Religious education in schools... why not?

Question

I've wondered this too for awhile. Why can't we have religious education in public schools? No one's discriminating; you wouldn't HAVE to take the classes. If it's an issue of not everyone wanting theology teachers paid out of their tax money, this is what I propose.

Some communities are a lot more religious than others. Some communities couldn't really care less whether there's a God or not. Some are predominantly Jewish, some Catholic, some Baptist, some... you get the picture. Therefore, I think each school district should have a vote: do you want religion classes to be covered by our school's budget, and if so, classes in which religion(s)? If voted no, that school could carry on as usual. If voted yes, that community could have the extra classes. I do understand that there would be an issue with standardizing curricula for classes in various religions, but we did it in every other subject. Public schools are supposed to work for the people, not vice versa.

So... thoughts? Opinions? Agree? Disagree?

jeannielunchbox - couldn't agree more!

Answer 1

Disagree.

1) No tax dollars for religion.
2) No public school indoctrination practices.
3) If you're going to cater to religions at school, it better be the religions of every student. If there's Christian teaching at my kids' schools, then they'd better have someone teaching Asatru, as well. Otherwise, that's a violation of the Constitution.

It would cause too many problems.

Answer 2

I think a class teaching the basics of all the different World Religions would be a great experience for our kids. It wouldn't hurt any of our kids to have a better understanding of the many different forms of worship there are in the world, or the many different systems of thought... It might actually help them to be more tolerant (well, we can hope).
Such a class would, of course, cover every major world religion, and perhaps a short study on some of the less well known ones.
Should atheism be included? Depends. Is atheism a religion? If it is, then, yes, it should be included. If not, then what would be the point? The teacher could point out that some people don't believe in any religion...what else is there to be said?
It would be a fantastic use of our tax dollars, and it could be easily integrated into the required Social Studies classes.
OH, I forgot...the main reason why we can't discuss any religion in the public school system.
Abject terror!!
Don't you know that if some poor atheist child should happen to hear a religious child pray, or sing, or even mention his/her faith, the kid will catch some horrible religious virus??
I am confident enough in my children that I am not afraid to expose them to other ways of thinking.
Most Christians are confident that their children will not become Buddhist overnight if they are exposed to Buddhist teachings in school, for instance.
Our kids will not start worshipping Zues because Greek mythology is taught in school.


There seems to be a MAJOR misunderstanding about the phrase "separation of church and state".

Answer 3

The problem with your idea is that no community is totally homogenous. There might be a lot of Christians in a community, for example, but the one or two (or 10 or 2 dozen) other faiths represented in the district would need representation too.

Consider that even within Christianity there are tons of different beliefs. Catholics, for example believe in the intervention of saints and the virgin Mary, while other Christian sects do not. Would you teach each different sect?

Now imagine there's one Buddhist family that lives in town, and they have 3 kids ages 14, 12, and 7. Even if you allowed Religious Ed for Buddhism, there would be only one student in the class for each of three different grades. It would be very costly to have a person sufficiently trainied in Buddhism to teach the class for each of these students, and you would have to provide classes for the entire range of grades as the kids moved through school.

At the same time, if you listened to the majority and only had religious education for Christians (assuming there was a single curriculum you could teach for ALL Christians), you would be setting up a government-endorsed religion, becuase you would be publicly financing religious education in one faith. This violates the Constitution.

Just allowing people to opt out of the classes would not be enough to get around this issue. Imagine if the Buddhist family was very devout and WANTED religious education for their children in school. They're paying taxes to finance it just like everyone else, why shouldn't they get the same service from their government as the Christian families get?

And we haven't even mentioned Atheism. Would they get classes in Humanist philosophy and science?

Ultimately, what it comes down to is that schools are not the place to teach religious dogma. This is simply a fundamental principle of American society.

Answer 4

Public schools CAN have religious history and philosophy courses. They just can't have preaching courses.

The reason is the First Amendment which mandates that government make no law regarding the establishment of religion or the free exercise thereof. This indicates that government and governmental agencies (including public schools) cannot support any one religion in any way. Thus, tax money cannot go toward preaching religion. An individual community could not even vote to allow religious instruction in schools because schools are not exclusively funded by the community (they get federal and state funds as well).

It's in the Constitution and the concept is very important in maintaining true religious freedom for ALL.

