Religion in education and curriculum?

Question

What are some state statutes, regulations, local/state policies and court cases that talk about teaching about religion in education and the curriculum.

If you could provide the website along with your answer that would be great!

Answer 1

Teaching about religions is one thing - some schools offer a comparative religion course.  Of course, many people object to this - Christians, mostly, who object to the fact that their religion is presented as one of many instead of the one true religion.  So those classes usually don't last long.  Some states, Texas for example, are teaching classes on the Bible in high schools, supposedly from a non-religious point of view (if that's even possible) but I doubt those will last long either.

Here's a good case to look up from a few years ago about the clash between religion and science - Kitzmiller vs. Dover.  PBS even did a special on it.

Answer 2

local policies, state statutes - none of that matters.

The establishment clause is where it all derives from...that is what you should be researching.

If you'll look into the Everson case - you'll see this quote from Justice Black:

"The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. That wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach"

Why wont you find any local policies, state laws etc?

"Congess shall make no law..."

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/...

Answer 3

I don't know of any in particular, but in our high school World Literature book, there are sections from the King James version of the bible.  And the subject comes up in class quite often - poems in 9th grade book, discussions in the classroom, etc.  It's a natural part of learning because it's part of our literary culture and historical context.  You can't TEACH it as fact, but you can't overlook it either.  Not if you want to be a good teacher.

Answer 4

As far as I understand, it is not unconstitutional to teach about religions, like in a world religions course and give unbiased facts about each religion, like comparing points of doctrine.  It is unconstitutional to teach the religion as something the students should or need to practice and trying to enforce that.  Teaching about religious dogma isn't really any different than teaching about different cultural practices--after all, many cultural practices in different parts of the world stem from religious rituals.

**I wanted to add that in my high school, the AP English Lit class I took even studied the Book of Job as a literary text.