|
Classroom Guidance |
Teaching About Religion |
in support of civic pluralism |
Handling "Religion" in Classroom and Curriculum Guidelines by Objectivity, Accuracy and Balance In Teaching About Religion (OABITAR) Public schools are to serve ALL students. A teacher's planning for teaching about religion must be academically astute, constitutionally sound, and just plain fair all the way ’round! What Makes Sense in the Public School? |
THIS MAKES SENSE: Teaching about religion, giving due academic consideration to beliefs and practices; the role of religion in history and contemporary society, and religious themes in music, art, and literature. BUT ... Teaching religion (indoctrinating students) is a no-no. Since classroom teachers are representing the state, they are to inform and explain, but not impose or advocate acceptance of any worldview. A public school must conduct a secular program of education, presented objectively. THIS MAKES SENSE: Conducting studies about religion in a neutral and academic way that cannot be interpreted as approximating or simulating religious activity. Teachers should not bias their curriculum, their materials selection, or their instruction about religion toward their own worldview, or toward those they favor or against those to which they are averse. Neither can they participate in any religious activity with students nor direct or invite students to take part in any religious activity or role play of same. THIS MAKES SENSE: Ensuring that the overall program regarding religion reflects a spirit of civic inclusiveness apropos to a democratic and pluralistic society (by teaching about religion with a view to diversity that is conducive to promoting civic harmony). Teachers should not ignore that the U.S. is the most religiously diverse nation in the world, that in many parts of the nation there are numerous children from minority religious traditions as well as children from families holding a nonreligious worldview, and that important societal developments have drawn their impetus from persons having these minority religious and nonreligious stances. Teaching about religion with a view to diversity means curriculum and instruction is inclusive of teaching about nonreligious as well as religious worldviews, and about the role of both religious and nonreligious individuals and groups in the history and culture of the United States and other countries. THIS MAKES SENSE: Teaching secular values such as honesty, respect for others, courage, kindness and good citizenship. BUT ... teachers should not appeal to a religious base for such teaching. They should ground teaching of civic values in an academic foundation, not in religious or nonreligious rationale. THIS MAKES SENSE: Voicing with students your endorsement of shared civic values such as honesty, respect for others, courage, kindness and good citizenship. BUT ...Teachers should not be injecting personal religious or nonreligious beliefs into a discussion in an attempt to persuade students to their view or stance. THIS MAKES SENSE: Considering, in an academic and age-appropriate manner, varied religious and nonreligious (freethought) influences on art, on music, on literature, and on social studies. Teachers should not ignore the sway of religious and nonreligious imperatives on culture, but neither should they emphasize one form of influence and ignore the other. It is important that teachers not extol, based on their own worldview rather than an academic foundation, the presumed virtues, intrinsic worth, or cultural supremacy of religion or a given religion. THIS MAKES SENSE: Employing music, art, literature, and drama material having religious themes as long as the material relates to sound, secular educational goals and is presented to students in an academic and impartial manner. BUT ... Teachers should not employ material having a religious theme without knowing the relationship of the material to promoting a secular program of study. THIS MAKES SENSE: Allowing students to express their own religious and nonreligious views, as long as such expression is relevant to the classroom discussion at hand. [Youngsters can write to express their personal beliefs in assignments as long as they respond to the pedagogical criteria for the task.] Since the youngsters in a classroom are a "captive audience," teachers should not consent to students’ proselytizing peers during class discussions or expressing their views in ways that are coercive, disrespectful, or inflammatory. THIS MAKES SENSE: Evaluating home and classroom work by ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance, and against legitimate pedagogical concerns. Teachers should employ sound academic criteria and not evaluate the merits of a student’s work on a religious basis (e.g., conformity to teacher’s worldview). THIS MAKES SENSE: Teaching about the revered scriptures of any religion as literature, or about the historic influences of such scriptures within a culture, if the lesson is secular, religiously neutral and objective. Teachers must take care not to teach any religion’s scriptural accounts (e.g., a biblical rendition) as history or fact because that is promoting religious doctrine. THIS MAKES SENSE: Using attribution strategies (e.g., you use such phrases as "According to the Hebrew scriptures …" or "Many Sikhs believe …") to safeguard against instilling your personal religious or nonreligious beliefs. It is important that teachers consider the consequence for youngsters of a teacher having articulated a belief statement without clearly and objectively ascribing the belief to others. THIS MAKES SENSE: Referring in class to concepts stated within religious documents or texts in a dispassionate "third party" manner. For example, "Adherents of ___ believe that these statements are true." Or, "____ [the religion] maintains that …." Teachers need to avoid reciting from religious or nonreligious documents as if the stated concepts in the passages are generally recognized. THIS MAKES SENSE: Judging ancient writings using academically sound procedures rather than the standards of a given religion or the predominant community outlook. Teachers should not endorse as factual the events or concepts from any religious text, no matter how widely revered. THIS MAKES SENSE: Including in your planning for a wide variety of stories to be read by students, tales drawn from various faiths (as long as the selected material is presented as part of a secular program of study). BUT ...Teachers should not use stories dominated by a given faith or chosen selectively as classroom or assigned reading without having them be part of a clearly defined, secular curriculum. THIS MAKES SENSE: Inviting a guest speaker to augment classroom instruction and provide students a more comprehensive understanding of the tradition or worldview under study. BUT ...Teachers must not expose students to an ill-informed guest speaker or one who is either indifferent to his/her responsibilities to make a secular presentation or unable to carry out that duty. Sample situations of concern: A. Adherents who have no broad academic understanding of their life stance (e.g., history and development of the religion) B. Clergy who simply cannot break from habits of indoctrination C. Speakers who over-generalize from a limited base of understanding to the spectrum of adherents in a religion D. Individuals who generalize beyond their own personal experience within a culture to adherents at large (practices often differ) E. Speakers who apply stereotypes to adherents of other worldviews THIS MAKES SENSE: Using holiday themes in the context of a broader program of studies based objectively on their academic value. Instruction focuses on aspects such as the origin, history, and generally agreed-upon meaning of the observance, but teachers do not use holiday themes as a vehicle for advocating any religion or for advancing religious belief. Handling "Religion" in Classroom and Curriculum: What Makes Sense in the Public School is a general guidance statement in keeping with the thematic content of this web resource for teachers who are teaching about religion and worldviews in U.S. public schools. Please note that OABITAR provides it here merely as guidance and not as legal advice. (May, 2002, revised December, 2002) |