December 11, 2000
Study: Religion gaining in classroom
___ROSSLYN, Va. (RNS)--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."
___Often 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 more inclusive of different faiths, the report suggested.
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