Answer 5

This is an interesting idea...but I think it needs some refining. It's all very well if a kid wants to take a religion class and learn more about their religion, that's not what I'm worried about. What I'm worried about is what happens when a kid's parents make the kid take a religion class even though the kid doesn't want to, because that's just plain brainwashing. If schools were to have religion classes, they should have classes in which kids learn about all religions, and theism in general, and even atheism and agnosticism, that way we wouldn't have any brainwashing problems. Although of course then you have problems of heated arguments breaking out between kids of different religions, or even between kids and teachers. Better yet, they could have not so much a religion class but a philosophy class, I think that would leave less room for people to get into arguments with each other as well as provide more useful information for the kids.

Answer 6

Unless you would like the USA to adopt an "official religion" and become even more like the Roman Empire than we are now, I don't think you want the government teaching religion.

First of all, the government would have to decide which religion they would teach. Next they would have to decide what the objective of the course would be. Then they would have to choose an official curriculum.

To test the value of the course, the government would have to decide whether the course was creating the proper results. Were they making converts? Were students conforming to the values taught in the course? What difference was the course having on the local community?

Then we would have a generation of children all taught the same thing. Students of this government taught religion would create their own churches, also sanctioned by the government. They would also be very strong members of a political party; influencing them to pass laws requiring religion be taught to all children, starting in Kindergarten.

We now have a movement that would be followed by Inquisitions, prison time for heretics, and deportation for those preaching religions considered "foreign".

Keep government out of religion.

Answer 7

Because then, the minority in the community who doesn't want their tax dollars going towards religious education (which the Constitution prohibits anyway) is ignored. And what would you have these religious classes count for? A replacement for social studies?

Many public schools have classes where they learn about ALL of the world's different religions without emphasis on any particular one. This is what my school district did and I appreciate it because I did not end up with some "I'm awesome because some guy in the sky said so and you're not because you use logic instead of blind faith" idea in my head. School is for education, not faith. If a public school wants religious education, they should have a class where they teach about all religions objectively and this way, the kids can choose whatever they want to believe.

And Horton, we're talking America, not a third-world country where religious education leads to female circumcision and other atrocities.

Answer 8

Are you paying for your daughter education? I am assuming yes. Did you understand that your child would be taught these classes when you enrolled your child into this school? If this is a Christian school then that is what they teach. If you don't like it why don't you enroll your children into a public school. Many public schools have programs for Gifted and talented students and they have AP/ Pre-AP and dual credit courses available in high school. If RE is part of the Christian school curriculum and your daughter is required to take it, there is not much you can do. Blessings

Answer 9

In this case, I honestly don't think the majority should rule. One of the tenets of the founding of this country was religious freedom. Not, free as long as the majority agrees with you. I am a firm believer in the separation of Church and State. If 9/11 and the religious terrorists should have taught us anything, it's that separation of religion and state is a good thing. If I were the ONLY atheist in a school district, I still wouldn't want my tax dollars going to fund religious teachings. Religion is something that ought to be within each family. If the responsibility for spiritual guidance is removed from the family and becomes a responsibility of the education system, I see nothing good coming of it. I honestly don't see what would be gained. And, family-based spirituality would be lost.

Answer 10

i am 13 and i go to a private christian school, i used to go to a public school. it would neither work nor be the right thing to do. personally i think rooting a school on one religion in the way you've described is wrong. at my school the only thing the kids there have ever known or heard of is "christian", they are blind and shallow in a sense because they have been overprotected and never been allowed to make up their own mind as to what they believe. in my opinion if everyone is taught the same religion at school it brings up rather weak, soft people. what i think could work would be a mandatory multi-religion class. EDUCATION in VARIOUS religions, taught by a COMPLETLY neutral teacher. each religion gets equal emphasis so that each person can make up their own mind, or stay with their previous belief, going away with enough knowledge to understand people of other beliefs in the future. if there's only ONE option to choose from, then it is all FAKE and no one really BELIEVES what they do.

Answer 11

I don't see a problem with religion being taught in optional philosophy or theology classes. But I think such classes should present more than one viewpoint. If they teach about Christianity, they should also teach about Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism etc., so they kids can make informed decisions. If this is feasible, I think it may be a good thing.

I do have a problem with religious theories being taught as alternatives to science. Religion has no place in biology class. Teaching kids that God did everything instead of teaching them the theory of evolution and the periodic table would just be foolish and hinder kids education.