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About Mr. Mac Jim Maechling is called “Mr. Mac” by his students” at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School in a suburb southwest of Los Angeles. He has taught history, religion, and philosophy in high school and college for over thirty-five years. Raised in a Catholic family, he was educated primarily by the Jesuits. After graduating from Loyola Marymount University in 1964, he hired on board a freighter ship bound for India to begin a two-year odyssey around the world. Once inside India, he hitchhiked on trucks and rode trains across the subcontinent to Jamshedpur where he took his first teaching position as a lay volunteer at Loyola School. One day in Calcutta, he had the indelible experience of meeting a diminutive middle-aged nun by the name of Sister Theresa. She took him on a guided tour of her small hospital and Home for the Dying. After touring the Middle East and Europe, he returned home inspired to begin graduate studies and his teaching career.
For over three decades Mr. Mac’s Comparative Religions class has been a popular elective course at Peninsula High. There he continues to enjoy the teaching/learning experience - especially the daily interaction with his students. A Personal Note from Mr. MacI am a life-long student of history, religion, and philosophy. My heroes are the great teachers of past ages such as Socrates, Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed, as well as Ghandi and Martin Luther King in my own time. I admire scholars such as Huston Smith and the late Joseph Campbell because their books have enriched my life. Teaching Comparative Religions has been a way for me to continue on my own path of learning while helping students appreciate the diversity of world cultures. In class, we explore many interesting ideas together. Each person’s perceptions are considered and highly valued. However, none of us knows all the answers. The class is not about memorizing trivial facts but rather about finding genuine meaning in important ideas and values. Exchanging one’s own views with different people in an open forum increases personal understanding and ultimately leads to tolerance.
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