American Education Demands a Fact-Based Curriculum, Not Religious Ideology
One hundred years after the Scopes trial, religious ideologues are still trying to supplant evidence-based curricula with myths, to the detriment of a well-informed society
In July of 1925 hundreds of reporters and other onlookers crowded into a sweltering courtroom in Dayton, Tenn., to watch what would become widely recognized as the trial of the century. Against a backdrop of societal anxieties over cultural upheaval, the Scopes “monkey trial,” as it was dubbed in the press, pitted the authority of the Bible against the evidence-based science behind evolution. At the center of the trial was John Scopes, a 24-year-old teacher accused of teaching human evolution at a public school, in violation of a religiously motivated state law against it.
Opinions on who won the case differ depending on whom you ask. Technically the defense lost—the jury found Scopes guilty of breaking the law, and the judge ordered him to pay a $100 fine (a ruling that was later overturned on a technicality). But defense attorney Clarence Darrow’s arguments raised public awareness of the evidence supporting evolution and the threat that religious dogma posed to science education, academic freedom and individual liberty. Still, for decades after the trial, discussion of evolution in high school textbooks declined, and in many cases, it was omitted altogether.
One hundred years after that famous trial, education in the U.S. is still under attack from the same antiscience political forces, which are continuously using state and federal courts to assail the roles of critical thinking, inquisition and curiosity in schools in favor of religious instruction. Those who value public education must redouble their efforts to fight those forces.
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In theory, the teaching of religion in public schools should not be up for debate. Separation of church and state is a pillar of our democracy.
In theory, the teaching of religion in public schools should not be up for debate. Separation of church and state is a pillar of our democracy. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment forbids the government from favoring a particular religion, and this clause has long been interpreted in courts as prohibiting the establishment of religion in publicly funded institutions, including schools. Yet just last year West Virginia passed a law that, according to its supporters, allows public school educators to discuss faith-based notions such as intelligent design (another name for creationism, the conservative Christian idea that God created all species in their current form and that humans did not evolve from other species) as scientific theories. Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi have enacted similar laws.
Some recent attempts to inject religious ideas about the origin of life into public school science curricula have failed. In February, North Dakota’s Senate Bill 2355, which would have required the state superintendent of public instruction to include intelligent design in the state science-content standards, was defeated in the Senate. In April, a Minnesota bill that would have required the state’s school districts to instruct students about “the Creator” met its end in committee.
But lest we become too optimistic about these outcomes, other efforts to erode the division between church and state have proved worryingly successful. In April, Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill into law that mandates the display of posters bearing the Ten Commandments and “In God We Trust” in the state’s classrooms. A similar law was passed in Louisiana last year but was later blocked by a federal judge who called it “overtly religious” and “unconstitutional on its face.” At press time, a Texas bill that would require public schools to display the Ten Commandments was making its way through the legislature, as was a bill to allow prayer and Bible-reading sessions in public schools.
It’s not just posters and prayer time. The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a case about whether tax dollars can be used to fund religious schools, and some justices are using the case to field the idea that separation of church and state should not be allowed. The Catholic Church is asking Oklahoma to recognize its St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School as a religious charter school. Charter schools are publicly funded. Writing about the case in the New Yorker, Ruth Marcus observed that at St. Isidore, “introductory high-school science would ‘reveal God’s orderly creation of the universe,’ while physiology would adopt ‘a faith-based approach to the value of human life from the beginnings of a cell.’ The school would be open to all applicants, whether Catholic or not, but students would be required to attend Mass….” If St. Isidore is successful in its bid, the case will force taxpayers to subsidize a religious education for students that may not align with their own beliefs, diverting funds from inclusive secular schools toward sectarian ones that discriminate against those who do not share their faith.
Another clause in the First Amendment, the so-called Free Exercise Clause, protects the right to practice one’s religion (or lack thereof) without government interference. Many new attempts to infuse religion into public schools try to present themselves as efforts toward this end, arguing that excluding religious teachings from public funding amounts to discrimination. We cannot fall for that argument. Children go to school to attain knowledge. They need to learn facts and figures, yes, but perhaps more important, they need to learn how to evaluate evidence and arguments, not to uncritically accept the teachings of a particular faith.
Religious freedom—actual religious freedom—depends on preventing the incursion of any and all religious beliefs, whether they are masquerading as alternative scientific theories or blatantly evangelizing, into public schools. We must protect every child’s right to a public education that is free of religious indoctrination and prepares them to navigate the many challenges of the real world as modern science understands it.
