Civics and civility needed

"Mason school board member Jennifer Miller, who ran on a conservative Christian platform, thinks Christianity should be part of public school education."

This was the lead sentence in an Enquirer story Thursday about how Ms. Miller is upset that Mason High School allowed some Muslim students to sit in a room other than the cafeteria during Ramadan, a month during which Muslims fast from sun up to sun down. She somehow construed not making fasting people sit in a room full of people eating lunch as being an unconstitutional advocacy of one religion over another. (The kids in question reportedly chose to go to the library rather than sit in a room by themselves.)

Miller made such a fuss over the issue at Tuesday's school board meeting -- accusing administrators of lying -- that the meeting was adjourned early. Wednesday she told an Enquirer reporter: "We are a Christian nation, not a Muslim nation."

Actually, we are neither. The United States is a secular nation (for good reason), populated by lots of religious people. All this makes me wonder if what we need to add to the school curriculum is not religion, but more history and civics -- not to mention civility. Refresher courses in such subjects should be required of those seeking elected office.