How The Establishment Clause Currently Hampers Education.
In the year 2005, the Supreme Court was called upon to adjudicate in the case of McCreary County, KY versus the ACLU. The ACLU contended that McCreary County’s decision to display the Ten Commandments in its courthouse violated the Establishment Clause of The Bill of Rights which prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion”. The ACLU won the case 5–4, and the display was removed.
According to Cornell School of Law’s Legal Information Institute, the Establishment Clause “ …prohibits the government from unduly preferring religion over non-religion , or non-religion over religion”.
The subjectivity inherent in the wording ( what exactly does “unduly” mean for example) has caused this Clause to be the subject of much scholarly and legal debate.
Recently, however, a rather less opaque situation has arisen in education which seems as though it could be impacted by the Establishment Clause in one of two ways.
The issue I am discussing is how to handle religious holidays within the nation’s public school systems. As I see it, school districts could :
- Honor all religious holidays, thereby treating them all equally.
- Honor no religious holidays, thereby treating them all equally.
The school district that I currently work for chose the first of the two options, which I feel is a mistake. For fifteen days, which is nearly ten percent of the school year, teachers are prohibited from giving tests, quizzes, or teaching any new material. In addition, field trips, graduations, homecomings, and athletic events cannot be scheduled on any of these days.
I cannot understand why someone else’s personal choice to be a religious adherent should impact the education of my children or anyone’s children. As a teacher, the insinuation of these “Religious and Cultural Observances” into our schedule also begs the question “If I can’t teach new material, and I cannot give any kind of assessment, what exactly can I do?”. I know that I could just review old material, but that is still a penalty for the kids who are present as the review days only happen because our hands are tied as teachers. Reviewing wouldn’t have been in the plan if the faith and/ or culture of a minority of students didn’t catalyze it.
I get that for a very long time the only religious holidays that were at all represented were Christian ones, so I wonder if this maneuver is motivated by political correctness. In other words, is this surfeit of new Observance days a sort of educational reparation?
No matter why this new policy has been introduced in my county and in myriad others , it would seem that the exact opposite position would make the most sense.
Students and families should feel free to celebrate their religions and cultures as they see fit, but that should not impact all of the students who wish to come to school and learn. Also, just like in the real world, a student should take responsibility for the work that they have missed and make it up.
I find it admirable that school systems want to embrace the myriad faiths and celebrations indigenous to this melting pot of a country that we all share, but by the same token, allowing religions to impact the education of students outside of those religions seems like a unnecessary intrusion
Following the logic school systems utilize, McCreary County would have been good to go with the Ten Commandments if they also included the guiding tenants of every other religion as well. Obviously , there would not be enough space for that in a court house.
It is a shame that there IS space for all of them in public education.