Dude, you should check your tap water for contaminates, because you're not making any sense. And this is coming from someone who promotes cultural sensitivity and religious understanding.
Public school is a place for learning, not religious indoctrination. We do not live in a theocracy, and the further organized religion is removed from our schools - the better. It is not the responsibility of the public school system to teach religious understanding or preach the values and/or beliefs of any religion. That is the responsibility of parents and individual students.
There is nothing to gain from the inclusion of religious studies in public school, and all public education should be limited to the historical and cultural context of any particular religion. If they want to further research the religion, that should be done outside the classroom.
Bringing religious studies into public schools runs the risk of alienating students with their own personal beliefs, alienating students that voluntarily abstain from organized religion and inciting bigotry from groups of defensive students that will denounce opposing religious viewpoints out of immaturity.
That's not to mention that train wreck that is creating a syllabus for such a class and finding suitable instructors. Most Americans are religious, and asking instructors to remain objective is a ridiculous conceit. I can just imagine that CNN headlines now: "Middle school teacher fails student for advocating Islam in Religious Studies class".
Again, why are the essential facts and major beliefs not enough? If you want to preach a particular religion or have your child involved in religious studies, send them to private school. Most folks send their kids to public school to learn, and religious studies should never be apart of that.
