In South Orangetown, New York, parents seemed hopelessly divided over Christmas in the local public school. As in hundreds of school districts, the "December dilemma" didn't exactly bring out "peace and goodwill" toward all. Would there be a créche, menorah, Christmas tree, all three, or none of the above?
In Salisbury, Maryland, the high school band was playing Christian music at football games. Jewish leaders complained that their children were being subtly-and sometimes not so subtly-coerced toward the majority faith. Some Christians countered that critics were trying to turn the schools into religion-free zones.
In the San Diego area acrimonious school board elections polarized the community. Amid charge and countercharge, healthy debate had turned into unhealthy donnybrook-the godless left versus the radical right. In one district students were arrested for gathering around the flagpole for prayer before the school day began.
From Selma to Seattle, public schools have become the primary battleground in America's culture wars. Competing visions of what it means to be an American and competing methods of equipping students for citizenship are vying for support. Too often these visions are based on the interests of a few, be they liberal or conservative. This tendency to focus on the needs of one's own group, to the detriment of all others, has reinforced the fear among some scholars of a new tribalism or Balkanization that threatens American society.
Though hardly anyone sees an easy answer to this problem, Finding Common Ground: A First Amendment Guide to Religion and Public Education, published by the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University, is a good start. The book is being extolled by evangelicals and civil libertarians alike as a way out of the religion wars fought in our public schools. At a recent press conference in the nation's capital, representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations stood alongside representatives of the Christian Legal Society and the National Association of Evangelicals to trumpet the new guide. Secretary of Education Richard Riley also has endorsed the effort. Says Secretary Riley, "In recent years, the space where religion and public education meet has become an area of increasing concern for many Americans. There is a growing sense that the civic fabric that holds us together is being strained. This is why this guide is so useful, so promising and timely."
The guide's secret is twofold. First, its lead editor, Dr. Charles Haynes, is considered by most to be the nation's top guru on religion and the public school curriculum. Haynes has written leading textbooks in the field and has personally trained thousands of teachers on how to deal with the delicate subject of religion in the classroom. Remarkably, his work has received the support of James Dobson's Focus on the Family as well as that of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. To get those two groups to agree is no easy feat, by any means.
Second, the guide was written in the trenches. Though Haynes is a product of Harvard and Emory universities, his work is full of useful, practical tips. His experience with hundreds of school districts is evident throughout. There's even a section of pitfalls to avoid as viewed from those trenches.
Role playing, for example, the book says, may be a useful pedagogical technique in most academic settings, but when the subject matter is religion, watch out. Asking students to reenact such sacred events as an Islamic hajj or Jewish seder can violate the consciences of students of other faiths as well as the consciences of the students whose religious rituals are being acted out. A better approach, says the guide, is to teach through the use of videos, filmstrips, or simple attribution (e.g., "Many Muslims believe . . .").
Finding Common Ground provides a comprehensive blueprint for approaching virtually every issue pertaining to religion in schools. The approach eschews censorship of religious speech and ideas, respects the religious rights of parents and students, provides for a fair and fulsome treatment of religion in the curriculum, yet avoids the dangers of proselytizing.
But the guide doesn't just give helpful answers and advice on controversial topics such as creationism and Bible clubs. It also outlines a process that has proved successful in helping schools find common ground in their own communities. Haynes understands that what works in Manhattan may not in Meridian.
Also, now that litigation has surpassed baseball as the national pastime, no First Amendment guide would be useful without sound legal advice. This one has it.
At the core of Finding Common Ground are consensus guidelines drafted by some of the nation's leading constitutional lawyers. They include Roman Catholics, Evangelicals, Jews, Muslims, and Mormons. These experts-representing the nation's leading faith groups-are joined by the cream of the public schools' lawyers: counsel for the National School Boards Association, American Association of School Administrators, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Education Association, and American Federation of Teachers. The collective wisdom of these legal experts is impressive. While no guidebook can offer schools a guarantee against costly litigation, this one comes as close as anything to a constitutional "safe harbor."
