Should Religion be Taught in Schools run by Christian Management? The Recurrent Question

Recurrent Theme
Should Religion be taught in Schools run by Christian Management? This is not a new discussion. It is a theme which recurs from time to time. An old nun who taught at a school was asked to remove her crucifix from the classroom and not to speak about Jesus Christ during academic class time (this was during the seventies). 
I happened to visit her when she was sitting in the classroom after receiving this directive. She was sitting deep in thought with the crucifix clasped between her hands. 
Troubled, she spoke to me about the directive she had just received shortly before. 
Sister told me the following story. As a girl of fourteen, she had left her native country to join the cloistered life, and was sent as a missionary to Africa. She never saw her mother and father again, as she toiled for no wage but the joy of serving God and bringing education to children. 
Now, after many years of devoted service, she was being asked to take down the symbol of the Son of God for whom she had laboured all the years, and not to speak of Him during academic classes.
"What will I do?" she asked me. 
"What do you think you should do?" I asked. 
For a few moments she looked down at the crucifix, then her expression firmed. 
Sister stood up and resolutely placed the crucifix back on the wall at the head of the classroom above the blackboard, and then gave a firm and satisfied nod. "There! That's where You belong!" she said. 

Academic Service
Sister then came back to where I was sitting and said, "This is how it is. I left my country at fourteen years of age to follow my calling in the cloister. I am getting on in years now, and I have worked every day to teach people in mission territories. I have worked in the heat, in the cold and for no wages in the service of God. 
I have taught thousands of children. I never saw my mother and father again because I dedicated my life to the people in the missions, and in my absence my parents died. 
Many times when the going gets tough, I look at the crucifix and gain strength when I remember the Sacrifice Jesus made. Then I carry on teaching the children in my classroom to the best of my academic ability in honour of Him. Now I am being told to get rid of His symbol in my classroom in order not to cause possible offence. 
I have laboured all my life for no wages because my call from the Son of God to teach the poor and those in need of tuition called me from my country. Well, a school run by a group of religious is not like department shopping.
People sometimes want to go to a department store that offers the best service, but once they are in they only want to take the best from some shelves and leave the items on the other shelves behind. A Christian school is not like a department store; you can't put the academic service in your shopping cart and ignore Jesus Who makes that academic service possible. We give of our best every day of our lives in this terrible heat to give the very best service only because it is Jesus Who inspires us. So; back at the front of my classroom He will go! And," Sister said to me, "If I am told again to take the crucifix down, I will tell them; make a decision. If He goes, I go!"

Gracious Christian Ethos
I have never forgotten this wise old nun's words. It seemed to me that as my parents chose to send me to a Christian school, then in all courtesy it was incumbent upon me to accept the gracious Christian ethos underpinning that educational facility.
It was also a privilege and solace to experience the quiet Unseen Presence of the Sacramental Son of God shining His Love and Influence into my life from the Chapel in the School.