Religion
Separation of church and state is a contentious issue in communities across the country. The exclusion of religious content from public schools has sparked debate about freedom of speech and religion. The First Amendment bars the government from imposing religion and protects private religious expression.
Schools and districts face a difficult task walking the fine line between religious expression and religious imposition. The matters range from controversy over teaching a Bible class to what kind of Christmas carols to include in holiday concerts. Charles Haynes of the Freedom Forum and one of the recognized national experts on this issue contends that schools have a lot more leeway than what they have previously exercised or what they think they might have.
During the Clinton administration, Haynes' work led the U.S. Department of Education to develop guidelines to help school administrators avoid the church/state road mines while not abrogating anyone's right to prayer. The organizations that helped the education department develop the guidelines ranged from evangelical Christian to Jewish and Muslim groups.
In a post-9/11 world, educating students about religion is a sensitive topic. Debates have ensued on how schools, even colleges and universities, should teach students about Islam. Some critics fear schools will try to avoid controversy by watering down any discussion. Although many educators shy away from potentially controversial religious discussion, these discussions can actually be a crucial part of teaching students about tolerance, others respond.
The distribution of religious literature and the meeting of religious clubs on school grounds have been sources of controversy about the separation of church and state and its application to American public schools. But the Supreme Court has held that such activity is allowable if it is organized and initiated by students.
Other recent disputes have questioned whether dress codes should be allowed to exclude religious garb such as head coverings and cross necklaces, and whether the words “under God” should be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance. EWA has compiled a number of publications and studies that dissect the issue of religion in public schools, as well as articles chronicling the ongoing debate within American society
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Charles Haynes
First Amendment Center
555 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20001
202/292-6288
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Bruce Grelle
Director
Religion and Public Education Resource Center
California State University, Chico
Phone: (530) 898-4739
bgrelle@csuchico.edu
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Global Education
Monday, March 8, 2010
Global Education
Global Education
EWA Education Reform brief looking at the state of global education in US schools. How are schools looking at the world in foreign language, history and religion classes? Emily Sachar recently authored Schools for the Global Age: Promising Practices in International Education and is a two-time winner of the Grand Prize for Education Reporting, awarded by EWA, is the author of the reform brief.
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Learning to Live with Difference: Teaching About Religion in Public Schools in the United States
A defense of the right to teach about religion in public schools, with suggestions for how to teach about religion in a way that embraces multiculturalism.
International Center for Religious Freedom, 11/6/2008
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Future of the First Amendment Survey
An updated 2006 survey shows that 72 percent of students say they've taken classes that dealt with the First Amendment, compared with 58 percent in 2004. In addition, more students today think the First Amendment, as a whole, goes too far in the rights it guarantees.
Knight Foundation - Ken Dautrich and David Yalof, 9/18/2006
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'World Religions course' boosts liking for religious liberty
A report released by the First Amendment Center on a required ninth-grade world religions course in Modesto, Calif., offered since2000, found that students in the class gained new respect for religious liberty, but did not change their own religious convictions.
First Amendment Center - Emile Lester and Patrick Roberts, 5/9/2006
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Teaching About Religion (paid subscription required)
This opinion piece argues that it is impossible to understand today's global situation without understanding the religious components which contributed to it. While educators are reluctant to teach about religion, the authors say this puts students at a disadvantage by not being able to get a well-rounded picture of the world they live in.
Education Week (subscription), 1/7/2004
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Teaching About Religion in Public Schools: Where Do We Go From Here?
The transcript of a conference co-sponsored by the Pew Forum and Freedom Forum, featuring discussions on how to teach religion in public schools.
5/20/2003
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Response to the American Textbook Council Report "Islam and the Textbooks" pdf
A rebuttal of Sewall's report, charging that it is not comprehensive and reflects a strong bias against Islam as a religion.
2/13/2003
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Religion and Public Schools
The US Department of Education guide to constitutionally-protected prayer in public schools, and the guidelines for state and local education agencies with respect to this aspect of the No Child Left Behind Act.
2/7/2003
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Islam and the Textbooks pdf
Gilbert Sewall's review of textbook coverage of Islamic and Middle Eastern history is critical of the reluctance to discuss the "dark side" of the topic. Sewall argues that while historians tend to be overly critical of Western culture, they tend to overlook the similarly unsavory aspects of non-Western culture.
2/1/2003
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Teaching About Religion
A report on how schools can teach religion in ways that meet state and national standards.
10/1/2002
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Untying a Terminology Tangle: Secular vs. Nonreligious
Distinguishing secular teaching from non-religious teaching.
4/28/2002
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Religion in the Public School Curriculum pdf
This publication from the Freedom Forum addresses issues like values education, religious holiday observance, creationism/evolution and other major topics of debate regarding the place of religion in public schools.
