Bringing hope to youth: Religious education for public school students

The moment has come when it is important to shout from the housetops that it is necessary to reach public school children with the most powerful influence available of a positive nature. That influence is religious education. One of the key themes you hear, if you talk with public school teachers or Released Time teachers, is the lack of respect and how basic that is. You do not have to be in education yourself to understand that if there were a high level of respect prevalent in the school systems that the bullying and other forms of antisocial behavior would be minimized. The idea of respect is obviously foundational in religious teaching because if you have respect for God and the Scriptures, then you are much more likely to observe certain rules of behavior. In the view of Dan Schweiderman, a Released Time teacher and organizer, the public schools cannot of themselves leverage the positive values and cohesive power of this without the church, and the church cannot do it very effectively except through programs reaching the public schools. It is a sign of the close relationship between the two institutions in Dan Schweiderman's area that many of the public school teachers are glad to volunteer for religious education programs in after hours. It is not only the actual instruction that makes the difference but also the positive relational setting in which it is offered.