, and research focus for my initial project. My first brainstorming is the best place to see a detailed investigation of my current ideas.

Next, I plan to interview several of my friends and family. I want to find a decent landscape of ideas. I'm selectively choosing friends and family that might offer differing ideas than me or at least a variety of perspectives. I don't know what people think yet. Again, I assume the default is parents directly and indirectly teach what they believe.

My Current Philosophy (based off my brainstorming)

• Teach and present the religions' ideas not my beliefs.
• Give my opinions when asked, but answer with epistemic humility
• Children should not be taught exclusive religious truth-claims before they can evaluate them.
• Premature certainty is more harmful than premature relativism.
• Religion should first be taught as human meaning-making before being taught as truth-claim. (This I want to explore more. I stand behind it for now.)
• Parents should model epistemic humility, not epistemic neutrality.
• Presentation, explanation, and evaluation should be developmentally sequenced.
• Moral formation can and should occur independently of metaphysics.
• My role is not to produce a conclusion, but to preserve the child’s capacity to reach one later.

Side note- besides the third bullet, I don't expect my values to change much during this project. I do expect to learn a lot more regarding religions and child development.

Questions and Ideas to Explore

• Development stages and questions
• Think in probabilities
• When can kids grapple with metaphysics? 
• When and what type of abstract ideas can children understand?
• Understand- fact vs belief, metaphor vs literal claim, authority vs evidence, historical vs theological, etc
• Psychology and impact of fear/punishment based concepts for kids
• How and when do children make sense of conflicting and opposing ideas. 
• Critical thinking skills, statistics, textual criticism, historical criticism, the criticisms in general
  
  
• Psychologically and Socially
• Does teaching one religion or ideology affect open-mindedness
• Should a kid be nice because God, The Tao, or utilitarianism says so? Is there a difference? Either way, we want our kids to be nice, respectful, etc.

• Pedagogical
• What does age appropriate mean ad look like for different ages?
• How deep to go into diversity within religion?
• Minimum exposure, how much is better than nothing.
• Too confusing vs too simplistic vs too difficult
• What if isn't interesting for kids?
• Stories vs beliefs
• Historical accuracy and reliability

• Ethical
• Is my presentation nudging my conclusions?
• What ideas do I add and or leave out?
• Who are the authorities?
• Are parents justified to teach their beliefs? Justified to indoctrinate their kids? Where is the line between the two ideas?
  
  
• Religions
• What basic questions all religions answer?
• What functions do all religions provide?
• Core ideas
• Diversity within
• Similarities across religions
• Ancient, pagan, folk, and indigenous religions
• Progressions from animism 

Questions for Interviewees 

• What's your religion?
• What's your feelings about religions in general?
• What do you think about relativism?
• What do you think about pluralism? 
• What are you teaching your kids? Directly and indirectly?
• Are you concerned about your kids ability to determine truth claims now or in the future?
• Can or should you teach a truth claim before a kid can evaluate it? 
• What do you think about my ideas? 
• Are parents justified to teach their beliefs? Justified to indoctrinate their kids? Where is the line between the two ideas?