2/1/2002
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Good Science, Bad Science: Teaching Evolution in the States pdf
A look at the teaching of evolution in public schools - why it is important, what students should be learning and how it has changed with mounting pressure from both sides of the political spectrum.
Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, 9/1/2000
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All Sides of the Story: Teaching Religion in America's Public Schools
This Web site is devoted to helping public school teachers across the country deal with the teaching of religion in a fair, tolerant and informed manner.
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Religion in Schools
The Education Week clearinghouse for news and other resources on the latest school religion cases.
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High Court Seen Snubbing Religious-Expression Cases
One conservative constituency largely is still waiting for its day in the U.S. Supreme Court. Over the past two years alone, self-described religious-liberty groups on the right have asked the justices to hear appeals in some half-dozen cases involving religious expression in the public schools. In each case, the Supreme Court has refused. Mark Walsh, Education Week, Nov. 1, 2010
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Conn. ACLU sues to stop graduations at church
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop two Connecticut high schools from holding their graduation ceremonies at a megachurch. Associated Press, May 7, 2010
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Wilson County to revisit God's place in schools
In 2006, Wilson County school administrators found themselves in legal trouble for allowing too much religion in school. This year, administrators will again revisit what can and can't be said about God in schools. This time, they are compelled to do so by families who say the system unfairly censored expressions of faith. Wilson school officials will throw out a policy that prohibited phrases like "come pray with us" and "In God We Trust" on student posters. The change comes as part of a tentative legal agreement reached Monday with five families who had sued the district. Clay Carey, The Tennessean, August 5, 2009
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For Catholic Schools, Crisis and Catharsis
by Paul Vitello and Winnie Hu
After years of what frustrated parents describe as inertia in the church hierarchy, a sense of urgency seems to be gripping many Catholics who suddenly see in the shrinking enrollment a once unimaginable prospect: a country without Catholic schools. From the ranks of national church leaders to the faithful in the pews, there are dozens of local efforts to forge a new future for parochial education by rescuing the remaining schools or, if need be, reinventing them.
The New York Times, 1/17/2009
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True to their faith, true to their teams
by David La Vaque
Mubarik Musa will wake up by 4:45 this morning to eat, drink and pray before going back to bed. Then he will rise again, walk to school for a full day of classes, spend about two hours practicing with the varsity cross country team and walk home without eating or drinking until about 7:30 p.m. Musa is observing Ramadan, the holy month for Muslims in which they fast from food and water from dawn to dusk.
The Minnesota Tribune, 9/17/2008
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A Teacher on the Front Line as Faith and Science Clash
by Amy Harmon
David Campbell switched on the overhead projector and wrote "Evolution" in the rectangle of light on the screen. Many of his students had been raised to take the biblical creation story as fact. In February, the Florida Department of Education modified its standards to explicitly require, for the first time, the state's public schools to teach evolution, calling it "the organizing principle of life science." With a mandate to teach evolution but little guidance as to how, science teachers are contriving their own ways to turn a culture war into a lesson plan.
The New York Times, 8/23/2008
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Teacher's 'branding' case opens a religious divide
by Tim Jones
It's the kind of story that turns heads and stomachs alike, especially in a small town. A well-known and popular middle school science teacher known for strong religious beliefs is charged with branding the shape of a cross onto the forearm of an eighth-grader. The teacher is in possibly career-ending trouble and a quiet college town is bitterly divided.
The Chicago Tribune, 8/15/2008
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Charter school Q & A: 'To familiarize, not proselytize'
by Denise Johnson
Recently, a Minnesota Department of Education review found that the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy charter school generally complied with separation of church/state rules. The case raised the question: How should matters of faith be handled in public charter schools -- especially when some are designed for cultural or racial groups with a shared religion? Minneaoplis Tribue editorial writer Denise Johnson discussed the issues with a group of charter representatives and other experts.
Minneapolis Star Tribune, 6/14/2008
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Controversy highlights pitfalls to teaching faith
by Jennifer Radcliffe
One of the most sensitive areas in public education, the blurry line between what's allowed and what's not when it comes to religion in schools, can be tricky territory for administrators. Terrified of a misstep, some school districts end up banning Christmas decorations or discouraging students from even mentioning God on campus. In Texas, it cost one principal her job when she allowed the to let the Council on American Islamic Relations make a half-hour presentation to about students in response to an incident.
The Houston Chronicle, 6/8/2008
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'Day of Silence' in Schools Brings Unity, Controversy
by Mark Walsh
For a protest based on quiet symbolism, the Day of Silence in schools generates a lot of conversation.The annual event is meant as a show of support by students and teachers for gay young people. Participants remain silent throughout the school day, and some wear T-shirts or buttons with messages about gay rights or against bullying. As participation levels have grown over the years, however, so has a countermovement backed by religious conservatives.
