NEWS STORY: Report Finds Mixed Results in Study of Religion In Schools

c. 2000 Religion News Service ROSSLYN, Va. _ State mandates are increasingly requiring public schools to integrate religion into the curriculum for social studies classes, but those mandates are not without flaws themselves, a joint report from the First Amendment Center and the Council on Islamic Education has concluded. “Language framing the study of religion […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

ROSSLYN, Va. _ State mandates are increasingly requiring public schools to integrate religion into the curriculum for social studies classes, but those mandates are not without flaws themselves, a joint report from the First Amendment Center and the Council on Islamic Education has concluded.

“Language framing the study of religion in U.S. history is generally fair and neutral,” the report concluded, but noted: “In most states, however, the language is too general to provide a clear indication of how accurate instruction on each tradition will be.”


Before the start of their senior year, most students in public schools in the nation “will have been exposed to the basic outlines of the major world religions,” the report found.

And though students also will have been exposed to religion’s role in U.S. society and the origins of the U.S. government, most exposure to religion occurs between the sixth and ninth grades, “and relatively little is found elsewhere.”

Oftentimes students are given an incomplete picture of religion in world history.

“With some exceptions, very little content on religion is written into state world history standards for the period after 1800 in European history, and after 1500 in non-Western cultures,’ the report said. “All students will have been exposed to information about the role of religion in American history before 1800, but they will receive little additional information during their studies of 19th and 20th century U.S. history.”

Moreover, some state guidelines reveal “some evidence of imbalance in coverage of specific religious traditions,” the report found.

“Kansas, for example, specifically mentions Christianity but not Judaism and cites Islam only in comparison with Christianity. Other faiths are not cited,” the report said. “Utah’s standards contain considerably more content on Christianity than other faiths, though to be fair, this is the case in most states because of their emphasis on Western civilization. In general, standard items on the three monotheistic faiths are more numerous than those on Hinduism, Buddhism or other specific faith traditions.”

The inclusion of religion in state educational guidelines offers no real guarantee those guidelines will be adopted in the classroom, the report concluded. To help achieve that goal schools should make sure teachers are trained to teach about religion, and textbook manufacturers should produce textbooks that are more inclusive of different faiths, the report suggested.

Failure to do so is a disservice to students, said Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center.


“We’re not advocating one religion over another,” said Haynes during a news conference Monday (Nov. 20) to release the report. “But to move from that model to another model where religion is completely left out of school, where schools are seen as religion-free zones, is wrong.”

DEA END DANCY

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!