The Executive Director of ASCD joins a group of U.S. educators traveling to Israel on an education mission sponsored by the America-Israel Friendship League. The educators visit the Gesher al Hawadi school, which was established by the Hand in Hand Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel. Located in an Arab town, the school has equal numbers of…

Guided by First Amendment principles, Americans must agree on a shared civic framework within which to negotiate our deepest differences. A painful first step is acknowledging public education's failure to find a constitutionally permissable, educationally sound role for religion in the schools. This situation has helped convince religious…

Teaching about religion has never been expressly forbidden to public schools. Article presents a program for teaching and establishing the academic study of religion. (GB)

Decries educators' harsh criticism of Citizens for Excellence in Education (CEE), group of concerned parents determined to return academic excellence to public school classrooms and moral sanity to schools, in all subjects. Schools have short-circuited their traditional ties with parents and public. CEE is one of many well-intentioned parent…

The California 3Rs project aims to prepare educators and community leaders to use First Amendment principles to address issues of religious liberty and religious/ethnic diversity and to help educators teach about religion and cultures in constitutionally and educationally sound ways. The project helped school officials and conservative Christians…

About 96% of youngsters in Northern Ireland are educated either in Catholic schools or in state-operated, predominantly Protestant schools. Since 1985, 40 integrated schools of all grade levels have sprung up throughout the country. At integrated schools, which maintain balanced ratios, students talk about their common history. (MLH)

A profound clash of values is occurring in public schools. Although specific disputes revolve around religion, creationism, sex education, values education, and educational reform, broader battle concerns public school's role in ensuring balanced, open curriculum that provides for free exchange of ideas. Will toleration emerge as critical national…

Harold Kushner, the author of "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" (1981), insists that public schools should never advocate particular religious views nor serve as forums for debating religious values. However, shared values such as truthfulness, accuracy, personal responsibility, acceptance of limitations, kindness, and cooperation…

History (embodied in Horace Mann's "nonsectarian" Protestant practices) reminds us that today's "generalized spirituality," if encouraging students to explore the inner life and ultimate questions, will not free public schools from anti-Establishment Clause claims. However, First Amendment neutrality does not mean being neutral…

There is growing agreement from right to left concerning the role of religion in public schools. Under the First Amendment, public schools can neither inculcate nor inhibit religion. Neutrality means fairness. Students' religious liberty rights must be protected by school policies and practices. Also, religion must be treated fairly in the…