“Back To School:

Religion in Schools, Education in Church”

The Rev. Penny Rather

September 10, 2006

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Laramie

Readings      

First Reading:

From Guide My Feet, by Marian Wright Edelman

“We Black children were wrapped up and rocked in a cradle of faith, song, prayer, ritual, and worship which immunized our spirits against some of the meanness and unfairness inflicted on our young psyches by racial discrimination and poverty in our segregated South and acquiescent nation. . . I worry in every fiber of my being about our many children who, lacking a sense of the sacred or internal moral moorings, are trying to grow up in a society without boundaries, without respect, without enough positive role models at home, in school, in religious congregations, in our communities, in our political and economic life, and in a culture where almost anything goes.”

Second Reading:

From “Doorway to the Sacred,” by Rev. Makanah Morriss

“I believe that Unitarian Universalist religious education is all about unlocking people – unlocking doors of creative possibilities, unlocking minds with new ideas and the permission to think, unlocking hearts that may have been hurt by life’s experiences so that healing may occur and joy and compassion may be experienced more fully. . . My vision of Unitarian Universalist religious education for the twenty-first century is that it consciously and conscientiously become a doorway to the sacred, which calls us to acts of radical compassion and transformation. . . My vision includes intentionally bringing the five components of our current youth programming – community building, social action, worship, learning, and leadership development – into the goals of programming for the whole congregation, from our elementary age children on through our lay leaders and our elders. ”

Sermon 

The days are shorter and the nights chilled. Aspen trees are gently touched with gold. The apples from local orchard markets are crisper and more delicious than the ones from South America that the grocery stores sell throughout the summer. Football season begins, and the baseball season builds towards the climax of the pennant races. Shorts and halter tops are packed away, and sweaters and comforters brought out from the cedar chest.

My thoughts go back to fall in Upstate New York. Red maples. Concord grapes. Geese flying south. The earthy smell of decaying leaves. The ground below our oak tree scattered with acorns.

For 25 of my 56 years the beginning of fall has meant the first day of school, and all the rituals attendant to that yearly event. In grade school that meant shopping for a new lunchbox and thermos; laying out a new dress the night before – black watch plaid. And until seventh grade in September of 1962, it meant the daily recitation of both the Pledge of Allegiance and the New York State Board of Regents’ Prayer.

“Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our Country.”

In June of that year the Supreme Court of the United States (Engel v. Vitale) had reversed the decision of a New York State court and declared the Regents’ Prayer unconstitutional. When I began 7^th grade, and we started our day, for the first time in my educational career, without reciting those 22 words, I did not appreciate the historical significance of their absence from the litany of back-to-school rituals.

Forty-four years later the issue of religion in public schools is still a hot topic. Perhaps hotter now than ever before. Prayer in schools is just one of the battle grounds. There is also the teaching of “Intelligent Design” as an alternative to evolution, the posting of the Ten Commandments in school buildings, and the “abstinence only” approach to human sexuality education.

While there are clearly many among the proponents of these and other examples of religion in the schools whose motivation is an arrogant desire to dominate all aspects of our society with their narrow religious views, and to condemn those who hold different beliefs, there are also many who sincerely believe that these inclusions in the public schools are the way to accomplish all of the admirable aims of which Marian Wright Edelman spoke in our first reading: instilling in our children a sense of the sacred, providing them with internal moral moorings, boundaries, respect, and positive role models.

And there are many who sincerely believe that no one should object to the obviously upright and moral, and religiously generic, messages of the Regents’ Prayer or the Ten Commandments. Listen to the wording in the Board of Regents document that established this prayer:

"We believe that this Statement will be subscribed to by all men and women of good will, and we call upon all of them to aid in giving life to our program." (As an aside, I think it is noteworthy that this document, written in the 1950’s, avoids using the generic “men” to refer to all human beings.)

And listen also to the argument that this prayer should offend no one, made by the Board of Education before the Supreme Court:

“The prayer is so generally worded that it is different from ordinary prayers; it is based on the country's ‘spiritual heritage.’”

