Navigating religion in the classroom

NEA Today, Nov 2002 by O'Neil, John, Loschert, Kristen

COVER STORY

Educators are teaching about religion, respecting the First Amendment call for a separation of church and state-and keeping their own faith.

In 1984, Utah middle school teacher Martha Ball discovered just how sensitive schools had become to religious issues in the classroom.

During a middle school class on U.S. and Utah history, "I made this innocuous remark about how we were going to study the Mormon migration west," Ball recalls. "And one kid said, `You use the word "Mormon" in this classroom and my dad will sue you.'" Stunned, Ball went to her principal, who warned her to avoid the topic. The head of the school's history department agreed and told Ball she was "asking for major problems" if she explored the subject any further.

Now retired, Ball works to transform such attitudes as director of the Utah 3Rs project, a model program aimed at helping educators teach about religions in ways that are both constitutionally appropriate and educationally worthwhile. In part because of projects like 3Rs, the environment around incorporating religion appropriately in the curriculum has changed since Ball's clash 18 years ago.

"The question for most teachers now is not, `Should I teach about religion or not?'" says Charles Haynes, director of the First Amendment Center of the Freedom Forum and a leading expert on religion in schools. "Teachers now want to know, How do I do it? What's the best way to do it? What are some of the pitfalls and the challenges, and what materials are available?"

Guiding the overall discourse is the First Amendment, which says the government must remain neutral toward religion. Public school educators must tread what is at times a nebulous line-teaching neutrally about religion, honoring their students' personal views on religion, and observing their own beliefs privately.

So teachers need answers. Is my annual classroom "Christmas party" OK? (No.) Can I wear a Star of David in school? (Yes.) Can I assign my world history students to read the Old Testament? (It depends.)

CHANGING THE MODEL

The "sacred public school," with the Protestant Bible as its centerpiece, prevailed in U.S. public education through the 19th century, says Haynes. But a turn-of-the-century push to remove all religious instruction from the public schools left just a few vestiges of the Protestant school model-devotional Bible readings and organized prayer-remaining as the 20th century emerged. Then cultural shifts of the mid-20th century and court decisions of the 1960s altered the model further, and public schools became viewed erroneously as places where religion was not addressed.

Worried that they might be perceived as endorsing religious viewpoints, many teachers shied away from even legitimate lessons on the role of religious leaders or religious thought in history and culture. Publishers were squeamish as well. Ball remembers a 1980s world geography textbook with "one page on major religions in the.entire book. Another textbook series referred to the Pilgrims as "travelers."

Now, the picture is changing once again. "There's no question that this is a new day on issues of religion in schools, both in terms of teaching about religion and in terms of religious liberty rights of kids," says Haynes.

Finding Common Ground: A Guide to Religious Liberty in Public Schools, published in 2001 by the First Amendment Center, includes guidelines endorsed by a broad spectrum of faith-based and education groups, including the NEA. The U.S. Department of Education also offers Finding Common Ground as a resource on its website (see "Resources," page 11).

Generally, the guidelines note that a school's approach to religion should:

* focus on studies about religion, not the practice of religion;

* be academic, not devotional;

* strive for student awareness of religions, but not press for student acceptance of any religion;

* expose students to a diversity of religious views, but not impose any particular view.

So how do these guidelines translate to the classroom? Finding Common Ground advises teachers to let the grade level of their students and the academic requirements of their courses dictate how much instruction to include.

Holidays can provide timely opportunities to educate students about various religions. Teachers may include lessons about the origins of various holidays, how and when they are celebrated, and their meanings. They also may display religious symbols during these lessons, but only on a temporary basis and as part of the academic program.

The courts do not consider items such as Christmas trees religious symbols. But Haynes notes that educators often can avoid debates over the use of trees at Christmas, bunnies at Easter, and similar images by providing a comprehensive curriculum that accurately and fairly addresses a variety of religious holidays throughout the year.

Rae Baczek, a math teacher at Greenwich High School in Connecticut, uses religious holidays to respond to her students' questions about her own faith, Judaism. Her district recognizes days such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur as school holidays, so students often ask Baczek about their significance and meaning, she says.