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Katelyn Meitz
Mr. Salow
English 11
1/18/17
Research Final Draft
Persuasion on Teaching Religion in Public Schooling

I analyzed the methods of persuasion regarding the topic teaching religion in public
schools. The authors of the articles I used are named; Yan Guo who wrote, "Diversity in public
education: Acknowledging immigrant parent knowledge", Jeffery W. Dunn writing, "For
Community Sake, Norman J. Bauer who produced, "Schooling and Religion: A Secular
Humanist View", Richard Daugherty who came up with, "A Canadian and American
Comparison: Church-State Constitutional Issues in Public Schooling. Part II--An American
Perspective", Akman Turan Erkili who wrote, "Freedom of Religion--Conscience, Religious
Education and the Right of Education in the 1961-1982 Constitutions of the Republic of Turkey
and Their Developmental Tendencies", and finally "Pre-Service Teachers' Middle-Level Lessons
on World Religions: Planning, Teaching, and Reflecting" by Derek L. Anderson, Tanya Cook,
and Holly Mathys. I grouped these articles together based upon how they tried to persuade me.
Four of my articles had logos, pathos, and ethos. These were the most detailed, and the
best at persuasion. Firstly, "Diversity in public education: Acknowledging immigrant parent
knowledge". This article used the most solid example of pathos I have ever found. Its not only
trying to manipulate the reader by playing on emotion, but by adding useful information to the
article. Guo writes about the Muslim culture when he says, This kid was crying because she was
not allowed to wear the swimming suit. The teacher in fact forced her to wear the swimming

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suit (129). This article used an interesting example of logos too. Guo reported, Out of the 13
Muslim parents, 12 believed that Muslim girls should be segregated from the opposite sex
(128). In a way, this statistic is manipulative, but its still a fact. 12/13 is nearly 100%. Theres
hundreds of other statistics out there on this topic, but Guo used this one to prove his point
further.
I also have "For Community Sake. This example of pathos in this article is a good
example of an author just playing on emotion. Dunn says, teaching could be part of a larger
effort to create a more humane world (107). That sentence is purely for manipulation only.
Dunn mentions a famous book, For Goodness Sake: Religious Schools and Education for
Democratic Citizenry (101). Dunn took information from a published, nonfiction book for his
article. Using a book of this caliber is a perfect way to express logos in a strong way.
The third article in this group is, "Schooling and Religion: A Secular Humanist View".
Bauer is a risky writer. His examples of pathos and logos are both risky examples, but theyre
really good ones. Bauer writes, We are all familiar with the role of religion in the education of
humans in the scholastic era, with the stress placed on the need for all persons to save their
souls (3). Mentioning something so touchy, like God saving souls is extreme pathos. When it
comes to religion theres often lots of emotions being thrown around, so it was very risky of him
to put such a sentence in here. Once again, Bauer is risky, he explains the Empirical-Naturalistic
Image of reality. Its not an easy concept to grab and he takes the chance and a really good shot at
explaining it thoroughly. Its impressive, and makes the reader think that hes a genius and really
knows what hes talking about. Bauer describes, a theory of reality which is grounded in a
naturalism which accepts raw, undifferentiated experience (6).

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The last article for this group is, A Canadian and American Comparison: Church-State
Constitutional Issues in Public Schooling. Part II--An American Perspective. Daugherty wrote
this article, and when it comes to the debate on teaching religion in public schools, he used the
most common form of persuasion. Daugherty says, Schooling has remained an environment
where only materialistic and humanistic answers are deemed appropriate (22). This quote is
important, because many adults, kids, and academics think in this way. While the pathos are
common, the logos are more common as Daugherty states, The establish clause has been the
standard used in recent years to separate government sponsored activity from any influence that
that could even remotely be considered religious (6). Using the separation between church and
state to argue about reaching religion in schools is one of the most brought up sources when
debating this topic.
The article by Akman Turan Erkili called, "Freedom of Religion--Conscience, Religious
Education and the Right of Education in the 1961-1982 Constitutions of the Republic of Turkey
and Their Developmental Tendencies" has only logos. I thought this article deserved to be on its
own because logos is such a strong way of persuasion. Its important to analyze logos on its
own. This article is interesting because it uses the Constitution, but not ours; Turkeys
Constitution. Erkili states, The three articles in the Constitution of 1961 include religion
education (article 19), control of education (article 21), and the education duty of the state
(article 50) (129). Its interesting to see this topic is debated elsewhere and not just in the United
States.
"Pre-Service Teachers' Middle-Level Lessons on World Religions: Planning, Teaching,
and Reflecting" by Derek L. Anderson, Tanya Cook, and Holly Mathys is grouped under only
pathos. This article definitely deserves to be on its own because of how the pathos are used. Its

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important to know when someone is just playing on emotions and manipulating their audience.
Much of this article/study provides me only with pathos. They throw words around like,
perpetually-held public sentiment that kids do not know enough about the past and An
education would not be complete without knowledge of religion and and its role in the past and
present (Anderson 6). These examples do make me feel something, but they dont give me any
stats as to why teaching religion to these 7th graders benefits them as a whole. The article fails to
show any logos just by lack of information, but it also fails to show ethos with too much
information. This is an excellent example of a manipulative article. It only uses pathos, and not
in a helpful way. I wanted to make sure this article made the cut because of how its written.
This is the sort of article teachers are warning students about. Its tricky and sly, but theres no
real statistics.

Works Cited

Anderson, Derek L., Tanya Cook, and Holly Mathys. "Pre-Service Teachers' Middle-Level

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Lessons on World Religions: Planning, Teaching, and Reflecting." Journal of Education

and Learning 2.4 (2013): 1. Web. 17 Nov. 2016
Bauer, Norman J. "Schooling and Religion: A Secular Humanist View." (1989). Web. 17 Nov.
2016
Daugherty, Richard. "A Canadian and American Comparison: Church-State Constitutional Issues
in
Public Schooling. Part II--An American Perspective." (1989). Web. 21 Nov. 2016
Dunn, Jeffery W. "For Community Sake." Philosophical Studies in Education44 (2013): 100109.
Web. 17 Nov. 2016
Erkili, Turan Akman. "Freedom of Religion--Conscience, Religious Education and the Right of
Education in the 1961-1982 Constitutions of the Republic of Turkey and Their
Developmental Tendencies." Eurasian Journal of Educational Research 51 (2013): 123139. Web. 17 Nov. 2016
Goldman, Dan, and Ellen Boylan. "Integrating Faith-Based Organizations into State-Funded PreK
Programs: Resolving Constitutional Conflict. Pre-K Policy Brief Series." Education Law
Center (2010).
Guo, Yan. "Diversity in public education: Acknowledging immigrant parent knowledge."
Canadian Journal of Education 35.2 (2012): 120-140. Web. 17 Nov. 2016
Parker, Emily. "Constitutional Obligations for Public Education: 50-State Review." Education
Commission of the States (2016).