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Guidelines for Teaching about Religion in K-12 Public Schools & the Kentucky Faith and Public History Education Project

By Lesley Barker PhD

There is no law that prohibits a public school teacher from teaching about religion. In fact, in 1963, Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark wrote this opinion:

“A person cannot be fully educated without understanding the role of religion in history, culture and politics…The law, constitutional or otherwise, is no impediment to the realization of that aim.[1]”

The confusion comes because of the First Amendment and what has been come to be called the “Establishment Clause”:

 “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof[2]”.

Because the public schools are government funded, municipal institutions, this American freedom and right to worship whom, when and, indeed, whether cannot be controlled, required or manipulated by the school or by the teachers. There have been many over-reaches that have attempted to remove all mention of religion, and many would say of the Christian religion in particular, from the public school classroom since the 1962 Supreme Court decisions to take prayer and Bible reading out of the public schools. This has led to a wide-spread illiteracy in America regarding religion. It has been exacerbated, perhaps, by the fact that religious studies scholars have not been asked to collaborate to form content and skill guidelines for the teaching of religion in public schools in spite of the fact that religion is “embedded in curriculum standards across disciplines, especially in social studies and English”[3]

To address the issues and to combat its assessment that illiteracy about religion “fuels prejudice and antagonism”[4], in 2010, the American Academy of Religion produced a document[5] that carefully dissects what can and cannot be taught in the public schools. The executive summary of this report provides a quick set of words that should guide teachers when speaking of religion. Instruction about religion should promote awareness, not acceptance of any religion. Lessons should be direct students to study about but not practice any religion. Teaching objectives should be to expose students to diverse religious views without imposing any one view so that students become educated about all religions while the teacher neither promotes nor “denigrates” any. The report is written for teachers using very accessible language and it provides practical information to show why we should teach about religion, the legal issues involved, how to do it and how to become competent to do it. It is accessible online for free using the link in the footnotes. Every teacher would benefit from reading it.

This blog is also committed to assisting teachers to provide secular, non-devotional instruction about the Christian religion. The Kentucky Faith and Public History Education Project features information about Christianity as a resource for teachers and public school students. Christianity in American is increasingly diverse and the boundaries between Christian practice and understanding have become increasingly blurred and, even ugly, because of its entanglements with our modern politics. We are committed to provide information about how Christianity is embedded in Kentucky’s history and culture and how Christian Kentuckians have impacted the community at large. Some may critique this blog and this project for too narrow a focus saying that we should provide equivalent information about other religions that are practiced in Kentucky. Our response is that our expertise is around the Christian religion. We stand as a resource for teachers, as a field trip option to explore the early nineteenth century camp meetings that triggered the Second Great Awakening in American and informed the conscience of antebellum America. That is a complex, nuanced and important topic with significance for the entire nation as far as the study of humanities is concerned.


[1] Charles C. Hayes, Oliver Thomas. Common Ground: A First Amendment Guide to Religion and Public Schools. 2007. First Amendment Center.

[2] United States Constitution. Bill of Rights. First Amendment

[3] Moore, Diane L, Chair. Guidelines for Teaching About Religion in K-12 Public Schools in the United States. 2010. American Academy of Religion. ONLINE. Accessed 10/9/2020. https://www.aarweb.org/common/Uploaded%20files/Publications%20and%20News/Guides%20and%20Best%20Practices/AARK-12CurriculumGuidelinesPDF.pdf

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

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