Building Bridges, new youth world religions curriculum
Building Bridges, a new free, online UUA curriculum for grades eight and nine, is designed to help youth understand the varied histories and expressions of many of the world’s religions. It also includes a strong sense of what our own faith offers, according to the author, Mary K. Isaacs.
The goals of Building Bridges include increasing knowledge of world religions, understanding how religion addresses basic human needs, building awareness of the diversity of followers within each faith, and empowering youth to respectfully discuss religious matters with people with whom they disagree.
Isaacs is a lifelong UU who has been director of religious education at congregations in Texas. She currently lives in Austin. Building Bridges is part of the UUA’s Tapestry of Faith curricula series. Susan Dana Lawrence, Managing Editor for the UUA’s Ministries and Faith Development staff group, says, “This is an unusually rich and deep curriculum containing solid information about many faiths and belief systems. We’d like to see congregations adopt it for individual learning as well as a resource for teaching RE groups.”