Religion in the Public School Curriculum

What is Legal

At issue in the case Abington Township v. Schempp (1963) was a policy of the state of Pennsylvania requiring students who attended public school to read at least 10 verses from the Bible everyday. In addition, Abington Township required the students in its district to recite the Lord's Prayer after completing these readings. Students could be exempted if their parents wrote a note requesting that their children be excluded from these exercises.

The U.S. Supreme Court found that the required activities encroached on both the free exercise clause and the establishment clause of the First Amendment, because the readings and recitations were essentially religious ceremonies and were “intended by the State to be so.” Moreover, Justice Clark argued in the main opinion that the ability of a parent to excuse a child from these ceremonies by a written note was irrelevant because it did not prevent the school's actions from violating the establishment clause. The Court's decision and a series of others made it clear that public schools could not engage in devotional teaching of religion. At the same time, the Court in Abington also noted that academic teaching about religion was constitutional.

Some researchers believe that state-supported institutions have excluded religion and religious ways of thinking through a misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the First Amendment. Although the guidelines of the U.S. Department of Education forbid public school teachers from engaging in religious activities in the classroom, they affirm that the establishment clause does not mean that religion is strictly forbidden from public school in all aspects. The Bible, the Koran, and other religious texts may be studied or otherwise used in public schools for their literary, poetic, or historical aspects, but public schools cannot teach that the religious tenets of these texts are true or false.

Furthermore, a student's freedom of speech includes the right to discuss religious issues with classmates and to distribute literature, both religious and nonrehgious, on campus. In fact, censorship of this nature would itself violate the free speech and establishment clauses.

Social Context

U.S. schools admit students of various religious orientations and those with no religious affiliation. Statistics indicate that nine out of ten Americans believe in the existence of God and that among developed nations, the United States is the most religiously diverse society and the most religious. Projections by religious sociologists and urban planners suggest that what has been a White Protestant majority among members of religious groups in the United States will change with the growing number of Latino Catholics and evangelicals, with increases in the number of Latter-Day Saints, Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus, [Page 649]and with the emergence of more nonreligious people in the population. It is projected that by 2040, minorities will represent more than half of the K-12 student population in the United States.

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