On the issue of religious holidays, the guide cautions schools against religious celebrations and observances. ("Schools may not sponsor religious practices.") On the other hand, holidays provide excellent opportunities to teach about the various faith traditions present in the community, according to the guide.
May sacred music be used? Yes, says the guide. "Sacred music may be sung or played as part of the academic study of music. . . . Concerts should avoid programs dominated by religious music, especially when these coincide with a particular holiday."
And what about school prayer? The guide makes clear that students are free to pray alone or in groups, as long as they are not disruptive and do not infringe upon the rights of others. Voluntarily attended, church-sponsored baccalaureate services are urged as an alternative to prayers at school-sponsored graduation ceremonies. The guide points out that a school not only may allow churches to use its facilities for such services; it must allow them if other community groups are granted similar privileges.
Moments of silence, distribution of religious literature, textbook content, and the now defunct Religious Freedom Restoration Act are covered. An entire chapter is devoted to the federal Equal Access Act, which grants student religious groups the right to meet on an equal basis with other noncurriculum-related student groups.
One of the guide's strengths is its willingness to go beyond the letter of the law to the spirit of goodwill and community that lie behind the First Amendment. For example, though courts have rarely forced schools to permit students to opt out of portions of the curriculum offensive to their faith, the guide urges accommodation whenever feasible. Conversely, although a majority of the justices of the Supreme Court consider Christmas trees to be mere secular symbols, the guide counsels sensitivity to the fact that for many Americans the tree's religious significance remains. Nowhere does the guide ignore the requirements of the Constitution or suggest civil disobedience. To the contrary, each parent, student, teacher, and child is admonished to go the second mile in the name of good citizenship.
The guide's greatest contribution may be the civic framework set forth in chapter one, which provides the ground rules for how those with deep religious differences can live and learn together in public schools. Of particular significance is the emphasis on the responsibilities of being a citizen. Universal rights imply universal responsibilities, says the guide. It then quotes the Williamsburg Charter: "Rights are best guarded and responsibilities best exercised when each person and group guards for all others those rights they wish guarded for themselves."
Emphasis is placed not only on what we debate, but how we debate it. It is essential, says the guide, that we treat one another with civility and respect-especially when we disagree. This call to what the framers of the Constitution called "civic virtue" may provide the key to sustaining the American experiment in liberty.
What the guide lacks is the extremism of the right or of the left. Finding Common Ground says a loud "No!" to those who would, in the name of church-state separation, chase every vestige of religion out of the public schools. An equally loud "No!" is said to those who would convert the schools into an evangelistic arm of the church. But it says "Yes!" to the 95 percent of the American people who find themselves somewhere in between.
If the editors of Finding Common Ground have their way, the public schools of America will not become religious academies. But neither will they be scrubbed clean of the healthy influence of religion. The schools will be "civil." A place where the rights of religious students and parents are respected, and nonbelievers too. Where all faiths are welcome, but none is promoted by the state. That's common ground.
South Orangetown, Salisbury, and San Diego have caught the vision. All three are using the common-ground approach to work out their differences.
The good news is-hold your breath-it seems to be working.
RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Since 1776 the United States has grown from a nation of relatively few religious differences to one of countless religious groups. This expanding pluralism challenges the public schools to deal creatively and sensitively with students professing many religions and none.
The following questions and answers concern religious holidays and public education, a subject often marked by confusion and conflict. Teachers and school officials, as well as parents and students, should approach this discussion as an opportunity to work cooperatively for the sake of good education rather than at cross purposes.
School districts developing guidelines about religious holidays will want to base their policies in the shared commitment of respect for individual religious beliefs expressed in the constitutional guarantee of religious liberty. This means that public schools may neither promote nor inhibit religious belief or nonbelief. Drafters of such guidelines also will want to take account of the role of religion in history and culture.
