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Finding Common Ground

A Guide to Religious Liberty in Public Schools


Finding Common Ground by Charles C. Haynes and Oliver Thomas is a First Amendment guide to religion and public education published by the First Amendment Center. The text of the Williamsburg Charter, a 1988 reaffirmation of the First Amendment, may be found in the appendix.

The book can be downloaded as an Adobe Acrobat file from this page or ordered for $19.95 from Amazon.com. An education discount of $10.00 per copy is available for orders or 10 books or more. For discount, contact Euraine Brooks at 703/284-2809.

  • Download the Acrobat file of Finding Common Ground (full publication). (4.58 MB)

  • NOTE: THIS IS A LARGE DOCUMENT. PLEASE ALLOW AMPLE TIME TO DOWNLOAD.

    OR

  • Download the Acrobat file of individual sections of Finding Common Ground:

    • Front cover (83.6 KB)

    • Front matter
      Title page, table of contents, about the authors, foreword (60.7 KB)

    • Chapter 1
      "From Battleground to Common Ground" (260 KB)

    • Chapter 2
      "Religious Liberty, Public Education, and the Future of American Democracy" (260 KB)

    • Chapter 3
      "A History of Religious Liberty in American Public Life" (670 KB)

    • Chapter 4
      "The Supreme Court, Religious Liberty and Public Education" (386 KB)

    • Chapter 5
      "Strategies for Finding Common Ground" (123 KB)

    • Chapter 6
      "A Teacher's Guide to Religion in the Public Schools" (472 KB)

    • Chapter 7
      "Religion in the Public School Curriculum" (348 KB)

    • Chapter 8
      "Religious Holidays in the Public Schools" (136 KB)

    • Chapter 9
      "Student Religious Clubs" (237 KB)

    • Chapter 10
      "Student Religious Expression in Public Schools: United States Department of Education Guidelines" (113 KB)

    • Chapter 11
      "Student Religious Practices" (296 KB)

    • Chapter 12
      "A Parent's Guide to Religion in the Public Schools" (209 KB)

    • Chapter 13
      "Character Education" (364 KB)

    • Chapter 14
      "First Amendment Schools: Educating for Freedom and Responsibility" (282 KB)

    • Chapter 15
      "Sample School District Policies" (151 KB)

    • Appendix A
      "Contact Information for Organizations Signing Consensus Statements" (40 KB)

    • Appendix B
      "Williamsburg Charter" (93 KB)

    • Index (27.7 KB)

    • Back cover (84.2 KB)

Our files are created with Adobe® Acrobat® Reader version 5.0. Click graphic to download free.



Related

Public schools: Why we don’t fight more
By Charles C. Haynes Some say public schools create war zones of clashing values — but more and more they're proving to be places where students learn to find common ground amid their differences. 02.04.07




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Last system update: Thursday, February 8, 2007 | 12:09:31
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