Should public schools teach catechism? Which one(s)? Should Sunday School be reserved for Church or is it just another subject? How are belief and knowledge different? How can schools respect all beliefs - by considering they're a private matter, by teaching an introduction to them in various classes, by recognizing them outside of class for example during clubs? How do you recognize the difference between an individual making a personal choice and an individual being coerced into that choice by their family or an outside group?
What if you have different types of schools?
France has three types of schools:
- Ecoles publiques, or public schools, where faith is considered a private matter that cannot enter the walls since students are first and foremost citizens in development, hence all equal in the eyes of the Republic - although a representative of a faith community is allowed to lead a student club, either bible study or Qu'ran study or Torah study, after a vote by the school council;
- Ecoles sous contrat, "contract" schools, similar to charter schools, 98% of which are Catholic: they're state- funded as long as they accept applicants regardless of faith, respect the national curriculum, and do not make religious class compulsory, thus cost between $20 and $60 a month to families - there, students are free to wear crosses, kippeh, hijeb, etc, there's a religion and/or language class that can't be compulsory (typically, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic); many students in the "contract" Catholic schools are actually Muslim and only 10% choose contract schools for religious reasons, most parents choose them to avoid their local school or control who their kids are in contact with.
Above; a picture of Lycée ORT, a Jewish comprehensive "contract" school in Toulouse.
Below: images of Lycée St Paul, in Angoulême (former French President Mitterrand's high school) and Lycée Averroès, in the North, two "contract" schools.
These "non contracted" schools are similar to American private schools. In the US, there's no equivalent to the "contract schools": all schools are either public or private.
Private schools receive zero funding from the State or the town, they are not required to give the same tests (such as the "No child left behind" tests instituted under George W.Bush) and they are not forced to follow the Common Core standards: they can do whatever they want, select whoever they want, include religion or not, require a uniform or not. They are very expensive (between $800 a month for parochial schools where the family are active parishioners to $45,000 a year for the elite boarding schools -there are scholarships.)
Below, a map of Philipps Exeter/Andover, one of the most famous boarding schools in the US. Yes, it looks like a little town, but it's a school. :)
In American public schools, there cannot be any religion that may proselytize (attempt to affect another student). Jewelry and religious items are allowed because they're considered personal, however tee-shirts stating religious verses, praying before a football game, or any form of "peer pressure" is illegal. Saying a Christian prayer before the start of school has been illegal for 50 years because it placed non-Christian children in a difficult position and because it indicated the school favored the Christian religion over the others (many parents who saw no problem with saying a Christian prayer didn't want to have their kids recite a Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or even Catholic prayer.)
These are tee shirts that can't be worn in public schools - understand why?
To show respect for others' beliefs, American students celebrate all the holidays - for example, for the Winter Holiday Concert, they may sing Christian carols, Hanoukkah songs, songs about the snow, Jingle Bells, etc. Religious holidays are not necessarily public holidays, unlike in France - some cities may decide to have days off for schools (New York City has a day off from school for Yom Kippur and for Eid, for example) and students are excused for their religious holidays, be they Wiccan, Ba'ai, Sikh, or any other religion, but overall the only public holidays are national holidays such as Martin Luther King Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving.
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In France, balaclavas, and any cloth (religious or not) that covers the face are not admissible in public and so are not accepted in any school. It's considered extremely rude to hide one's face during a conversation, as is wearing a hat or anything that covers the hair when you're inside. In fact, an American teen actor was actually chided 'live' for keeping sunglasses and a hat during an interview on French TV. The anchor simply couldn't let him be so rude as to do this to his viewers!
What do you think of this system? Should there be different types of schools with different levels of religion? Do you think religious charter schools or "contract" (sous contrat) schools should be funded by taxes or should they be entirely private, with the cost supported by the families only?