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Activity [ Lesson 1]

Reconsider Your Understanding of Neutrality

Directions (1-3):  You answered these three questions once before.  Answer now based on your completed reading. Only one answer in each item is correct.

1.    The public school's responsibility for neutrality is:

across the various faiths (no faith is to be favored over any other)

between religion and nonreligion (neither is to be favored over the other)

both a and b

neither a nor b

2.     The necessity for public schools' religious neutrality does not derive from :

the U. S. Constitution

the Bill of Rights

First Amendment Establishment Clause

First Amendment Freedom of Speech

3.     Which student freedom underlies the necessity for a classroom climate that is religiously neutral? 

freedom of speech

freedom of conscience

freedom of religious expression

freedom to learn

 

Directions (4-6):  Continue on to answer questions that focus on the information in the readings.

4.  Two reasons below stand out best to summarize the school's legal responsibility to be religiously neutral.  Can you find them?  

Teachers have a responsibility to parents to treat children with fairness and respect.

Teachers act on behalf of all citizens to protect children's rights to freedom of conscience.

Teachers don't want to give one outlook any privileges over other outlooks.

Public schools are governmental institutions with a mandate to protect rights.

Schools will be sued if they give any one religion greater cultural legitimacy.

5.  Teachers can help or harm a classroom climate of religious neutrality through their conduct.  Which of the following general actions are likely to facilitate a religiously neutral climate?  Which will work against it?  

Supportive Teacher Action Not Supportive
Responds with sensitivity to all students' questions
Laughs or frowns on learning of unfamiliar religious custom
Expresses interest in learning more about a ritual or practice
Insists on all students behaving respectfully toward the others 
Permits some students to tease others who are different
Reminds students of their responsibilities to one another
Depicts the beliefs or practices of certain religions as weird

6.   Listed are statements that a teacher might utter in a classroom.  Not all are neutral. Some privilege either (1) a given faith over other faiths or (2) religion in general over nonreligion.   Evaluate the statements:

Neutral—appropriate in a public school or a private school

Not neutral—should be made only in a private school (refrain in a public school)

Neutral    

Comment

 Not Neutral
"Some people believe the world is only about 10,000 years old."
"Many Buddhists don’t believe in a God."
"Evolution is a false doctrine perpetuated by atheists." 
"A person can pray to Mary, the mother of Christ." 
"Humans of different societies seem to have beliefs concerning some common areas, such as about the origin of the world, morals, and life after death."

7. [This is a "tough case" for practice.]  Directions: Read and consider the classroom situation below. How appropriate is the teacher's casual comment?  Briefly explain in the scroll box.

Public School Situation:   All the students have been given a short time for "free reading."  The teacher is simply observing a student's choice of reading material and happens to remark directly to the girl:

"Hmmm., Kyisha, no one else in our class brings their [Bible, Koran, etc.] to read during free time." 

End of Activity.  Return to Guide Sheet.

 
 

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Last updated 8/18/2006

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