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An intimate cross-country look at the new debate over religion in the public schools A suburban Boston school unwittingly started a firestorm of controversy over a sixth-grade field trip. The class was visiting a mosque to learn about world religions when a handful of boys, unnoticed by their teachers, joined the line of worshippers and acted out the motions of the Muslim call to prayer. A video of the prayer went viral with the title "Wellesley, Massachusetts Public School Students Learn to Pray to Allah." Charges flew that the school exposed the children to Muslims who intended to convert American schoolchildren. Wellesley school officials defended the course, but also acknowledged the delicate dance teachers must perform when dealing with religion in the classroom.
About the Author
Linda K. Wertheimer, a former education editor at The Boston Globe, is an award-winning journalist and essayist. She worked at newspapers around the nation, including The Dallas Morning News and the Orlando Sentinel, before settling in her dream city of Boston.
A graduate of Northwestern University, she has both a bachelor's and master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism. She has taught journalism at Boston University and teaches writing courses at Grub Street in Boston. Her writing in recent years has won awards from the Education Writers Association and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Photo credit: Michael Benabib