Education Week (subscription), 4/18/2008
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Hear the latest? Boca high schoolers agree not to gossip
by Lois K. Solomon
At Weinbaum Yeshiva High School in Fla., lunchtime used to be the best time to catch up on rumors, suspicions, who-was-in-a-fight-with-whom and which teacher was the most unfair. But for the past few months, lunch for many students has transformed into a gossip-free hour. Students at the Orthodox Jewish high school are participating in a national Jewish teenage campaign to curb "lashon hara," Hebrew for evil speech.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel , 4/18/2008
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Creationist institute's master's science degree proposal creates debate
by Holly K. Hacker
A Dallas creationist group's proposal to train science teachers has unleashed a flurry of mixed opinions from Nobel laureates, high school teachers, ministers and scientific researchers.
Dallas Morning News, 1/23/2008
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Critics of Saudi Academy Say Textbooks Promote Intolerance
by Valerie Strauss
Some textbooks used by an Islamic school in Fairfax County, Va. contain language intolerant of Jews and other groups as well as passages that could be construed as advocating violence, according to two reviews of the materials.
The Washington Post, 1/10/2008
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Emotion, misunderstanding mark religion-in-school cases
by Bob Smietana
Lakeview Elementary School in Mt. Juliet, Tenn., allowed other groups on campus, so some parents thought the Praying Parents meetings were perfectly legal. However, the group became the focus of a federal lawsuit.
The Tennessean, 12/16/2007
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Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial
by PBS
"Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trail" is a documentary re-telling the Kitzmiller v. Dover, a case which explores one community's fight over whether intelligent design should be taught in public schools. The two-hour documentary aired on PBS.
PBS, 11/14/2007
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School silence law kicks up a big fuss
by Tara Malone
Two weeks after a new law mandated a moment of silence in Illinois public schools, the debate is anything but quiet. Pockets of students, parents and teachers who take issue with the law's intent have staged walkouts, online protests and letter-writing campaigns to state lawmakers in the hope of reversing the measure, which makes Illinois one of 11 states with requisite periods of reflection.
The Chicago Tribune, 10/26/2007
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Wilson students say elective Bible course doesn't preach
by Natalia Mielczarek
Alongside their algebra and biology textbooks, some Wilson County, Tenn., students tote Bibles to school this year. The group - a total of 220 juniors and seniors at all four county high schools - is the first batch to enroll in a new Bible elective course that stirred heated debate last year.
The Tennessean, 10/22/2007
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Religious-based education on trial
by Lisa Anderson
In an unprecedented lawsuit that opens yet another front in the nation's culture wars, an association of Christian schools charges that the admissions policy at the University of California system discriminates against them because they teach from a religious perspective.
The Chicago Tribune, 10/8/2007
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Does the Bible have a place in public schools?
by Seema Mehta
There is broad agreement across the social, political and religious spectrum, and most important the Supreme Court, that the Bible can be taught in public schools. But battles are raging in statehouses, schools and courtrooms over how to teach but not to preach. As the number of these classes increases across the nation, civil libertarians, religious minorities and others fear that Bible lessons cloaked in the guise of academia may provide cover for proselytizing in public schools.
Los Angeles Times, 8/5/2007
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Talk in Class Turns to God, Setting Off Public Debate on Rights
by Tina Kelley
A teacher told his sixth-period students at Kearny High School that evolution and the BigBang were not scientific, that dinosaurs were aboard Noah's ark, andthat only Christians had a place in heaven, according to audiorecordings made by a student. It's caused a debate about how far teachers can go in voicing their views on religion.
New York Times, 12/18/2006
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Evangelicals intensify calls to pull kids from public schools
by David Crary
The home-school movement is growing as chiefly evangelical Christians depict the public school system as hostile to religion. There were at least 1.1 million students home-schooled in 2003, according to federal figures, and perhaps more than 2 million now, according to homeschool advocates.
Associated Press, 9/2/2006
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U.S. Lags World in Grasp of Genetics and Acceptance of Evolution
by Ker Than
A comparison of peoples' views in 34 countries finds that the United States ranks near the bottom when it comes to public acceptance of evolution. Only Turkey ranked lower. Among the factors contributing to America's low score are poor understanding of biology, especially genetics,the politicization of science and the literal interpretation of the Bible by a small but vocal group of American Christians, the researchers say.
LiveScience, 8/10/2006
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Evolution Foes Lose Their Edge on Kansas Board
by Nicholas Riccardi
Foes of Kansas' controversial science standards that recommend questioning evolution appeared to have ousted one of its most vocal supporters Tuesday night, paving the way for the state board of education to reverse the policy.
The Los Angeles Times, 8/2/2006
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