[New001]

First, most students don't need that kind of information because they already know the basics (or, rather, enough to get by. I know I certainly did, and I know very little about religion). However, that obviously isn't everybody.

Religion isn't banned from public schools. I had assignments that included passages from the bible, among other things, although they were a part of a literature class and we were studying that time period of writing. The teacher taught it as just a text, although that didn't stop some students from interjecting their religion into it. That's another topic though. I had assignments where we had to research the major religions. And, this wasn't too many years ago in Washington State (far from, say, Kansas).

As to your main point, about how students can truly understand some events without knowing the basic religion behind it, I'm not sure what I think. I do know that the amount of knowledge about this country's history is pathetically small in order to graduate, and there's real no need for the average student to learn so deep into certain events. Does the average high school senior need to know the specifics about why the pilgrims left Europe, or only that they chose to leave because of religious reasons?

In high school, I really don't see the need to go so deep into those events. Sure, if you're taking a college history course, I would expect the professor to go over the details and I'd expect the students to be able to know exactly the kind of examples you mentioned.

That being said, I wouldn't mind if that kind of detail was in a high school class. I don't think it matters, and I don't think it'd help the students, but it shouldn't do too much harm. I'm not religious, so it's easy for me to have an open mind with that kind of stuff, but I can see where others may have a problem. Again though, growing up in Washington, religion wasn't as prevalent to me as it is in some areas of the country.