At a 1992 meeting, 30 national leaders put aside differences and agreed on 6 character traits that should be taught in school, including trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, justice and fairness, caring, and citizenship. Students are adrift because schools have abandoned the teaching of absolute moral values. Legal alternatives for…

This paper examines four issues related to religion and the public schools: (1) released-time education; (2) variations in interpretation of court decisions; (3) teacher attitudes toward religious instruction; and (4) freedom of religious expression. Released-time education programs were held to be constitutional in "Zorach v. Clauson."…

This policy paper focuses on religious challenges to the public school curriculum, specifically those involving claims that public schools are prompting "secular humanism"--an allegedly antitheistic creed that places human reason above divine guidance. While some courts have recognized that "secular humanism" may be considered…

Politics and sex are regular entrees on the school curriculum menu, but since the Supreme Court's 1960s revival of the "wall of separation" between church and state, religion has been censored from the curriculum as well as from the school routine. The free exercise of religion, guaranteed by the First Amendment, is accommodated in U.S. school…

In response to recent controversy surrounding the relationship between religion and public education, this bulletin offers an examination of past and present conflicts and the legal status of each. A great diversity of religious beliefs is part of our national heritage. Conflicts resulting from differing views on the role of religion in education…