Religious Education in the Schools

Abstract

For many years, the courts have been trying to decide the appropriate relationship of the church and religion to the schools and education. The dominant religious group in the community has usually pressed for the inclusion of some form of worship and religious education in the school system. This has ranged all the way from reading of the Bible as a morning exercise to direct support by tax funds of parochial schools.1 Since most of the programs express the will of the great majority of the citizens of the school districts, relatively few actions have been commenced to restrain or limit these programs. Further, since state constitutions have had the more specific provisions on the separation of church and state, few cases have reached the Supreme Court of the United States. Beginning shortly after the turn of the century, the churches, faced with a declining attendance at the Sunday school, urged the inclusion of religious education in the school program.2 They argued that the secularization of education results in inadequate preparation for life, for it ignores the important part which religion plays in the experience of individuals in the United States.3 Separating the teaching of religion and religious ideals entirely from the school system and assigning this important aspect of education to after-school time or to Saturday or Sunday leads the child to regard this aspect of his education as unimportant. Thus the purpose of the weekday church school is stated by the Vermont Council of Churches as follows: To round out a more satisfactory educational experience of the pupil by guiding him in a discovery of the spiritual and Christian elements of life.4 The churches therefore insist that a satisfactory religious education program is one which is carried on in public school time.5 This is necessary if the child is to understand the essential unity of his education and the part which religion