In Defence of Religious Schools and Colleges

In Defence of Religious Schools and Colleges
Author: Elmer John Thiessen
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2001
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780773522213

It is often argued that religious schools and colleges promote intolerance, divisiveness, and fanaticism and that they violate the principle of academic freedom. