Title: Religion in Public School Curriculum | Religion in Public Schools | ADL
Headings: Religion in the Curriculum
Religion in the Curriculum
SPECIFIC ISSUES & QUESTIONS
What distinguishes "teaching religion" from "teaching about religion"?
May schools teach the Bible as literature?
May schools teach secular values which coincide with religious values?
What are some concerns that arise regarding "teaching about religion" in public schools?
If students object on religious grounds to portions of a textbook, may they be excused from studying the material?
Aren't these rules just promoting a "secular religion"?
What happens when a student responds to a secular assignment with religious expression?
SAMPLE SCENARIOS & SITUATIONS
Sixth-grader Asks Teacher about Religious Beliefs of Historical Groups
How should Mr. Clark answer Talia's question on the settlers?
Parent of Sixth-grader Objects to Reading Assignment on Religious Grounds
Should Joe be exempted from using the standard reader?
Jewish Student Asked to Explain Hanukkah to Class
Should Mr. Parker have asked the student to explain Hanukkah? Should he have asked her mother?
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Content: 13 Simply, the public schools should work to ensure that they do not endorse or disapprove religion, neither promoting nor denigrating it. What happens when a student responds to a secular assignment with religious expression? This is as much a free speech issue as it is a religious liberty issue. Where a student responds to an assignment (for example, a book report) with a religiously-themed project (for example, reporting on a religious tract), a school may not refuse to accept the assignment solely because it has a religious basis (students have a right to free expression). 14 However, if in observing the presentation of the assignment -- especially expressive assignments like artwork, plays and reports that are presented publicly -- an observer might think that the project is endorsed by the school, it is a problem. 15 Thus, a book report delivered to a teacher may not be rejected merely because it is religious, whereas a work of art that will be hung up or displayed by the school or a play intended for public performance is unacceptable. Indeed, educators are able to exercise considerable control over "student expression to assure that participants learn whatever lessons the activity is designed to teach, that readers or listeners are not exposed to material that may be inappropriate for their level of maturity, and that the views of the individual speaker are not erroneously attributed to the school." 16
SAMPLE SCENARIOS & SITUATIONS
Sixth-grader Asks Teacher about Religious Beliefs of Historical Groups
Mr. Clark's sixth grade class used a standard reader which had stories on a wide variety of topics. One passage in the reader involved the first settlers in the "new world," and another described Leonardo da Vinci as the human with a creative mind that "came closest to the divine touch." Talia Berk, a student in Mr. Clark's class, was interested in the passage about the first settlers and asked how the religious beliefs and practices of these settlers compared with those of the Native American Indians.