And who could possibly object to teaching our children the morals contained in the Ten Commandments: not to kill, steal, lie, or commit adultery? But those who claim that these are universal values either forget or ignore that the first four commandments are not generic at all, but unique to the religions of the God of Abraham.

The argument of those who see the _expression of the non-establishment clause of the First Amendment in a solid wall of separation of church and state is not that children do not need moral instruction, spiritual inspiration, or religious role models, but that these are the function of home and religious institutions, not state sponsored and supported schools.

I am quite certain that the proponents of prayer in schools and the teaching of “Intelligent Design” are enthusiastically teaching these things to their children and the children of their congregations. And the things we learn as children stick with us and influence our attitudes and our actions for the rest of our lives. I have some fond memories of the things I learned in my Presbyterian Sunday School in the 1950’s, and those things I still treasure as a Unitarian Universalist. Surely one little hymn we sang frequently helped form a basis for my commitment to racial justice.

“Jesus loves the little children; All the little children of the world; Red or yellow, black or white, They are precious in his sight; Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

Do any of you remember that song?

But I also have some not so fond Sunday School memories. Being taught that God would punish me for anything less than absolute obedience to my parents. That our religion was the only way to escape the fiery pits of Hell in favor of the eternal bliss of Heaven. Because I learned these things so young – and learned them so well – even though I have abandoned them, they still hang around in my subconscious, troubling my adult spirituality from time to time. Leann spoke this morning about some of the troubling aspects of her early religious education. I imagine many of you have similar experiences.

So, recognizing the power of early childhood learning and experience, and asserting that moral instruction, spiritual inspiration, and religious role models are the responsibility of the home and religious institutions, what is a Unitarian Universalist approach to religious education? What are we doing about it here at the UU Fellowship of Laramie? What could we be doing?

There are many characteristics of Unitarian Universalist religious education, and many ways to implement a religious education program in a congregation. But to me they all have at least one quality in common – they are holistic. They address the whole child, the whole congregation, and the whole of creation. The religious education of our children and youth is a holy endeavor because it deserves our reverence and commands our respect. Because our children and youth, and the adults the will become, and the world they will serve, deserve our reverence and command our respect.

Unitarian Universalist religious education seeks to address the whole child. This means first honoring children for who they are, how they learn, and what they are capable of. It means teaching children, not through indoctrination, but by guiding and encouraging them to notice for themselves what is true and to share their ideas with others. It means including children in our understanding and application of our first principle – the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

Education reform was one focus of many of our 19^th century Transcendentalist forbears. Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, along with her sister Mary and fellow educator Bronson Alcott, was instrumental in many educational innovations. She was particularly influenced by the German theories and practices of early childhood education and opened one of the first kindergartens in this country. She was committed to the education of the whole child and had great respect for the minds, and the inherent worth and dignity, of children. Together with Alcott, Peabody enacted educational advances that based teaching on the child and his or her imagination rather than subjects. They encouraged self-analysis through forms of journaling and self-government, even among the very young. 

Bronson’s school was involved in a scandal involving his innovation that included a nineteenth-century version of sex education. Alcott, believing in the right and capabilities of children to hear the truth, had taught the following in school: “A mother suffers when she has a child. When she is going to have a child, she gives up her body to God and he works on it in a mysterious way, and with her aid, brings forth the child’s spirit in a little body of its own”. Now, this may not sound particularly revolutionary to us, but in the 1800’s its reference to the biological origins of life was scandalous.

The scandal grew and resulted in the closing of Alcott’s school. Peabody at first disagreed with Alcott about the propriety of his educational methods, but eventually came, along with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller, to his defense, and the defense of the need for such innovative methods in education. She wrote, “Their young brains ought not to be exercised in chopping logic. Their pure imagination should wander free into the eternal reason”.

One of the most effective ways of teaching any subject is through hands on problem solving. Rote memorization may sometimes be necessary, but it is never sufficient. In grade school we may memorize our multiplication tables, but we really learn mathematics when we solve problem after problem after problem. In high school we may memorize the Periodic Table of Elements, but we learn how chemicals interact when we experiment with them in the chemistry lab. In music class we may memorize the notes on the treble clef; maybe you recall those aids for remembering the notes on the spaces: FACE, and the lines: Every Good Boy Does Fine. But we really learn about music when we make music – with our voices or our instruments, in solo or together with others in a choir, band, or orchestra.

