Sunday, April 12, 2015
Upset Mother of High School Teen takes to Facebook after Islam pamphlet assignment
Jennette Martonosi has recently become outraged due to an assignment that was given to her Tenth Grade high school daughter. Her daughter, a student at Jenison High School in Michigan, was instructed to create a pamphlet regarding Islam. Part of the instructions that were given with the assignment were that in should be comprehensible enough to be able to "introduce Islam to 3rd graders." The project was assigned in the student's World History Class. The thinking behind the teacher was that in order to understand historic and current events around the world, students should have a full picture regarding other country's religion and culture- which unlike America are often times inseparable.
Outraged by the content of the assignment, Martonosi decided to make her concerns public on Facebook. Her concerns with the project were that she felt as though the assignment was promoting Islam over other world religions. Additionally, she was offended that it claimed that "Allah [is] the same God of the Christians and Jews." (A statement which I will not take to touch up on in this post).
In response to Martonosi's post, principal Brandon Graham also took to Facebook. Clarifying some of the misunderstandings, Graham ensured the concerned parents that these pamphelts were, and never were intended to be, distributed to Third Grade students. Furthermore, Islam is one of five major religions which are part of the Jenison Public Schools; curriculum. "The religions include Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam." That being said, in an additional post, Martonosi argued that, "Islam was the ONLY religion of the 4 studied so far that was given the assignment to create a pamphlet."
The question here is whether or not the First Amendment Establishment clause has been violated by promoting Islam over other religions. I do not believe that by assigning a pamphlet during the Islam section of the course promotes one particular religion over another. It simply is a way of "stirring" things up in the course in order to keep the students engaged rather than allowing the class to become mundane. If we view this issue from an accommodationist approach, than the fact that the curriculum is incorporating the five major religions- Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam- than the school is appropriately acting with neutrality (granted that some minor religions do not play such an impacting role in a course discussing World History and therefore can be reasonably excluded without acting discriminatory towards them).
In is in my opinion, however, that the assignment has violated the First Amendment. The subject is World History, and although it is important to understand the role which the five major religions play in that subject, students should not be forced to do assignments which are directly engaging with the religions in particular. For a secular purpose of understanding World History, world politics, etc, incorporation of these religions into the material does not violate the First Amendment. However, an assignment geared specifically at addressing the world religions outside of World History is no longer secular but advancing religious purpose.
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