What is the Role of Religion in the 21st Century Public School? Part 1

I’ve been attending an education conference at the university this week. The topic: What is the role of religion in the 21st century public school. So far it is has been very interesting. One of the most interesting sessions was a panel discussion comprised of students from Central High Schools International Baccalaureate program.

The students were amazingly articulate and demonstrated some deep thinking on the subject. One clever girl summed up the problems related to religion in school stating that the people “offended” were generally not the students, but the parents. “The parents are the problem,” she said.

She went on to say that the majority of the time the students are much more accepting of other students’ faith and expression of faith. Anytime that expression was squelched or questioned it was because of the parents. I think that is very telling of our culture.

All of the students were in favor of all religions being taught in the schools so long as they were taught in an “academic” manner. Again, these students were very articulate. It was mentioned that they were not coached ahead of time and that there was no practice for this panel discussion. Not only did the students express their approval of religion being taught in school, but they felt that understanding other religions would help break down barriers and increase an acceptance of views.

The keynote of the day was Jeremy Gunn from the ACLU. I’m sure he surprised many by stating that, in his personal opinion, religions should be taught in schools so long as the teaching is of an academic and objective manner. He noted that the ACLU had no official opinion on any issues of curriculum.

Contrary to what most people think, students can pray at school. Any school that would prevent a student from praying would violate the law.

Gunn offered some standards and guidelines to help teachers and school administrators find their way through this complicated issue. They are paraphrased below:

1. The promotion of specific religions beliefs is the responsibility of families and churches. Schools are not in the business of instilling religious beliefs into students.
2. Public schools can (and in his opinion, they should) teach about religion in an academic, scholarly and objective way. He expressed that there is no way for anyone to be completely objective. However, he acknowledged that the schools should make a “good faith effort” to achieve objectivity.
3. When educators teach students about religion, the focus should not focus on the idea of teaching students to “respect” religion. He stated emphatically that the crux of teaching religion in public schools should be on respecting the fundamental civil rights of children (and parents) to have their own beliefs. The goal, he said, is not to respect religions. In fact, many people may find that they do not respect a religion after studying that religion. Students are free to have that belief as well.

I have two more days of the conference and I am really looking forward to it. I will give you an update on some of the more interesting aspects of today’s sessions tonight or tomorrow morning (or whenever I get a chance). Stay tuned and speak up. This could make for great blogging fodder over the next several days. I am especially interested to hear from past, current and future teachers.