- Letter (to School Administration) Requesting Accommodation of Religious Freedom
- Social, Emotional, and Ethical Learning — SEE Learning SEE Learning® provides educators with a comprehensive framework for the cultivation of social, emotional and ethical competencies; age-specific curricula comprised of easy to implement lessons; and a support structure for educator preparation, facilitator certification, and on-going professional development. (SEE Learning does not necessarily imply comparative or equitable religious education. Teacher’s Curriculum Textbooks for Elementary and Middle School — High School completed in 2022 and will be published soon)
- Sanskrit/Pali/Tibetan Example High School Independent Study Application and PA Independent Study Program Toolkit.
Most schools in this country have independent study within the high school level and students can study Sanskrit, Pali, Japanese, Vietnamese or Tibetan rather than the traditionally offered classes such as Spanish, German and French. It might even encourage a more standard curriculum being more diverse. Check your or your teen’s state, county and school for independent study options or just start by adapting the form and working from the county level. There is also the potential to develop a yoga curriculum, diversity studies or comparative (equitable) religious studies course. You can contact a community or State College if you do not have a faculty member at your high school or among your personal contacts.
Religion and secular ethics or secular humanism are a great boon to the preservation of the good of humanity and deep faith can, in times where highschool students are pressured to perform, be this extra sense of resolve to get through with great understanding and good grades. Oppression based on races, ethnicities, cultures, sexualities, gender, geographical origins, religions, abilities, and class or personal discrimination greatly reduces educative and behavioral effectivity.
To understand the role of religion in public schools and what it could be, we must understand how religion became increasingly excluded from public schools. Historically, after escaping religious oppression from monarchy-controlled churches by immigrating to the Americas and founding the Declaration of Independence and, the battle between Christian sects resulted in Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940) and Everson v. Board of Education of Ewing Township (1947), which ruled that the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause applied to the states. The two clauses say,
“Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion,
or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Before those two court decisions, courts had applied the religion clauses only to actions of the federal government. And applying at the state, the rules also apply at the local government within the realm of the public school, within the county, and town or city. But religion is a great source and a deep root of the moral fabric of human society and also of the individual in his her or its quest for self- understanding & -transcendence to enjoy more meaningful and spiritual life with less suffering due to pratyahara or withdrawing the senses from clinging and directing one within.
In light of today’s vastly diverse society, we can look upon the battle between Protestants and Catholics and say, what is happening is probably not what they wanted and they would probably not only historically but presently agree it would be better to reach an agreement about what should be taught and sanctioned in schools and what should not than allow our hatred blocking religion from schools altogether and resulting in long-term strife. But instead their hatred towards each other created a gap. To use an analogy of how we interpreted religious freedom, we created something like two neighbors where one neighbor practices one religion a second neighbor practices a second religion and because of their disagreement, despite the vast majority of their values matching (no killing, no stealing, no lying, respecting the body and patents, love compassion, happiness, peace, courage, understanding, etc) , the space between their properties gave way to neglect where morally depraved persons went unnoticed.
And now today we have a vast multitude of religions we practice within the United States. Therefore, rather than ban religions entirely from school we have sanctioned them in the student’s individual expression, the individual expression of the teacher’s “I,” and voluntary after-school activities. However, these islands of expression and religious presence leave too much of a gap of understanding within one’s own religion and also of the religions of others — like cracks in the sidewalks where weeds of religious or corresponding cultural and racial discrimination can grow or those disputed and thus neglected areas between bickering neighbors. But why if most believe in religious equity in education:
“Seventy-five percent of teachers believe public schools should offer a comparative religion elective, with 69 percent of parents saying the same. There is no meaningful political or ideological gap in support of such courses”?3
We might ask ourselves: So whom is creating the gap between religious accordance there should be some sort of comparative religion elective, or more importantly, where have we surrendered to such anti-religionists or ill-founded-“religionists” in our life’s comings and goings, especially, if we are married, within our married life and can we regain a foothold? Have we surrendered to greed, hatred and lazy, illogical thinking in examining what religious freedom means?
Perhaps religious freedom should not mean exclusion, but equitable religious representation within academic curricula. Representation of the individual school’s population is not enough, lest it develop a reputation for excluding interested homeowners and foster oppression, hate crimes, and violence against religious minorities (and possible retribution) which one will encounter at some point in life, if not just visiting the local city or during a field-trip. We must include all altruistic religions to reintroduce the moral fabric, roots and love which can be found in religion within the human subconscious’ thousands-years-old traditions. But we must also teach secular humanism and ethics — the belief in morality and happiness without religion, for it is better teaching the possibility of ethics and attaining happiness rather than ignoring those whom choose science or worse, unethical or sadistic lifestyles because religion had not favored them and they had no other introduction to religion or secular ethics. Secular ethics might help them turn back around to understand the religion which was not kind with them originally; by studying a religion with similar values and morals we can sometimes look back upon our religion and feel a renewed sense of connectivity and freshness which cultivates a love of our religion — the minds of the other fraction of the 7 billion people on this planet which have given us this fresh perspective, we can also more deeply understand and think with.
“Religious literacy advocates now have the law, educators and public opinion on their side. The U.S. Supreme Court went out of its way in 1963 to affirm that the study of religion is constitutional. Leading education organizations have affirmed the court’s sentiment that a ‘complete’ education requires students to learn about religion and its relationship with social, political and cultural life. And now PDK shows that more than three-quarters of Americans want religious studies courses in schools.
So why aren’t more schools teaching about religion? The PDK poll provides a clue: fear of indoctrination.”3
We’re afraid our children will become a religion and control us if they aren’t religious already, we’re afraid our children will choose a different religion, or were afraid our children will lose their religion and choose secular humanism, but all these are certainly much better than choosing evil and allowing others be influenced by them which chose evil. And let’s look at how we can present religion in a way which isn’t indoctrinating it: I suggest we don’t teach children what to practice, but explain what each religion practices; we don’t tell them what to believe, but we’re exploring world religions together, analyzing and cultivating understanding of our religion (if we have one) and other’s religion as well as secular humanism.
