The Misplaced Fear of Religion in Classrooms

A new school year inevitably brings new faces, new subjects, new opportunities, and increasingly in some communities, new storms of protest over religion on public K-12 campuses. In just the last several weeks, a Mississippi teacher was accused of belittling atheism in class, parents in Georgia raised a ruckus over a middle-school social-studies homework assignment about Islam, and a bill introduced in Tennessee would ban the teaching of “religious doctrine” in elementary- and middle-school classrooms. Critics are labeling that legislation anti-Muslim bigotry, while supporters are calling the historical lessons on Islam indoctrination.