Just covered Shirley Jackson's The Lottery with my American Lit students. Last week when we read the story in class they were horrified. This week, after they had a chance to reread it, answer the assigned questions and give it some thought the classroom discussion made my teacher's heart proud. It began with a few students alluding to the uneducated masses. I posed the question about beliefs held by educated people, and they came up with Qing Ming and the burning money thing. They also came up with an apparently true story of a 'pure girl' being tossed into the Yangze River about 20 years ago so there wouldn't be flooding. Once that was introduced into the conversation they began to view the villagers in the story in a slightly different way.
Flip side - was teaching Easter to my grade 7 private kids last Saturday. They clearly think people who believe in the resurrection and Jesus being God's son are crazy. They like coloring eggs and eating candy though.