Religion in the Schools

For all those people who have been sincerely disturbed by Supreme Court decisions forbidding the recitation of state-prescribed prayers in public schools, Harvard's famed constitutional law professor, Paul Freund, had some reassuring words last week. Not that Freund disagreed with the court. It is hard to see how it could have ruled any other way, he said in a lecture at Harvard's School of Education. But the decisions, he insisted, "are more important for the doors they leave open than for those they shut."

Religion, Freund reminded his audience, "is unquestionably a part of our cultural tradition. A number of the holidays we observe, the coins we take and spend, the public addresses we hear, the inscriptions on public buildings that we enter, all bear witness to the infusion and persistence of this tradition." It is hard to see how such things can be challenged in law, he said, "so long as they are not addressed to a captive audience and do not call for a profession of commitment or rejection on the part of those who witness them."

Schools are still free, Freund said, to teach about religion, even if they may not teach religion itself. The distinction, he admitted, is easier to point out than to practice. As for the moral education he called for, that presents "even greater subtleties." But the need is also great. The religious aspect of education, Freund concluded, "is too important to be left to the professional educators alone." What is needed is a collaboration, "among others, of philosophers to clarify objectives, psychologists to advise on techniques of learning, and lawyers to furnish materials from the quarries of moral decisions known as the law reports." Asked why no ministers were included among his collaborators, Freund explained: "I don't think there would be any constitutional difficulty about bringing in ministers as consultants. I just thought it would be more prudent, if a board or a city were interested in revising its curriculum, to do it with secular experts."

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