Jesus Heard the word of God, but Mohammed had convulsions: How religion clause principles should be applied to religion in the public school social studies curriculum

Journal of Law and Education, Jul 2003 by Kaiser, Elizabeth D

In Virginia, public school students must learn certain concepts about major world religions in order to get their high school diploma.22 In order to teach students these concepts, the state requires schools to teach religion.23 Individual school districts implement these religion requirements by creating their own curricula, training their teachers and selecting appropriate textbooks.24 In theory, Virginia's board of education has in good faith created a curriculum that is neutral towards religion in that it covers several religions, requiring students to learn about these religions in the context of history.25 However, in practice, a combination of factors could cause students to believe that some religions are better than others. Take for example the issue of how textbooks approach religion. Recall the passage from A History of Western Society quoted in the introduction. In another Houghton Mifflin book, A Message of Ancient Days, the text resorts to stereotyping when describing the Hindu religion.26 The book describes Hindus as people who "choose to put aside their possessions and live in a forest. . . ."27

These blatantly wrong and stereotypical passages show bias against the values of Hinduism and Islam. While A Message of Days makes Hindus look primitive, A History of Western Society shows a preference towards the Christian and Jewish faiths.28 If a teacher assigned these reading passages to young, impressionable students without correcting the passages' inaccuracies or prejudicial viewpoint, the teacher would be sending a message that Islam and Hinduism are "lesser" religions. As the Court has said in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe29 and Lee v. Weisman,30 K-12 educators have enormous coercive influence over their students. Students reading those uncorrected passages could conclude that their teachers, agents of the state, specifically disfavor those religions.31 So even when a state has in good faith required schools to educate students about multiple religions, a school-through teacher ignorance or selection of poor textbooks or supplemental materials-could impermissibly violate its constitutional duty to maintain neutrality towards religion.

II. GOOD FAITH INSTRUCTIONAL CHOICES MAY PRODUCE BAD EFFECTS

The pedagogic choices surrounding religion in the curriculum may create bad effects that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court has developed many Establishment and Free Exercise clause tests for measuring bad effects. However, the Court has not been clear on what precisely each test means or how they relate to each other. Nonetheless, each test suggests that there are several potential problems surrounding religion in the curriculum.

Courts have not specifically addressed the issue of religion in the social studies curriculum. However, the Court has maintained that public schools must uphold First Amendment principles as entities of the government. The First Amendment protects an individual's right to practice religion freely and prevents the government from establishing its own state religion.32 The Free Exercise and Establishment clauses address concerns about religious persecutions.33