A commitment to empathetic understanding shaped the field of religious studies; although subject to critique, it remains an important teaching practice where students are charged with the task of recognizing, and perhaps even appreciating, a worldview that appears significantly different from their own. However, when the focus of the course is…

A year and a half ago, Calvary Chapel high school approached the University of California's (UC) Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools with the curricula of some new courses it wanted to offer. The board must ensure that the classes given in California's high schools are sufficiently rigorous to be counted in UC admissions decisions.…

Adopted by the California State Board of Education on June 10, 1988, this handbook outlines the legal rights and responsibilities that school personnel have and their educational responsibilities in such areas as morality, democratic values, and religion in the schools. Section I, "Moral Values and Public Education," addresses the issues…