MobileReaders outside of the United States may not see the need for addressing the subject of this book. They may not have, where they live, legal guarantees of the free expression of religion similar to those that are given by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Teaching of any and all religion may be forbidden. In other countries, the teaching of religion in public schools is almost completely unhindered. Therefore, a book on the subject would be almost completely unnecessary there. However, the matter of teaching about religion in public schools is a major concern for educators and administrators in the United States, especially those of K-12 grades.
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, part of a group of amendments known as the Bill of Rights, states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . ." Congress is not allowed to establish any religion, nor at the same time do anything to prohibit free exercise of religion.
Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, wrote during his Presidency a famous letter, known as the "Danbury Letter." In it, he seemed to express the view that the scope of the First Amendment should be expanded and the scope of the application of it should be broadened. He said that the First Amendment erected a "wall of separation between church and state."
Although Jefferson was head over the executive branch of government, and was not part of the legislative or judicial branches, his opinion carried a lot of weight of course. Since that time, court decisions, at least, have 1) expanded the scope of the "wall of separation" from Congress only, to include also every other branch and level of government in the United States, and 2) broadened the application even to organizations which receive any amount of financial support from the government, such as public schools.
There are probably a number of K-12 public school teachers and administrators among the U.S. readers of MobileRead posts. I'm sure that this book from the American Academy of Religion will be of invaluable help to them in knowing, for example, what may and may not legally be taught in public schools on the subject of religion.
Title: Guidelines for Teaching about Religion, in K-12 Public Schools in the United States.
Format: Pdf.
Author(s): The AAR Religion in the Schools Task Force, Diane L. Morton, Chair.
Publisher: American Academy of Religion.
Pages: 36.
Ebook Rating/Number of Reviews (Amazon): N/A.
Price: $0.00.
Lowest Price at Amazon if available there: N/A.
Book Description (from the Executive Summary, inside book):
The United States Department of Education requires states to develop ontent standards and academic assessments for each subject taught in public schools from kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12). State departments of education are guided in this task by national educational associations that have crafted their own standards and guidelines using the collective wisdom of scholars and educators in each subject. Though religion is not a separate, required subject in public K-12 schools, religion is embedded in curriculum standards across disciplines, especially in social studies and English, and there are a growing number of elective courses that focus on religious themes or topics explicitly.
Because 1) the study of religion is already present in public schools, 2) there are no content and skill guidelines for educators about religion itself that are constructed by religious studies scholars, and 3) educators and school boards are often confused about how to teach about religion in constitutionally sound and intellectually responsible ways, the American Academy of Religion (the world’s largest association of religion scholars) has published these Guidelines as a resource for educators and interested citizens.
Comments: Published April 2010. This booklet has a
very extensive bibliography.
URL: https://www.aarweb.org/sites/default...Guidelines.pdf (direct).