The truth of no particular religion could be taught-only the fact that religions claim truth. The claims of religion and science would get the same weight, but nothing could be taught as the truth. Nord does not consider that widespread opposition to vigorously taught comparative religion might arise. The Supreme Court in this book is less an active culprit in causing religion-free education than a codifier of the effects of secularization. Nord devotes more pages to the process of public school secularization than his neutrality thesis requires and fewer than would be necessary for a thorough cultural history of religion and education.
Sweeping generalizations abound.
A briefer, more cogent summary of public school secularization might have traced the repeated attempts across the twentieth century to move the public schools in the direction he desires. Actually, Nord is not battling secularity , which is the unavoidable condition of the American nation as a non-ecclesiastical state. His target is secularism as an ideology. American public schools have been secular since they emerged as common schools in the 1830s. For a century they certainly had close affinity with religion- primarily religion refracted through Protestant moral and cultural norms.