In our religious education classes, the children may memorize a version of our UU Principles, but they really learn what those principles mean by solving problems involving sharing and justice and ecology and compassion. The curricula available to us through the Unitarian Universalist Association encourage children to think and solve problems with the guidance of our UU principles and the support of their parents and teachers.

In our second reading this morning, Makanah Morriss listed five components of youth programming – community building, social action, worship, learning, and leadership development. Addressing these five elements is another way that UU religious education addresses the whole child. In one model, called “Way Cool Sunday School,” age appropriate classroom exposure to the three pillars of UU religious education – UU identity, Jewish and Christian Roots, and World Religions – is integrated with worship and social action. Most of the time these activities take place separately from the adult worship service. But periodically children and adults worship together or engage jointly in a social action project.

And that brings us to a second way in which a UU approach to religious education is holistic. It involves the whole congregation. To me that means both involving adults in children’s religious education and providing opportunities for adult religious education. At noon today we will have a meeting here in the sanctuary to discuss and plan for a children’s RE program. I hope that both parents and not-parents and retired parents will attend to share your ideas and find ways you can be involved.

And what about adult religious education? Much as I disagree with much that Henry Ford said, I agree wholeheartedly with his statement that “Anyone who stops learning is old. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” When I first joined the UU Fellowship of Boulder in 1990 I was 40 years old, and the second youngest adult in the congregation. One of the great gifts of that experience was the amazing people in their 60’s and 70’s and 80’s I got to know. Even 40-year-old “children” need role models to look up to. Having no significant relationships with my parents or people of their generation, before I met these people at my church I dreaded growing old. After getting to know many of them, and witnessing their vital interest in lifelong learning, I have adopted a line form a John Denver song: “It turns me on to think of growing old.”

I seem to keep going back to school every few years. And I am a much better student than I was in my youth; I think some of my high school teachers would faint – or turn over in their graves! – to see how much I love learning now. This fall I am loving the classes I am taking in Hinduism and Judaism.

Adult religious education is important for another reason. And this addresses a third way that UU religious education is holistic: it addresses the whole of creation. Religion is undoubtedly a powerful force in our world today, and I believe the principles of Unitarian Universalism offer one of the best hopes for our hurting world. But one of the reasons we are a small movement is that we don’t know how to articulate our faith.

And one of the reasons we have little influence in our largely Christian nation is that we are for the most part biblically illiterate. In his book Rescuing the Bible From Fundamentalism, Episcopalian Bishop John Shelby Spong warns that if liberal Christians – and I would add we Unitarian Universalists, who do have a Christian heritage – abandon the Bible to those who would interpret it literally and seek to impose their understandings on our society and our government, they will gladly take that power. And we have seen where that has gotten us over the past several years.

Every survey I have read from this congregation – going back several years to your two previous ministerial searches – have indicated a desire for more adult religious education. I have facilitated several classes and gatherings – on UU history, Buddhism, and personal spiritual reflection. This fall I am looking forward to offering a class called “Building Your Own Theology.” And apropos of Bishop Spong’s observations, I would like to offer a UU Bible study.

But I am not the only one who has something to offer. There are many of you who could facilitate a UU curriculum or teach something that is of interest to you or lead a book discussion or workshop. We have one person who has agreed to help develop an adult RE program that taps into the extensive knowledge and skill and wisdom represented in this congregation. I hope a few more people will join her and me in that endeavor.

The children of our world and of our congregation are the promise of our future. With September they encounter new teachers and new classmates and new subjects in school. In school they learn the facts of history and science and mathematics and music. And they learn to solve problems involving numbers and words and objects. Just as important is for them to learn the facts of their religious heritage and how to solve problems of ethics and meaning and responsibility and justice. We can give them that opportunity. We can give ourselves that opportunity. We can make the world a better place through lifespan religious education.

May it be so.