By Mrs Jane Baron-Rechtman, Professor of World Religions and Bio-ethics at the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, NY and Member of the Interfaith Council on Ethics Education for Children

"I had a professor once who used to say there are two things you should read every day: the Bible and the New York Times.  His thinking was, if you want to understand human beings, what makes us tick, what our strengths, weaknesses, values, yearnings, wishes, sense of reality is all about, there’s nothing more human than those two texts.  Personally, I expand that to include the wisdom literature of all different traditions – and the New York Times.  And I consider myself so very fortunate that as a teacher of the world religions, I get to spend my days doing just that – reading and discussing the wisdom literature of different human cultures – with young minds who make really interesting comments and questions.