Many thoughtful parents remember wistfully the good old days when education in public schools meant teaching the basics. Nor did public  education drive a wedge between values which children learned at home and those which they were taught in class. The classroom was not a church. It was not the teacher's business to preach or to seek converts. On the other hand, neither was it forbidden to discuss religion or to point out the fact that the ethics of most Americans is grounded in religion: in things like the Ten Commandments which God gave to Moses or Jesus's Golden Rule.

Then something happened. We all noticed it. Religion and faith-based
morality became taboo in most public schools. Lists were drawn up of items which children were not to bring with them to school: handguns, knives, blackjacks, poisons or profession of their religions. More precisely, children might bring with them the faith of their fathers and the morals of their mothers. But they had better not talk about them or express them by word, signs or activities. Some other child might disagree or be offended.

I  am willing to entertain the hypothesis that one reason why so many
parents are turning to home schooling, private schools and religious
schools is precisely because public schools are not hospitable to
children's religion. I am also willing to think about the proposition that
if and only if public schools deliberately  make themselves hospitable to religion will government run schools be anything but museum pieces by the year 2030.

The good news is that here and there, school district by school district,
teachers and administrators are reopening the door to religion. Not to
promote it. Not to attack it. But to treat religion as a natural, honored
part of the personal experiences of most students and most Americans. Paradoxically, I think that the wedge which is bringing religion back into government-owned, government-financed, government-directed public schools is the much maligned "multi-culturalism."

Multi-culturalism is near kin to relativism and grows from scepticism and mental insecurity. I'm all right. You're all right. Plato is no better and no worse than  Hitler. Wiccan teaches as profoundly as Christianity or Judaism. Americans need not learn English. "Her-story" must topple History.  Who is to say that Toni Morrison is not a better writer than Homer or Shakespeare or Goethe? All law is positive law. There are no eternally valid norms by which to judge that a law protecting slave-owners or abortionists is either good or bad. There is no way to think your way from "is" to "ought." There is no such thing as human nature. And even if there were, there is no way to know and understand it. Such are the associations in the minds of many Americans when they hear of "the multi-cultural agenda."

It is not to be denied that any society contains and at times rightly learns from its share of  sceptics, its doubters, its nay sayers. And when they become prominent, self-confident and victorious, a society’s culture tilts. When the West became largely Christian, people stopped worshiping Aphrodite and Zeus, Odin and Thor. Oddly enough, the basic truth of multi-culturalism is that human nature is more important and permanent than any of its historical manifestations. Because there is human nature, there are also natural human rights and a variety of national cultures. There is something much more basic than culture: humanity. Furthermore, the heart of culture is religion and faith in values superior to anything we can touch and smell and gnaw on. 

Multi-culturalism says that every culture is important because any culture is important. That is: culture as a concept is valuable--probably because culture is inescapable. You drive on the right or you drive on the left. You do not drive off in all directions at once. Culture does things this way and not that way. It speaks this language and not that language. And if culture is important (French, classical Greek, Cherokee, Confucian, Buddhist, pick your own favorite), then religion is also important. For religion is the largest and deepest component of what makes a culture say to those who inherit it: these are your people, this is who you are.

Whoever says culture also says religion. Whoever  says multi-culturalism therefore also affirms religion. And since America's Schools of Education are graduating future teachers and administrators who now exalt culture, these academies also unwittingly guarantee a place for religion in public schools. If they do not welcome back religion, then public schools will become extinct.

Much the same point was made in the Wall Street JOURNAL for March 23, 1998 by staff writer Edward Felsenthal. The article tells of the quiet crusade of "shy cerebral theologian, " 48 year-old Charles Haynes. His message: 

"Religion can have a major place in the public schools without offending nonbelievers or violating the law." 

Signs abound of a coming end to the American version of Bismarck's
Kulturkampf. Peace is breaking out in De Kalb County, Alabama, in
Williamsville New York and various parts of Texas. 

Public high school “elective” courses are being offered in "cultural and religious traditions" and "Bible surveys." Schools which once forbade students to write papers about Martin Luther now permit it. Teachers are learning to be "fair and balanced" along lines advocated by one Mr Haynes and his ally, Baptist preacher Oliver "Buzz" Thomas of east Tennessee. Creches and Hanukkah menorahs are reappearing in  public schools. Students are learning about religious symbols in a detached but respectful public school atmosphere. Teachers are learning how not to be nervous talking about a subject like history of religion or comparative religion. These have been explicitly approved by the Supreme Court and are proving neither too messy nor too hot to handle. 

Religion and values are re-emerging from the closets, dustbins and black boxes where earlier educational theorists had placed them. Haynes has helped sometimes grudging school administrators accept that the question is no longer WHETHER to teach about religion but HOW. Principals of a government school should not and may not distribute Gideon Bibles to students. But they can teach about religion with empathy and respect as something close to the core of human consciousness, as inspirer of  great music, sculpture, painting and thinking. Both the White House and Congress have recently entered the fray on behalf of an explicit, honored place for God, religion and values in public schools

Public schools have many weaknesses. They might conceivably solve all the other problems, but if they do not find an appropriate place for God and faith, public schools will not survive. Conversely, only let public schools show that parents' values and faith in God are once again welcome in the classroom and on the playground, and otherwise deficient public schools will go a long way towards assuring their future place in an evolving but indignant  and wary American society. 
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for Asheville TRIBUNE