Amiddle school teacher in the northern city of Treviso has exempted two Muslim students from studying Dante on the grounds that it is a religious work that clashes with their Islamic faith, local dailies reported Friday. The Divine Comedy, with its visions of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven, is stepped in medieval Christianity and the Prophet Mohamed is one of the historical figures placed in the Inferno. The teacher asked the families of all the students who are exempted from religious studies on religious grounds if they also wanted to be exempted from studying the greatest Christian poet, and two families said yes. The case spurred criticism Friday with centre-left Democratic Party (PD) Senator Simona Malpezzi saying it was "profoundly wrong" to deprive any student of the "deep knowledge of Italian culture that studying Dante brings". She added: "Knowing Dante does not take anything away from the children's religious confession".
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This is the way to the city of woe.
Abandon all hope, ye who let them enter here
Need to read Dante. I could use my old standard “when in Rome” but what’s the point. Can’t even say im surprised but I would like go to a Muslim country and tell them about how their schools clash with my Christian faith
RIP Smith
Yea, that would be the result I’m sure
Get a good version of Divine Comedy that has lots of footnotes that explain who people were, so you get an idea of why they're where they are.
It's one of the only books I legitimately had trouble reading because of the old English prose, at least with the edition I had. And I've never had issues reading any other kind of book before, and I've read a fair variety.
It also requires a pretty deep knowledge of Italian history and politics, especially at the time, to properly understand and enjoy. Like, you won't lose a whole lot from the overall without that, but you'll be left with a lot of filler content without that context.
Its a work best enjoyed with a lot of annotations for deeper knowledge.
I tried reading it at age 10 but got confused. Definitely should try again
I find English translations confusing. You may as well read the old Italian and then read what it means. It's not any less confusing -- and it's worse as a poem -- translated.
Meanwhile, Libertarians:
A shameless plug for European heritage, but one of the most influential illustrators of the 19th century, Gustave Doré, produced an illustrated version of The Divine Comedy. If anyone feels inclined to read the poem, or has an interest in illustration, I'd strongly recommend checking it out.
Thanks! My parents had the book (along with other classics) on the shelf for years and I never bothered to read it.
My pleasure.
Quite understandable, if it weren't for the classics included in our literature curriculum I probably wouldn't have got started myself. They certainly have their own appeal though.
The illustrations add a lot, and have proven pretty influential in terms of subsequent creative works. Interestingly, the Dore illustrated bible was so sought after (and expensive) that it was regarded as a sign of social status. Righteous 19th century drip.
Well, when the struggle is with the curriculum the struggle is always real.
why don't they get a drag queen in to tell the story instead?
Muslims will also exempt themselves from the LGBT faggotry being programmed into children as well.
Considering what happened to another teacher who was not sensitive to their beliefs, discretion might be the better part of valor here.
Totally not a problem to introduce throngs of these religious zealots to your populace. Whatever could go wrong.
It's the most accessible way to discover that Hollywood's version of Purgatory is totally wrong.
The funny part is that it kind of is half between religious literature (despite being non-canonical) and literary work. You could make a solid argument against it being taught to public school children for that reasoning.
But we all know this isn't a logical decision, its entirely just because they are Mudslimes that its allowed.
Bad move. They need to read about their future.
Teacher doesn't want to end up like Samuel Paty