The fight over religious observance in schools is baffling for The Herald's American-born education correspondent, Garrett Baylor Stell. Regardless, he writes, a potential solution may be right under the government's nose.

I am used to fights about the presence of religion in schools, but not like this.

The recent controversy over a new bill proposed by the Scottish Government has reminded me of the incredible complexity of the interaction between these two powerful social forces.

I was taught that religion has no place in publicly funded schools. Even in the rural and predominantly Christian part of the country where I grew up, this was understood as the norm.

But to believe that there will ever be an unassailable barrier between the two is a complete misunderstanding of how religion, or any type of worldview, operates in a person’s life.

People’s beliefs influence everything that they do.

In the United States, the powerful influence of religion on the decisions of religious people has contributed to a long history of battles over the relationship between church and state.

This history has made me particularly interested in the situation in Scotland, in which many of the key assumptions are reversed.

Here, there is a long history of assuming that religion, in fact, belongs in schools. The burden of action lies with individuals who wish to remove or diversify religious activities in these spaces.

Every time the issue of required religious observance is raised, I go and read Sections 8 and 9 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980.

I do........

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