Discussion 2

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Session_6_2017_-_Students_Religious_Liberties.pdf

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Students Religious Liberties

If you remember from Session 5 on inclusion strategies, we talked about:

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And we mentioned the second point:

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This is supported by the Model Code of Ethics for Educators. Regarding an educator’s responsibility to students, the code states:

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It acknowledges that students have rights. And it expects educators to respect students’ culture.

In the glossary for the Model Code, culture is defined as:

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So, respecting the rights of a student and the culture of a student include respecting the student’s freedom of religious expression.

As I talked about before, many of your students come to school from a religious- oriented family, so it’s just part of their life. How can you, then, create a welcoming environment for their religious expression -- their freedom of speech -- in your classroom?

A good place to start is at the U. S. Department of Education, because they’ve issued clear guidelines on students’ religious liberties. They’ve actually issued them three times. They originally drafted them and sent them out to every superintendent in the country in 1995. Then they updated them and resent them again to every superintendent in the country in 1998. That was under the Clinton administration.

Then, the Bush administration updated them in 2003, and reissued them to every superintendent in the country. Now that’s three times since 1995 that these have been sent out to every school district and every superintendent in the country. Each time there have been letters sent with them encouraging superintendents to share it with their staff, parents, and students. And, yet, too often this hasn’t filtered down to teachers in the classroom or students or their parents.

In 1998, then Secretary of Education Richard Riley, issued this letter when they distributed these guidelines on students’ religious liberties. He said:

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When they were updated in 2003, then Secretary of Education Rod Paige, sent them out to every superintendent with a letter that said:

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Now you can find all of this on the Department of Education’s website. Go to ED.gov and look for:

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It’s a little bit misleading as the title, because it deals with a lot more than just prayer. It talks about religious expression in general, prayer being one of those expressions. But that’s the title of the document and you can find it at the Department of Education’s website. I’ll be summarizing it here for you today.

One of the things the guidelines articulate, is that:

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The guidelines state:

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In other words, the government looks at this as a form of expression. You can speak to whomever you want to, including your Maker, about whatever you want to, including your faith.

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In other words, you can’t pick it out as something that can’t be allowed, merely because it’s prayer or religious speech.

Secondly:

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Third

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I’m always surprised at the number of teachers who feel as though they are defending the First Amendment or the separation of church and state or something of that nature by disallowing a student to express their religious faith in an assignment. I think of one student, for instance,--this case came to us from the Los Angeles area where a high school senior had to write a paper on the bush fires they had out in that area. The assignment was to write a personal essay about how you felt when you saw those fires on T.V.

This girl wrote about how it reminded her of God as a consuming fire and she wrote about her faith in God. The teacher refused to even grade the paper because she dared to mention God. And when confronted about it, and the principal agreed with the parent and the student that she had the freedom to do this, the teacher’s response was; “Well, now I have to go back and think about all my assignments, to make sure this never happens again.”

What? Meaning make sure that I never allow my students to express their faith? I need to create the parameters in such a way that there will be no mistake that you can express your own personal feelings about their faith, in any of your assignments, even when it’s a personal essay about how you felt about something.

Now, the fourth one applies to teachers:

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The Department of Education guidelines goes on to state:

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Fifth—

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Sixth—

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The guidelines state:

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Seventh—

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Again, you can find these guidelines on the internet at the Department of Education’s website, that’s ED.gov, and just type in religious expression, or prayer in school, and you’ll find these guidelines: Guidance on Constitutionally Protected Prayer in Public, Elementary and Secondary Schools.

We’ve also put this together in a pocket size pamphlet, called Free to Speak, What the U.S. Department of Education says about the public school students’ religious liberties. You can purchase these in packs of 50 and distribute them to your colleagues or to your students. You can check into those and find out more about them on our website.

So, I recommend that in order to help make your classroom a welcoming environment for students, that you tell your students about their liberties. You can do this at the beginning of the school year, as you go over the various rules of the school and expectations of the classroom.

You can say: ”You know, my classroom is a safe place for you to express your religious faith. I know many of you come from religious backgrounds, and I don’t want you to feel like you have to leave that at the school gate. You can talk about your faith as it relates to a discussion point we’re having here in class.”

I even know of a teacher who has done this with Open House or Back-to-School Night with parents. She tells the parents “I just want you to know that my classroom is a safe place for your child to express your family’s religious faith. Your child’s faith will be affirmed and respected.”

You can also do this during patriotic observances, because it’s talking about liberty, and the issue of liberty. You can do it as part of a civics lesson. Or, as part of character education, where you’re encouraging students to live out the moral guidance that their faith provides. That includes what they say and how they conduct themselves.

So now it’s just a matter of planning a time for when you will actually introduce your students to their religious freedoms in your classroom and at your school. So I’d like you to take three minutes (I’ll start the timer), and I’d like you begin thinking about and jotting down some notes of when you are going to introduce your students to their religious liberties and how you are going to do that.

Now, another good opportunity to talk about students religious freedoms is on Religious Freedom Day. That’s a day that the President sets aside where America is to recognize and celebrate our religious freedom every year.

That’s been done since 1993.

Since 1993, every President has requested that the country recognize Religious Freedom Day -- January 16th -- as a time to celebrate the freedoms that we have.

If you want to find out more about it, I encourage you to visit www.ReligiousFreedomDay.com. It gives you Presidential Proclamations, it gives you the history of it, and what you can do in your classroom and in your community to celebrate it.

http://www.religiousfreedomday.com/

Why January 16th?

Well, that was the day that the Virginia statute for religious freedom was passed in 1786. This was championed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, and it was influential in the formation of the First Amendment just three years later.

The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom basically dealt with the issue of taxation. At the time, states would tax people to support the state church. There wasn’t a federal church, but there were state churches, and the taxes would go toward that.

Jefferson and Madison were basically saying that’s not appropriate. You shouldn’t be forced to support any particular religious faith. Even if it’s your own faith, you shouldn’t be forced by the state to support it. What I think is interesting, too, is that Jefferson started the legislation out with a theological assertion. It starts out with:

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Can you imagine legislation today starting out with this theological assertion? But that’s how it started.

It goes on to say:

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Again, can you imagine legislation today referring to something as sinful? But that’s in the legislation.

It goes on to protect a person from being discriminated against because of their religious beliefs. It says:

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So, I encourage you to recognize Religious Freedom Day in your class on January 16th or thereabouts. Tell your students about Religious Freedom Day. Explain their own religious liberties at school -- that’s a great opportunity to do that.

Tell their parents about Religious Freedom Day, and have them talk about it at home.

Pass a school board resolution, joining the President in recognizing Religious Freedom Day.

You can even tie it in with Martin Luther King Day, because it’s around the same time. And of course the logical connection is that it was because of his freedom of religious expression that he could be so motivated and animated and use his religious faith in his argument for civil rights.

I want you to get out your calendar, and look at January 16th, and see the next time it will be coming up. Look at the day of the week that it will be happening on, and then I want you to begin thinking about how you will be including recognition of Religious Freedom Day.

Even if it’s falling on a weekend, decide if you will you deal with it the Monday following, or the Friday before? How will you explain it to your students, how will you recognize it in your classroom? Take three minutes. I’ll start the timer, and plan that now.

I hope you came up with some good ideas for how to recognize Religious Freedom Day. Now move on to Session 7.