Awareness of legal issues is essential in considering religion and public education, but the law does not supply answers to every question. Within the current legal framework, schools-their boards, administrators, teachers, parents, and students-must make practical decisions regarding religious holidays. This work can be done only by showing sensitivity to the needs of every student and willingness to steer a course between the avoidance of all references to religion on the one hand and the promotion of religion on the other.
WHAT DO THE COURTS SAY?
The Supreme Court has ruled that public schools may not sponsor religious practices (Engel v. Vitale, 1962; Abington v. Schempp, 1963) but may teach about religion. While having made no definitive ruling on religious holidays in the schools, the Supreme Court let stand a lower federal court decision stating that recognition of holidays may be constitutional if the purpose is to provide secular instruction about religious traditions rather than to promote the particular religion involved (Florey v. Sioux Falls School District, 8th Cir., 1980).
WHEN SHOULD TEACHING ABOUT RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS TAKE PLACE?
On the elementary level, natural opportunities arise for discussion of religious holidays while studying different cultures and communities. In the secondary curriculum, students of world history or literature have opportunities to consider the holy days of religious traditions. Teachers find it helpful when they are provided with an inclusive calendar noting major religious and secular holidays with brief descriptions of their significance.
HOW SHOULD RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS BE TREATED IN THE CLASSROOM?
Teachers must be alert to the distinction between teaching about religious holidays, which is permissible, and celebrating religious holidays, which is not. Recognition of and information about holidays may focus on how and when they are celebrated, their origins, histories, and generally agreed-upon meanings. If the approach is objective and sensitive, neither promoting nor inhibiting religion, this study can foster understanding and mutual respect for differences in belief. Teachers will want to avoid asking students to explain their beliefs and customs. An offer to do so should be treated with courtesy and accepted or rejected depending on the educational relevancy. Teachers may not use the study of religious holidays as an opportunity to proselytize or to inject personal religious beliefs into the discussion. Teachers should avoid this by teaching through attribution, i.e., by reporting that "some Buddhists believe . . . "
MAY RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS BE USED IN PUBLIC SCHOOL CLASSES?
The use of religious symbols, provided they are used only as examples of cultural or religious heritage, is permissible as a teaching aid or resource. Religious symbols may be displayed only on a temporary basis as part of the academic program. Students may choose to create artwork with religious symbols, but teachers should not assign or suggest such creations.
MAY RELIGIOUS MUSIC BE PLAYED IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
Sacred music may be sung or played as part of the academic study of music. School concerts that present a variety of selections may include religious music. Concerts should avoid programs dominated by religious music, especially when these coincide with a particular religious holiday. The use of art, drama, or literature with religious themes also is permissible if it serves a sound educational goal in the curriculum, but not if used as a vehicle for promoting religious belief.
MAY STUDENTS BE ABSENT FOR RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS?
Sensitive school policy on absences will take account of the religious needs and requirements of students. Students should be allowed a reasonable number of excused absences, without penalties, to observe religious holidays within their traditions. Students may be asked to complete makeup assignments or examinations in conjunction with such absences.
WHAT STEPS SHOULD SCHOOL DISTRICTS TAKE?
In a pluralistic society, public schools are places for people of all faiths and none. Schools may neither promote nor denigrate any religion. In order to respect religious liberty and advance education, we recommend that each school district take the following steps:
1. Develop policies about the treatment of religious holidays in the curricula and inform parents of those policies.
2. Offer pre-service and in-service workshops to assist teachers and administrators in understanding the appropriate place for religious holidays in the schools.
3. Become familiar with the nature and needs of the religious groups in the school community.
4. Provide resources for teaching about religions and religious holidays in ways that are constitutionally permissible and educationally sound.
Reprinted from Charles C. Haynes, Ph.D., Finding Common Ground: A First Amendment Guide to Religion and Public Education.
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