Understanding what motivates people to challenge books and how community members react to these challenges can help librarians find better ways to work with challengers to come to equitable solutions. This study focused on the motives behind challenges to the acclaimed children's book "And Tango Makes Three" and the reasoning given by…

Since the "Tinker" decision, the Supreme Court has maintained that student First Amendment rights are modified by the "special characteristics of the school environment." The nature of these characteristics, however, has not been adequately investigated. The author proposes seven characteristics of schools that are relevant to…

Guided by First Amendment principles, Americans must agree on a shared civic framework within which to negotiate our deepest differences. A painful first step is acknowledging public education's failure to find a constitutionally permissable, educationally sound role for religion in the schools. This situation has helped convince religious…

From 19th-century Protestant hegemony to today's religion-free zones, we have found no proper, constitutional role for religion and religious expression in public education. Both models are unjust and, in some cases, unconstitutional. A third model, composed of consensual guidelines, must be translated into local district policies and practices.…

Nineteenth-century common schools offered no course about religion or its role in American society. Moral education up through the mid-20th century embodied a kind of generalized Christianity. If universalized versions of the Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments prevail, educators should reconsider the merits of common-school philosophy. Contains…