Grappling with the Good: Talking about Religion and Morality in Public Schools

Notes

CHAPTER 1 1. Throughout this book, I provide a variety of classroom examples and vignettes, all of which are drawn from my own teaching or my observations of other classrooms. In some cases, I have compressed the time frame and dialogue; other times, I present episodes that are composites of multiple experiences. My purpose in sharing them is to illustrate the challenges and potential of such curricula, not provide a literal qualitative snapshot. 2. Bernard Williams, Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985). 3. Lawrence J. Walker, “Moral Exemplarity” in Bringing in a New Era in Character Education, ed. William Damon, 65, 66 (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 2002); William Damon and Anne Gregory, “The Youth Charter: Towards the Formation of Adolescent Moral Identity,” Journal of Moral Education 26, no. 2 (1997): 117–30; Daniel K. Lapsley, “Pluralism, Virtues, and the Post-Kohlbergian Era in Moral Psychology,” in The Challenge of Pluralism: Education, Politics, and Values, ed. F. Clark Power and Daniel Lapsley , 169–99 (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1992). 4. Patrik Jonsson, “Edgy First College Assignment: Study the Koran,” Christian Science Monitor, July 30, 2002, sec. 3, p. 1. 5. Katherine G. Simon, Moral Questions in the Classroom: How to Get Kids to Think Deeply about Real Life and Their Schoolwork (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), 53–54. 6. James S. Leming, “Reflections on Thirty Years of Moral Education Research,” Moral Education Forum 20 (1995): 6; Institutes and curricular programs devoted to ethical education number in the thousands. Barely a month into his inaugural year of 2001, President George W. Bush pledged to triple federal funding for character education. At that time, at least forty states were already involved in character education efforts through legislative mandates or federal grants (see Charles C. Haynes and Oliver Thomas, Finding Common Ground: A Guide to Religious Liberty in Public Schools (Nashville, TN: First Amendment Center, 2001), 159). 7. Michelle Fine et al., “Civics Lessons: The Color and Class of Betrayal,” Teachers College Record 106, no. 11 (2004): 2193–2223; Daniel Solomon et al., “Creating Classrooms That Students Experience As Communities,” American Journal of Community Psy145 Notes chology 24, no. 6 (1996): 719–48; Daniel Solomon, Marilyn S. Watson, and Victor A. Battistich, “Teaching and Schooling Effects on Moral/Prosocial Development,” in Handbook of Research on Teaching, 4th ed., ed. Virginia Richardson, 566–603 (Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association, 2001); Victor Battistich et al., “Caring School Communities,” Educational Psychologist 32, no. 3 (1997): 137–51; James S. Leming , “Character Education and the Creation of Community,” The Responsive Community 4, no. 4 (1994): 49–57. 8. Richard G. Niemi and Jane Junn, Civic Education: What Makes Students Learn (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998); James Youniss, Jeffrey A. McClellan, and Miranda Yates, “What We Know about Engendering Civic Identity,” American Behavioral Scientist 40, no. 5 (1997): 625; see also Miranda Yates and James Youniss, “A Developmental Perspective on Community Service in Adolescence,” Social Development 5, no. 1 (1996): 85–109. 9. David E. Purpel, The Moral and Spiritual Crisis in Education: A Curriculum for Justice and Compassion in Education (South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey, 1989), 68. CHAPTER 2 1. Roemer v. Maryland Public Works Board, 426 US 736 (1976), 745–46. 2. Bess Keller, “Dalai Lama’s ‘Summit’ Stirs Debate for Schools,” Education Week 20, no. 37 (May 23, 2001): 3. 3. Randal C. Archibold, “School District Is Cleared in Lawsuit over Religion,” New York Times, March 29, 2001, p. B6. 4. Caroline Hendrie, “Mich. District Ordered to Pay Fees for Girl in ‘Diversity Week’ Case,” Education Week 24, no. 8 (October 20, 2004): 4. 5. Hood v. Medford Township Board of Education, 533 US 915 (2001); George F. Will, “Protect Religious Speech, Too,” San Jose Mercury News, February 27, 2001, p. 7C. 6. Jonathan Zimmerman, Whose America?: Culture Wars in the Public Schools (Cambridge , MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), 7–8; James W. Fraser, Between Church and State: Religion and Public Education in a Multicultural America (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), 4. 7. Admittedly, the disjunction between the realm of federal educational policy and the practices of locally controlled districts creates a historiographical challenge. We have far less certainty about the latter area, but that ambiguity does not significantly interfere with my purpose here, which is to describe how the broader cultural and political shifts have brought us to the current state of educational practice in schools...