It's an old cliché that discussing religion doesn't make for the best cocktail party conversation. Many would apply this bromide to the classroom as well. Teachers shy away from giving religion more than a cursory examination for fear of violating the establishment clause or offending students (or their parents), especially since most have not been specifically trained to teach about religion. But increasingly, ignoring religion is not considered a valid approach in public schools (see box, page 4).
Teachers who have already begun to take a more thorough approach to teaching about religion, such as examining detailed, intimate aspects of the various faiths and their place in modern culture, agree that the educational gain far outweighs any controversy that may arise. They cite two main benefits of such in-depth study: it helps the members of a culturally diverse class understand more about one another, and it enables students to gain a fuller understanding of social studies, something that is difficult otherwise.
"An Academic Exercise"
Jim Maechling, a social studies teacher at Peninsula High School in Palos Verdes, Calif., knows that some believe students should get their knowledge about religion from their parents and their faith community. He says, however, that being taught religion from the faith community's perspective and being taught about religion in the public schools are inherently disparate experiences. "When you're in a church, everyone is in agreement because you're in a group of similar believers. You often learn more not by sitting around in a group agreeing, but by hearing different points of view." Maechling is careful to point out that what he advocates is something altogether different from religious instruction. "This is an academic exercise; I can't stress that enough."
"You can't study history without religion," Maechling continues. "Revolutions, freedom movements such as the antislavery movement in the United States, antiwar movements, wars, economic injustices, Ireland, the Middle East—you name it, religion is there."
Understanding people's religious convictions is important not only in the context of historical events, but also for grasping present-day social debates over euthanasia, the death penalty, and abortion, he adds. "According to Judaism, life begins with the first breath," Maechling says. "According to Catholics, life begins at conception. It's a government issue, but it's also a religious issue."
As an example of the complex ideas his students must consider, Maechling retells a story that a rabbi once told one of his classes: "About 20 years ago during the famine in Ethiopia, the Knesset in Tel Aviv decided to rescue 20,000 Ethiopian Jews from the desert, where they'd been living for centuries, praying to get to the Promised Land. Within 72 hours they scooped these people up in huge cargo planes and took them to Tel Aviv. These people went from living in the deserts of Ethiopia to living in a modern city overnight. So, 500 years from now, if their descendants ask 'How did we get to the Promised Land?' and they're told 'These huge birds came down and swallowed us in their belly and took us there,' would that be a lie?"
Creating a Comfort Zone
Addressing religion in depth with students means addressing social concepts such as values, traditions, and ethnic and community ties—not those of some distant, ancient civilization but of young people right there in the classroom. How can teachers create a suitable environment for meaningful discussion of this sensitive subject?
"I take the first week of class to talk about manners," says Maechling. "I say, 'This is a place of ideas, and everyone is safe here. You can eloquently disagree with someone's point of view, but you can never denigrate them.' When you get that good climate, people start expressing what they think," Maechling says.
Shirley Allessi, a 1st grade teacher at Maple East Elementary School in Williamsville, N.Y., began including instruction about religion in her classes after her school district implemented a cultural diversity policy. She now uses holidays to introduce her young students to various religions. Allessi tries to emphasize the similarities in the celebrations of the various faiths, without ignoring the differences. "So many things about them are the same," she says. "People exchange gifts, they have feasts, they light candles, they sing songs, they have company come to their home." After comparing the similarities, Allessi explains to her students the reasons why each religion holds its particular celebration.
Allessi says that holidays are an excellent tool to begin to raise the awareness of her 6-year-olds that other families don't necessarily share the same traditions as their own. "It teaches them to realize 'I may wake up on Christmas morning and open gifts that Santa brought, but there
are people who are not doing that today,'" she says.
Looking back on the days when she was afraid to even mention the birth of Jesus in her classroom, Allessi says it's easy to see how the study of different holidays and religions can help her students feel comfortable in their own skin and gain the assurance to share their personal stories.
Every year around Thanksgiving Allessi asks her class to list their favorite holiday foods. She says that in years past, almost without fail, every student would mention traditional American foods like turkey and mashed potatoes, even if they were the children of immigrants. "First graders, or any children, don't want to be different," she says. This year when she asked the class what their favorite Thanksgiving foods were, "I came to a little Indian boy. He told me that his family loved America and they did celebrate Thanksgiving, but they ate Indian food instead of turkey because that's what his mom knew how to cook and that's what his dad liked to eat. In past years he would have said stuffing or something, even though he might not have known what it was. Now kids feel more confident saying, 'That isn't what we do in my house.'"
In an environment where students feel completely comfortable acknowledging and discussing differences between their own and others' faiths, amicable disagreements are to be expected as part of the learning exercise. Teachers should be prepared, however, for the occasional instances when such openness can backfire, Maechling says. "One time, a very sincere Christian girl politely told the whole class they were going to hell." He adds, "But that's not a typical day in here."
Allessi had a comparable experience when a small Jewish boy discovered his classmate was German. "He told her, 'Your people killed my people.'" But Allessi cites such instances as proof of the essentialness of religious education and the good that it can do. "If I can take that little Jewish boy who thinks he's supposed to hate all Germans and change his mind, that's a good thing."
Some Ground Left to Cover
In April 1995, 35 political and religious groups issued a statement declaring what was and was not acceptable with regard to religious expression in public schools. A section devoted to religion in the curriculum read that it was "permissible and desirable" to teach about religion's role in history and also to teach about religious theories of life on earth, as long as no religion was promoted over any other, and as long as religious explanations were never presented as scientific fact.
The groups that signed the document—from the National Council of Churches to Americans United for the Separation of Church and State—have vastly differing purposes and ideologies. Obviously, there is broad support for the inclusion of religion in public school curricula. Indeed, religion is mentioned in the social studies standards of every state in the United States.
Just because coverage of religion is mandated by state standards doesn't mean it's being taught appropriately, however. A December 2000 report by the Council on Islamic Education, in collaboration with the First Amendment Center, asserted that while religion does appear in all state standards, the state of religion in the curriculum leaves much to be desired. According to the report, Teaching About Religion in National and State Social Studies Standards, most standards required only a basic outline of the major religions with little seriousness or depth; Christianity, Judaism, and Islam were often emphasized more than Buddhism, Hinduism, and other religions; and religion was hardly mentioned in the context of history after 1800.
