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Don't think about using Taking Religion Seriously Across the Curriculum as a text book for secondary school students. But do think about reading it, and reading it carefully, if you want a precisely articulated statement of the rights and benefits - and perhaps even the obligation - involved in providing the study of religion and religions throughout the school curriculum. Charles Haynes is Senior Scholar for Religious Freedom at the First Amendment Center, and Warren Nord is director of the Program in the Humanities and Human Values at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Both have extensive records in the areas of religion in the public school and religious freedom issues. Let me start with the end. Part 2 of Taking Religion Seriously Across the Curriculum walks the reader through the elementary school curriculum and then into how religion could, does, and should play an integral role in the secondary school: history, civics and economics, literature and the arts, the sciences, moral education: it's ideas on how to incorporate religious issues and information, and it's reasons why the qualities of theses courses is better when schools are no longer "religion free" zones. But part one is where Nord and Haynes' book has even greater force. With a meticulous analysis of court decisions, especially that of the School District of Abington v. Shempp (1963), the reader is shown why schools may, after all, have an obligation to teach about religion. This section that is a "must read." Nord and Haynes are scholars with hearts. Their goal is not forcing religious studies into the curriculum but rather one of "finding common ground." We must, as they say, move beyond the culture wars; it is imperative that we work together to appreciate our heritages. Doing so is "urgently necessary if we are going to live with our deepest differences" in the coming century. The survival of public education may even be at stake. Get more than one copy. One should be in the principal's hands, and one should be circulated among members of the school board. review copyright 1999 David Streight and RSiSS Return to Resources for Studying and Teaching |
