The Teachers Resource Notebook is an excellent tool for teachers in Christian school or home school settings who want to take advantage of the T&S curriculum's full academic potential.   This potential includes a powerful context-driven vocabulary-building program, writing project suggestions for every Backgrounder, and Internet links for research paper sources.  There is plenty of material available to provide for a full-credit high school course each year. The Notebook contains reading quizzes and vocabulary quizzes for each Backgrounder, easily graded with the keys provided, as well as other teacher helps.  The keys below cover our Sample Backgrounder.

(Click to see Backgrounder #12, The Separation of Church and State.)

The Times and the Scriptures READING QUIZ KEY

Backgrounder #12, The Separation of Church and State

Choose the letter representing the best answer for each of these items:

1. Jefferson told the Danbury Baptists their religious freedoms came from __D__
A) the Declaration of Independence (B) the Constitution (C) the Magna Carta (D) none of these

2. Jefferson's "wall of separation" referred to protecting the __A__
A) church from the state (B) government from religion (C) unbelievers from the believers (D) Constitution from the courts

3. Jefferson's Danbury letter was __C__
A) part of the Federalist Papers   B) an official government document   C) a private correspondence   D) none of these

4. The Supreme Court launched the current doctrine of “separation of church and state” in what year?  __C__  
A) 1802   B) 1902   C) 1947   D) 1962

Fill in the word that best completes each of there statements:

5. The First Amendment says ____Congress_____ shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.

6. The First Amendment also says that such laws cannot prohibit the “free ____exercise____” of religion.

Mark the following statements True or False:

7. _True_  A majority of Americans think the phrase “separation of church and state” is in the U.S. Constitution.

8. _False_ The First Amendment restricts the actions of all three branches of government:  the president, legislature and courts.

9. _False_  Individual states had “established churches” before the First Amendment was passed, but not afterward.

10. _False_ Since the Supreme Court’s first use of the “separation” phrase, the legal definitions of the words “church” and “state” have narrowed considerably.

Writing project suggestion to teacher:
Write a paper on the official acts of the Founding Fathers that would have been considered “violations of the separation of church and state” today.  Use examples from this Backgrounder and from any other sources you may have.  Describe two or three ways our lives today would be different if we were living under the Founders’ understanding of the First Amendment

The Times and the Scriptures VOCABULARY QUIZ KEY

Backgrounder #12, The Separation of Church and State

Match the following words from the Backgrounder with the best definition from the second column: