Catholic and Muslim pupils find they have a lot in common

In order to increase mutual understanding between young Muslim and Catholic children, 10 pairs of contrasting schools decided to set up a linking project which allows children of different ethnical background and religion to get to know eachother in a playful way. William Austin junior school (mostly Muslim) and St. Joseph's (mostly Catholic) are two schools attending the project. The pupils from William Austin write letters to pupils from St. Joseph's visa versa. Then they set up small meetings between the pupils where they playfully get to see that there are a lot of similarities between them inspite of the fact that they are from different ethnical and religious backgrounds.

The students seem to be as delighted as they are surprised to the fact that they have more in common than they would've thought. Some even kept in touch after the project and became friends.

This Schools Linking Project is an initiative to bind neighbourhoods and schools together even though differences in religion and culture are vast and seems to have potential. ''I want to teach my students that it doesn't matter where you are from. You are here now and you choose to live here so let's celebrate being part of this country.'' - Penny Lasham, a teacher from a nearby school.

---Original Article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/apr/12/school-twinning-catholic-muslim

My take on this:

I think this Schools Linkin Project is a great initiative to improve mutual understanding between the two dominant religions and might prove to be a good start to break down barriers between children, or adults for that matter, created by differences in ethnical background or religion. It might seem like a small step to some, but it is immense to these pupils. Every great initiative has to start somewhere right? And I believe this is, indeed, the right place to start when trying to combat these issues.