Why Teaching about Religion Matters
The importance of background knowledge in reading, writing and thinking, plus commentary on the danger of weaponizing religion in the classroom.
The look on students’ faces when I tell them about the extreme prejudice against Catholics in the United States is telling. Few of them have any idea that Catholicism is distinct from Protestantism. Many believe that Catholics=Christians, so how could there be prejudice in the U.S. against Christians, they wonder.
Last week’s “Literacy Takeover Week” series from Amplify’s “The Science of Reading” podcast stressed over and over again how important background knowledge is to learning and to literacy. Teachers are bombarded by messages everywhere that we should be student-centered, promote critical thinking over memorization of facts, and emphasize higher levels of thinking according to Bloom’s taxonomy. It is challenging to do that when students lack basic knowledge.
In another corner, we know that there is both rising Islamophobia and antisemitism in our country since the start of the war in Gaza a year ago. It is challenging to discuss either the war or rising hate if students lack basic information about these religions and the people who identify with them.
If we believe education can increase tolerance, and we want our students to become good readers and thinkers, we need to teach them things that matter. And one thing that matters—whether or not one is personally religious— is religion.
Religion’s Place in Social Studies and English Class
Like almost everything in our country right now, the role religion should play in the classroom is political. The controversy about bibles in Oklahoma and posting the 10 Commandments in Louisiana are just the latest.1 The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) responded to these controversies in July, and referenced its position statement from 2021. I would urge school boards and administrators as well as parents to read their thoughtful and nuanced position.
If we want students to analyze and evaluate history, they need to at least have exposure to some basic facts about world religions. Consider my random list below of social studies topics and ask how one could possibly understand any of them without knowing something about religion? An English teacher, I’m sure, could generate a list of literature that similarly requires basic background knowledge about religion.
the crisis in the Middle East
anti-immigrant sentiment (nativism) throughout U.S. history
roots of the Holocaust
9/11
the partition of India
European religious wars and the Protestant Reformation
why the fact that John F. Kennedy was Catholic was a campaign issue
why the Pilgrims came to Massachusetts
religious freedom and the First Amendment
Misunderstanding about the last item, the First Amendment, needlessly scares off many teachers. For them, I would again encourage a close reading of the NCSS position statement and look at some of the sources at the bottom of an older article I recently updated, “Teaching about Judaism, Christianity & Islam” for MiddleWeb, a website devoted to educators in grades 4-8th.
Like many teachers these days, I am concerned about ensuring our students will become educated citizens in order to preserve our democracy. Two of our nation’s most eloquent writers employ significant use of religious language and metaphor to implore the same— Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Abraham Lincoln. So, with malice toward none, and with charity for all, I appeal to those who would use religion to divide us to instead be guided by the better angels of our nature2 and use teaching about religion to help students make sense of our world.
And—why not?— let me conclude with the last paragraph of King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” Both for our nation and the Middle East, it is a beautiful hope that someday…
the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.
For a fascinating look at how the Supreme Court has ruled about the 10 Commandments in public spaces, check out the two opinions in the 2005 Supreme Court cases of McCreary County v. ACLU and Van Orden v. Perry. In the first case the Court ruled the use of the 10 Commandments violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment while the latter case did not. Context matters.
The first part references Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural; the second part is from his First Inaugural Address.