Written by Don Byrd
New York City’s prekindergarten expansion under Mayor Bill DeBlasio is experiencing some growing pains. To find enough facilities for all the students, the city has enlisted religious schools. But that move has raised questions about the role of religion in the curriculum.
Today’s NYTimes has more:
The concerns crystallized in a one-page document the city issued in May to religious schools weighing whether to host full-day prekindergarten classes. Rather than state simply, as other municipalities have, that all religious instruction is prohibited, the city’s guidelines say that religious texts may be taught if they are “presented objectively as part of a secular program of instruction.” Learning about one’s culture is permitted, city officials say, but religious instruction is not.
This provision has set off debates in the offices of many schools, particularly Orthodox yeshivas, about just what is permissible. Many students in these schools are from deeply religious homes where the line between the cultural and religious is not only blurred, but absent.
The line between teaching religion and teaching about religion is a tough but workable balancing act in the public school curriculum. But it requires concerted effort and safeguards. For pre-K children however, it would seem even tougher.
Do they need religious literacy as part of such a curriculum? Wouldn’t the safer, more respectful approach be to leave the religious stories and celebrations to families and houses of worship for students of this age?