“Yet evidence4 shows teaching about religion, when done well, will not make students more or less religious; it will make students more likely to support the rights of others, including those with whom they strongly disagree.”3
We already have in most community colleges comparative religious education and other religious education which are paid for by the United States government as well as classes on secular ethics (see courses from LCC below).
And there are entire careers in religion (monastic, priestly, chaplain, humanitarian, academic, etc) and in minority studies (diversity and inclusivity offices in some high schools and community colleges just as much as in corporations or government offices).
And in Modesto, California High School they’re already teaching a class on World Religions since 2006!4. Some people want to evade “comparative religious studies” because we don’t necessarily need to compare the religions and then define which one is better or worse or preach. Instead, we can explore the history, beliefs, practices and testimonies which are respectful of other religions and secular humanism without practicing them, enforcing belief and without competition — Equitable Religious Study. With their parent’s guidance, students can still practice at home and then similar practices of others within the same or different religions or secular humanism can reinforce their practice and even their parents.
In Buddhism we believe in reincarnation and I am a Buddhist and also a Hindu. From this perspective it is a possibility I am back at my previous high school in my next life (however I’m not in a rush). So for my sake and for the sake of those who are to attend Lakeland from here to forward, especially minorities and those whom need a more open mind, and perhaps other schools in your district, I strongly encourage you to institute a World Religions class which includes but is not limited to Christian, Buddhist, Native & Indigenous, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish, Daoist, and New Age faiths as well as secular humanism.
Please see the references below for more information.
I focus here on high school, but actually such education can start at the youngest ages. I cannot explain to you how I feel when I involve myself with the great monastic schools of India Bhutan and Nepal and Tibet and I see children beginning from age 7 until their doctoral program where the primary focus is alleviating the suffering of oneself and others, cultivating understanding, love, compassion, happiness and equanimity in the world and beyond it. Then I think of my education and I kind of laugh and say geez how beautiful would our country be if we all had some form of religious understanding or secular ethical understanding like this? Maybe European parochial schools and Christian monasteries are similar. What if our administrators and teachers all have the courage to teach us the topics of understanding, love, compassion and so forth? So to alleviate the suffering created by misunderstandings of differing religions and to preserve the possibility of religious or humanistic transcendence, to uphold the moral fabric of my youth and our country, I feel compelled to write.
With a great emphasis on career paths, success and achievement, we must balance such goal-oriented thinking with the love, compassion, happiness and peace and relegating such topics to the niches of social studies or language arts is not enough, those topics should be the primary interest which helps direct and orient the other classes, perhaps even prevents us from overexertion towards material ends.
Here is an example of what a course description might look like:
This course will provide students with a global perspective on the human religious experience through an exploration of the history, beliefs, practices and narratives of the world’s religions fostering of love, compassion and self-transcendence including but not limited to Native/Indigenous religions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism, Shintoism, and Ba’hai faith.
Contact your local community college, which maybe could collaborate and write a grant or know someone who could. It might be interesting to create a research study similar to Modesto which could put your highschool on the map of academic advancement and, what more, peace and what that means to be human in a diverse and faithful world.
Along the same principles, oppression based on races, ethnicities, cultures, sexualities, gender, geographical origins, religions, abilities, and class or personal discrimination greatly reduces educative and behavioral effectivity, as mentioned before. Wrong discrimination can be very subtle and ingrained — subconsciously coughing towards, ignoring, stereotyping, placing a trashcan near a particular student, for example. Sometimes other’s perception is such acts are intentional, and sometimes such acts are intentional, but either way we need to destigmatize our thoughts about minorities and deflate wrong discrimination to reduce prejudice, harassment, bullying, violence and hate crimes. If we have an elective or better yet, mandatory class of Minority Studies where we can look at the history, the suffering and the unique character of the minorities which add to the richness of humanity, we can be true understanders of ourselves, our dependence upon others and their uniqueness, the suffering of others, and also cultivate a sensitivity which breaks apart systems of wrong discrimination which cause oppression. The class needn’t say any particular race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation etc is better or bad or good or worse, but similar to a World Religion class, an examination into the various groups of minorities in the topics above. And when we realize the minorities together are actually the majority, we need to teach forgiveness and equity – the majority need not be punished.
Here is an example of what a course description might look like:
Minority studies is a (required) course open to junior and senior students that examines the history, unique contribution, suffering from oppression and wrong discrimination and potential paths to end wrong discrimination for various classifications including, but not limited to races, ethnicities, cultures, sexualities, gender, geographical origins, religions, abilities, and class. Topics of discussion include identity, self valuation, group identity, self hatred and love, minorities and politics, economics, education, justice systems, effects on health and methods of ending wrong discrimination. The Student can be expected to know that:
Warm Hearted Regards,
Vishnu Das
- https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/10/03/religion-in-the-public-schools-2019-update/.
- Equal Access Act, 20 U.S.C. § 4071. https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/religionandschools/prayer_guidance.html?
exp=0. - https://www.freedomforuminstitute.org/2019/08/29/back-to-school-and-religion-is-on-the-syllabus/ citing a 2019 PDK
(Phi Delta Kappan) poll, a well-respected annual survey of public opinion about K-12 education. - Lester, Roberts & Haynes. Learning About World Religions in Public Schools the impact on student attitudes and
community acceptance in Modesto, Calif. 2006. - California becomes first state to require ethnic studies in high school. JOHN FENSTERWALD. EdWorld, October 8,
2021.
Golden Deer Sangha 