Religion in the Classroom: What the Textbooks Tell Us. A Report.

This report brings together recent research, analysis, and textbook evaluations to explain what lies behind today's school wars over teaching about religion. It concludes that textbook controversies involving religion are an important part of a large cultural debate. Some of the most divisive and important curriculum issues of current times, focusing on the changing content of educational materials in civics, history, social studies, and health are considered. Specifically, it argues that in spite of shortcomings, satisfactory treatment of religion does exist in some civics and history texts. The greater danger is to be found in the non-historical social studies, such as psychology and health, which include content likely to aggravate the culture wars, compromising religious-based moral principles as they promote new ideas of "self-esteem" and "caring." The document includes the following: (1) "The Context of Culture"; (2) "Religion and the Curriculum"; (3) "Textbooks and the Christians"; (4) "History and Social Studies Textbooks Today"; and (5) "Reflections." Appendices include: textbooks examined; sample indexes; and four examples. Contains 40 selected sources. (EH)