Religious Values and Public Education in the United States

Abstract

Religion and public education have been intertwined since the inception of public education in colonial America.1 However, this intersection has not always been problematic. In the early 1600s, the predominantly Protestant citizenry of the United States founded the public education system in the New England Colonies.2 Horace Mann, one of the prominent forces behind the founding of common schools, based the curriculum of the common school on his own liberal protestant beliefs.3 It was Mann’s view that because of the liberal nature of his religious beliefs, those beliefs could be considered secular, and serve as a philosophical underpinning for a system of public schools.