|
The "DOs" |
The "DON’Ts" |
| 1. As the teacher, do
abide by the First Amendment’s requirement that you be
neutral in statement and conduct regarding whatever religious or
nonreligious ways of understanding the world that youngsters in your class
may hold arising out of their home environment and upbringing. |
1. Within your classroom,
do not permit
actions or statements (e.g., ostracism, ridicule, or disrespect by teacher
or peer) that erode the liberty of conscience or undermine the social
circumstance of any youngster on account of the individual’s profession of religious or nonreligious belief (or
associated attire or customs). |
| 2. Do
live up to your moral and intellectual obligation to be fair and
unbiased in your handling of the varied worldviews, be they
nonreligious or religious. |
2. Do not treat
your own worldview as "official" in statements or actions, or
stereotype or disparage religious or nonreligious worldviews not your own. |
| 3. In teaching
about religions and belief systems, do teach your students the
academic way of understanding events, movements and venerated texts
(while conceding that the varied nonreligious and religious pathways of
human understanding may yield interpretations at variance). |
3. Do not abdicate
your educational responsibility to teach your discipline (e.g., history,
science) in an academically sound secular manner despite advocacy
(e.g., from students, parents, or administrators) that you dilute or avoid
subject matter that is at odds with their religious or nonreligious
beliefs but which rightfully belongs in a thorough academic program. |
| 4. When you make
curricular and instructional decisions, do live up to the ideals
of a liberal education, acknowledging the existence and place of human
belief systems within the important cultural developments and movements of
human history, and recognizing worldviews stances that underlie conduct of
major players (the nonreligious notables as well as the diverse religious
players). |
4. Do not select
curricular materials based on, or advocate or seek students’ acceptance
of, your own worldview (whether religious or nonreligious) or advance any
given worldview (or associated texts, customs and traditions) as being
more or less praiseworthy than another. |
| 5. Do show
sensitivity to children who come from unfamiliar or unpopular
religious traditions and also to those who recognize no religion or
disavow religious faith, using your position as the teacher to assure that
your classroom environment supports liberty of conscience for all
children. |
5. In your
classroom, do not direct or engage students in costuming themselves
in religious attire, in assuming religious names, or in role-playing any
of the worship activities or other conduct associated with following a
particular worldview tradition. |
| 6. When dealing
with any important matter of controversy, do live up to your
obligation to be equitable and just in your treatment of the
holders of these perspectives, be they nonreligious or religious. |
6. Do not in
any way (direct or indirect) seek or require student agreement with you on
worldview beliefs (religious or nonreligious), or make any child feel an
outsider in the classroom learning environment that you provide. |
| 7. Do,
for highly controversial matters, seek the institution and support of
legal school policies, so that you can establish within your own classroom
a justifiable excusal policy that makes clear how and when youngsters may
be exempted from lessons (informing parents of the general course of
action). |
7. Do not involve
youngsters in discussing or evaluating matters that are beyond their level
of maturity and/or their cognitive ability to confront. |
| 8. Do recognize that, with respect
to matters of ultimate belief and faith adherence, each student is in a
process of cognitive and emotional development, and that it is presumptuous
to attribute to a child a worldview congruence with that of his/her parents |
8. Do not label youngsters by their
parental affiliation (e.g., "Mormon child"); instead, use referents that
acknowledge the individuality and nascent belief status of the maturing
youngster (e.g., Sylvia has Catholic parents" or "Raheel is from a Muslim
family"). |
