Assignment: Religion and Education

Craft a well written and well thought out response to the following scenario:

The superintendent of the Shady Tree School District is concerned with an application filed with the State’s Department of Education to open a charter school in the district. The opening of a charter school will decrease the state funding to the district, so views on charter schools from the community are mixed. The charter school being proposed will require all students to take Hebrew to fulfill their state’s mandated world language requirement. The founder of the charter school shared with the media the school is not faith based, religion will not be taught and the classroom structure will be segregated based upon gender to ensure less distractions. The community and media are giving much attention to this charter school application because it’s funding will come from public funds.

As a member of the community, please create a letter to the newspaper editor responding to the situation. Your letter may support or oppose the opening of this charter school. Please use citations to support your reasoning and facts shared.

Your letter should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards.

Discussion: Video Reflection

The
two videos you watched share a common theme regarding how different
religious views segregated a community. Write discussion posts for both
videos.

Video 1: Battle Between Faith and Science

This
video illustrates how a community in Pennsylvania is split by religious
differences, the teaching of evolution and intelligent design. The
debate fueled by the school board adopting a book which indicated
evolution was a theory and that creationism was a fact has sparked a
controversy in the community. A lawsuit against the school board has
determined what the school board could require.

Write a discussion post responding to the following questions:

• Is this the way we want to see our future society?
• As an educational leader, how could such a situation impact your school community?
• What steps could an educational leader employ to prevent such a situation?

Video 2: Standing Alone

Although
the Supreme Court voted in 1963 to remove prayer books from schools,
the issue is still hotly debated. This video Standing Alone illustrate
how a high school in Utah, with a large Mormon population, refuses to
honor the view of a Jewish girl, a member of the school choir, who asks
that the members sing fewer religious songs.

Write a discussion post responding to the following questions:

• Is this the way we want to see our future society?
• As an educational leader, how could such a situation impact your school community?
• What steps could an educational leader employ to prevent such a situation?

Your discussions should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the
ideas and concepts presented in the course by providing new thoughts and
insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect
scholarly writing and current APA standards.