Note: If you're going to read this article, please read it through to the end.
"... in the Beginning" was an Immersion Day I presented at the beginning of the school year most years of my 25 + years teaching career. It lasted approximately three hours and involved the entire lower elementary (6 - 9 year olds) community. The students rotated through three different presentations, with the order of no particular importance.
"God with No Hands" was one of these dramatic presentations. This is the creation story that Dr. Mary Montessori purportedly told her son, Mario, The essence of this fairly lengthy story is that God creates the world using the tools of physics, much like a painter uses a paint brush to create a beautiful painting. Today we'd call this approach, "intelligent design", which is fitting for Maria as she was both a Roman Catholic and a trained doctor (i.e. scientist). The story even includes experiments to illustrate many of the scientific principles embedded in the story.
As the teacher (aka, guide) objectively presenting this story, I would share the context of this story (i.e. who wrote it and why). In presenting it, I neither endorsed or critiqued it. (Personally, I also subscribe to Dr. Montessori's beliefs, but to profess this belief to my students would be proselytizing; using my position of authority to unduly influence them. No! This would be wrong!) In a sense, the students were putting on Maria's "spectacles" and seeing the world as she saw it.
"The Big Bang" was another presentation that the students would attend. In this dramatic presentation, a story is read with accompanying illustrations when suddenly, a large black balloon is popped, sending specks of matter (glitter or paper dots) to shower the students. (Yes, Montessori presentations are designed to strike the child's imagination!) As part of the debriefing discussion that follows the presentation, I explain that this is a theory that most scientists believe is how the Universe began. They came to this conclusion because they have been convinced by empirical evidence. If new and different evidence comes to light, they may formulate a new theory. Once again, I present this theory objectively, indicating no bias for or against it.
"Creation Stories from other Cultures" takes the students on a voyage of discovery around the world. Here the creation stories are read, acted out or even danced! These creation stories may be from major world religions, from indigenous peoples or various cultures. After each story, the religious or cultural context is objectively given for the story. And once again the concept of tolerance is reiterated, as it has in all the presentations, by asking questions like these: Do all people believe in this story? Answer: No. Is it ok if people believe in this story? Answer: Yes. Can we tolerate, accept and even celebrate this difference in other people? Answer: Yes! (One caveat or basic principle in sharing these different world views is that they can all be acceptable and even celebrated as long as they are loving and constructive and not hateful and destructive.)
In all of my 25 years of teaching I never had a parent complain about these presentations, and I had parents through the years from all the major world religions and those that were also humanist or atheist See, the parents are perfectly free to share their views at home, advocating for whatever world view they deem as "right".
Does religion/spirituality need to be presented in public schools? Yes, as Dr. Montessori observed, spirituality is a need of humans. Would public schools provide in-depth religious training? No, even if it were permitted, only a Rabbi, for example, could do justice to the Jewish tradition. What our schools need to teach in our pluralistic society is tolerance as the standard norm, with acceptance and even the celebration of other's difference as the pinnacle of human evolution. I personally believe that our very survival as a species depends on it!