A March 13 article in the Washington Post begins with this sentence: “Finn Laursen believes millions of American children are no longer learning right from wrong, in part because public schools have been stripped of religion.”  (Incidentally, by religion, it is clear that Mr. Laursen means Christianity.)
Do I DARE comment?  To do so only invites misinterpretation.  But there are just so many hidden issues begging for exploration here.  There are so many other different voices to be heard, as it were.
So, for today, let’s just sit back and listen to some of those voices from around the ‘table of common goals’.  Have tea with any of them, and explore further, if you wish.
A disclaimer:  This column is not about religion, pro or con.  That would miss the point.  It would miss several points, actually.  This is solely about education in general.
So, back to the voices arising from around the table.  These voices are not necessarily mine, though I find points of agreement with each.    None of these voices, at least as I’m hearing them, is spoken with anger, but instead with concern and compassion for our common goals.  Each voice addresses a different relevant issue/concern raised by the opening quote.  We’ll miss some, but we’ll hear as many as we have space for.
VOICE 1:  Our schools have not been ‘stripped’ of religion, for that would require that ‘religion’ be in schools in the first place.  That’s not meant to be negative or controversial at all.  It’s meant to remind us that public schools are provided/established by the ‘state’, and our founding fathers and framers of the Constitution specifically intended that church and state be separate. Our founders were wise enough to know that mixing them in government or in churches – OR in schools – is dangerous.  This point is absolutely crucial.
VOICE 2:  Treading carefully here, but do we want our public schools to have the burden of ‘teaching’ right & wrong across the board? (Especially when religion itself disagrees on bigger issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, and others?)  Aren’t many of our basic values decisions the purview of parents, supported perhaps by society, and indeed, perhaps by religion itself?   We can’t continue to add more societal expectations to our schools (and strip them from our parents?)  – and then complain if they don’t do it the way we think they should.  This is not fair to our schools, or to us.
VOICE 3:   We have another example here of the actual ‘fuzziness’ of ‘education’.   This has been an underlying theme of every one of these columns.  All of us are in favor of a ‘good education’ but it seems that no two definitions of that are the same.  WHAT do we want of our schools?
VOICE 4:  This also effectively highlights the very real difference between teaching and learning.  We may not want our teachers to be teaching (weighing in on) specific questions of right/wrong.  On the other hand, our students often learn by watching.  When they see a teacher or parent or adult or politician (not always the same as ‘adult’?) doing the right -or even wrong- thing, they are influenced and they learn. We all want our teachers doing ‘the right thing’, and often, in these situations, that is the better way for students to learn.
I still hear several more voices wanting to speak, but time & space require that they wait.  In the meantime, we have lots of food for thought.