To church-state purists, never the two shall mix, particularly in public schools.
Because of that point of view, many educators shy away legitimate academic discussion about religion, to the detriment of their students. Religion's role in world history cannot be overstated. To remove any religious reference from a study of history, music, art and even science is to offer an incomplete education.Recent news reports that the Jefferson 21st Century Institute has filed a complaint with the Park City School District over a group of Tibetan monks that performed religious ceremonies last fall are disturbing. While there is arguably a fine line between teaching and preaching religion in a public school, we contend that the monks' appearance was primarily educational. So long as school officials were not endorsing the monks' religion or requiring students to attend the performances, it is difficult to find fault with the visit.
The complaint illustrates the extreme difficulty some educators and some members of the public have with the notion of teaching about religion in schools. It is appropriate so long as the school's approach to religion is academic, not devotional. In other words, educators may teach, not preach. In past years, a handful of educators have had difficulty with that distinction. In those cases, members of the community or a church-state separationist organization should bring their concerns to school administrators.
In recent years, a number of Utah school districts have conducted training to teach educators how to teach about religion in the public-school setting. Many local school districts have embraced the First Amendment Center's "Finding Common Ground" as their guidebook in this area.
Authors Charles C. Haynes and Oliver Thomas have provided a common-sense approach to this issue, noting that the question is no longer can educators teach about religion in school but rather, what is the best way to go about it?
Religion is an integral part of current world events, whether the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East or the struggles over religious freedom in China. As "Finding Common Ground" puts it, "Current battles about 'world views' cannot be resolved either by excluding all religious perspectives or by establishing one religion (or world view) over all others. Both approaches have been tried in our history and both violate the spirit and letter of the First Amendment."
Such instruction not only enriches a student's education, but it also helps emphasize the importance of their own religious liberties. More importantly, it gives future policymakers a framework for understanding and living with what are people's deepest differences.