Edwards v. Aguillard (and Santa Fe)--Some Things to Think About

Who should decide the content of the curriculum and the program for commencement for local schools?

Local school authorities? Teachers and principals? Parents? Federal Courts?

Should the answer here be controlled by the incorporated Establishment Clause?

Or by the Tenth Amendment and the process of democratic self-government in the states?

Do these cases demonstrate the need for school choice, for a system that allows parents to decide where (and how) to educate their children without losing the educational funding paid for by their tax dollars?

In America, there is no longer a common understanding about what is true, what is good, and what is beautiful.

Just think about the things we cannot agree on, things that are often covered in K-12 curricula:

--Evolution vs. Creation. Even if a school decides to teach evolution, should it also take care to focus on whether there is any real meaning and purpose to life in a world that came about as a result of a random process of natural selection? If so, what is the source of this meaning? Is it an objective source of meaning, or only our collective best subjective guess about the purpose of life? Is it consistent with, say, what the Bible teaches about life? Or only with certain interpretations of the Bible? Which interpretations are the "true" ones and which are false or based upon ignorance or misunderstanding or pride and hubris? Says who?

--What should children be taught about human sexuality, sexual orientation and marriage and family and human reproduction? Again, is there an objective reality about these issues, or not?

--What should children be taught about history and government? Does the Constitution create a large and powerful national government with weak and dependent states? Which liberties are fundamental? And what is the source of those liberties? Were we "endowed by out Creator" with these liberties? Or do we look to unelected judges to endow us with ones they like and deprive us of ones they don't like?

--What should our children be taught about environmentalism vs property rights? About taxes and social safety nets?

--How then should we live?What constitutes good character?

I could go on forever with this list.

And it is obvious that there are no common truths or common values with respect to these issues. Whose version of the truth should our children be taught? Who decides which version or versions of truth and values our children should be exposed to in school? And who decides which versions of the truth and values will not be included in the curriculum?

If religious versions of the truth are excluded from the curriculum, is the curriculum neutral between religion and non-religion? Between those who believe in secular perspectives and those who believe in religious perspectives?

Between those who think that prayer belongs in education and those who think it does not?