What Makes Sense
in the Public School?
|
 | This
makes sense: Teaching about religion, giving due academic consideration
to beliefs and practices; the role of religion in history and
contemporary society, and religious themes in music, art, and
literature. |
But ... Teaching religion (indoctrinating students) is a no-no. Since classroom
teachers are representing the state, they are to inform and explain, but not
impose or advocate acceptance of any worldview. A public school must conduct a
secular program of education, presented objectively.
|
| This
makes sense: Conducting studies about religion in a
neutral and academic
way that cannot be interpreted as approximating or simulating religious
activity. |
Teachers should not bias their curriculum, their materials selection, or
their instruction about religion toward their own worldview, or toward those
they favor or against those to which they are averse. Neither can they
participate in any religious activity with students nor direct or invite
students to take part in any religious activity or role play of same.
|
| This
makes sense: Ensuring that the overall program
regarding religion reflects a spirit of civic inclusiveness
apropos to a democratic and pluralistic society (by teaching about
religion with a view to diversity that is conducive to promoting civic
harmony). |
Teachers should not ignore that the U.S. is the most religiously
diverse nation in the world, that in many parts of the nation there are
numerous children from minority religious traditions as well as children
from families holding a nonreligious worldview, and that important
societal developments have drawn their impetus from persons having these
minority religious and nonreligious stances. Teaching about religion with a
view to diversity means curriculum and instruction is inclusive of teaching about
nonreligious as well as religious worldviews, and about the role of
both religious and nonreligious individuals and groups in the history
and culture of the United States and other countries.
|
| This
makes sense: Teaching secular values such as honesty, respect for others,
courage, kindness and good citizenship. |
But ...
teachers should not appeal to a religious base for such teaching. They
should ground teaching of civic values in an academic foundation, not in religious or nonreligious
rationale.
|
| This
makes sense: Voicing with students your endorsement of shared civic values such
as honesty, respect for others, courage, kindness and good
citizenship. |
But ...Teachers should not be injecting personal religious or nonreligious
beliefs into a discussion in an attempt to persuade students to their view
or stance.
|
| This
makes sense: Considering, in an academic and age-appropriate manner, varied
religious and nonreligious (freethought) influences on art, on music,
on literature, and on social studies. |
Teachers should not ignore the sway of religious and nonreligious
imperatives on culture, but neither should they emphasize one form of
influence and ignore the other. It is important that teachers not extol,
based on their own worldview rather than an academic foundation, the
presumed virtues, intrinsic worth, or cultural supremacy of religion or a
given religion.
|
| This
makes sense: Employing music, art, literature, and drama material having
religious themes as long as the material relates to sound, secular
educational goals and is presented to students in an academic and
impartial manner. |
But ...
Teachers should not employ material having a religious theme without
knowing the relationship of the material to promoting a secular program of
study.
|
| This
makes sense: Allowing students to express their own religious and nonreligious
views, as long as such expression is relevant to the classroom
discussion at hand. [Youngsters can write to express their personal
beliefs in assignments as long as they respond to the pedagogical
criteria for the task.] |
Since the youngsters in a classroom are a "captive audience," teachers
should not consent to students’ proselytizing peers during class
discussions or expressing their views in ways that are coercive, disrespectful,
or inflammatory.
|
| This
makes sense: Evaluating home and classroom work by ordinary academic standards of
substance and relevance, and against legitimate pedagogical concerns.
|
Teachers should employ sound academic criteria and not evaluate the
merits of a student’s work on a religious basis (e.g., conformity to
teacher’s worldview).
|
| This
makes sense: Teaching about the revered scriptures of any religion as
literature, or about the historic influences of such scriptures
within a culture, if the lesson is secular, religiously neutral and
objective. |
Teachers must take care not to teach any religion’s scriptural
accounts (e.g., a biblical rendition) as history or fact because that is
promoting religious doctrine.
|
| This
makes sense: Using attribution strategies (e.g., you use such phrases as "According
to the Hebrew scriptures …" or "Many Sikhs believe
…") to safeguard against instilling your personal religious
or nonreligious beliefs. |
It is important that teachers consider the consequence for youngsters
of a teacher having articulated a belief statement without clearly and
objectively ascribing the belief to others.
|
| This
makes sense: Referring in class to concepts stated within religious documents or
texts in a dispassionate "third party" manner. For example,
"Adherents of ___ believe that these statements are true."
Or, "____ [the religion] maintains that …." |
Teachers need to avoid reciting from religious or nonreligious
documents as if the stated concepts in the passages are generally
recognized
|
| This
makes sense: Judging ancient writings using academically sound procedures rather
than the standards of a given religion or the predominant community
outlook. |
Teachers should not endorse as factual the events or concepts from any
religious text, no matter how widely revered.
|
| This
makes sense: Including in your planning for a wide variety of stories to be read
by students, tales drawn from various faiths (as long as the selected
material is presented as part of a secular program of study). |
But ...Teachers should not use stories dominated by a given faith or chosen
selectively as classroom or assigned reading without having them be part
of a clearly defined, secular curriculum
|
| This
makes sense: Inviting a guest speaker to augment classroom instruction and
provide students a more comprehensive understanding of the tradition
or worldview under study. |
But ...Teachers must not expose students to an ill-informed guest speaker or
one who is either indifferent to his/her responsibilities to make a
secular presentation or unable to carry out that duty.
Sample situations of concern:
- Adherents who have no broad academic understanding of their life
stance (e.g., history and development of the religion)
- Clergy who simply cannot break from habits of indoctrination
- Speakers who over-generalize from a limited base of understanding to
the spectrum of adherents in a religion
- Individuals who generalize beyond their own personal experience
within a culture to adherents at large (practices often differ)
- Speakers who apply stereotypes to adherents of other worldviews
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| This
makes sense: Using holiday themes in the
context of a broader program of studies based objectively on their academic value .
|
Instruction focuses on aspects such as the origin, history, and generally
agreed-upon meaning of the observance, but teachers do not use holiday
themes as a vehicle for advocating any religion or for advancing religious
belief.
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