THE DISASTER OF THE ABSENCE OF MORAL AND RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN THE AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Controversies and Possible Solutions

Thomas Aquinas, in his philosophy of religion, said that man is a
religious being (homo religiosus). By this he meant that man is a
being that naturally stretches to the beyond, to the unknown outside
of himself. He yearns and reaches out for an infinite peace, joy, and
happiness. He does all within his power to grasp an endless happiness,
a joy that knows no end. This has been his instinctive, conscious,
and unconscious aspiration. He tends to pursue and grab that which
captures his attention and wins his admiration. Many a time, he ends
up grabbing a shadow, an illusion of real happiness, an illusion of the
source of true and lasting happiness. When he grabs that shadow, he
settles to worship it as the ultimate source of an infinite happiness. It
will not be long before he discovers that it is all a mirage.
This ultimate joy and happiness is not found within man's immediate
environment, because whatever he clings to seems to fail in providing
such ultimate joy, peace, and happiness, which men, by nature, tend to
yearn and long for. Man has always interpreted peace, joy, happiness,
and their sources differently. Thus, his beliefs and objects of worship,
devotion, and dedication vary one from another-hence the reason for
different world religions and creeds today (Christianity, Judaism, Islam,
Buddhism, atheism, etc.).
To say that man is a religious being implies that naturally man
always believes in and worships something. Hence, there can never
be an atheist in the real sense of it. Not to believe is to believe. For
example, not to believe in the existence of God is to believe that
God does not exist. Even though some people do not believe in the
existence of a personal God or god, they still believe in something,
which could be anything-money, freedom, wealth, riches, power,beauty, achievement, talent, name it. Just as our ancient fathers
believed in carved idols as gods and worshipped them, so do people
in the modern time hold on tenaciously to all kinds of idols in the form
of money, beauty, wealth, riches, power, achievement, talent, etc., and
worship them as gods and hope that someday these might give them
an endless peace and happiness, which have been the ultimate end of
man's endeavor or pursuit on earth.
This false hope of man's longing to achieve endless peace and
happiness from material possessions or natural endowment explains
itself in some ancient cultures whereby the dead are buried along with
some of their possessions, including gold, money, slaves, etc. The fact
that people of outstanding talents, riches, and wealth have committed
suicide has put a big question mark to this erroneous ideology that
happiness could be achieved through material possession. What
was wrong in the lives of those affluent and talented people who
killed themselves contrary to all instincts of self-preservation? What
was missing in their lives that none of their material acquisitions or
achievements could satiate or afford?
Man longs for lasting happiness. He has the capacity to conceive and
yearn for infinite happiness. Hence, he does not want to be happy today
and sad tomorrow. But how would he achieve that joy or happiness that has
no end, which has always remained man's unrealized dream? No branch of
discipline or knowledge has been able to provide an answer and a remedy
to man's natural longing for endless joy, lasting peace, and happiness, but
religion. Religion has an answer, a remedy, and a hope.
In this book, I will demonstrate how religion provides an answer, a
remedy, and a hope for man's ultimate search and yearning for lasting
peace and happiness in his life and in the society in which he lives. I
will explore the idea that man is a spiritual as well as a religious being. I
will also delve into how his natural endowment with freedom, intellect,
and will enables him to express his religiosity.
I will further demonstrate how the misinterpretation and
misapplication of the idea of the separation of state and church, or
religion, has impacted adversely man's free expression of his religiosity
and spirituality in the United States of America, and most importantly
how it has adversely affected moral and religious education of our
children and youth in the public elementary and high schools. I will
explore different controversies and debates that are related to theabolition or establishment of religious and moral education in the public
schools. The past opinions of those who have debated on the issues
of abolition or establishment of religion in the public schools shall be
reviewed, and the strengths and weaknesses of their arguments will be
weighed and evaluated.
This book will further expose and deliberate on the devastating effects
of lack of religious and moral education among our children and the youth
in the public elementary and high schools. These devastating effects of
lack of religious and moral education of our children in the public schools
reach their climax in the colleges and universities, which finally blossom
in society as the students graduate out into the community.
I will discuss the exigency and importance of religion in the
American public schools in relation to the education of the young who
constitute the foundation and the hope of the future of society. The
American government has abolished religion in all its forms in the
American public schools. This makes it possible for children to pass from
elementary through high school to college without having anything to
do with religion in their formal education. The government did this
either because they have discovered that it is useless, irrelevant, and
of no purpose, and that children can always do well in their education
and in their lives without religious education, or that they cannot
afford its funding or put up with the differences that could arise from
different religions, which could lure the government into an excessive
entanglement with religion. How true and cogent is any of the above
listed fears and anxieties of the government as a reason for the abolition
of religion in the public schools?
Most importantly, I will explore new ideas and possibilities on how
religious and moral education of our growing children and youth could
be restored back to public schools without the government having
to fund religion or involve itself in an excessive entanglement with
religion; without infringing on the freedom of others who might not
like to involve themselves in the affairs of religion or in the affairs of a
particular religion other than their own; without the practice of public
prayer, the observance of a moment of silence, etc., in an assembly of
mixed students of diverse religious orientations; without the coercion
of a student, a teacher, an administrator, or others into the practice of
religion against their will; and without the school having to formulate
prayer for students of mixed faith traditions.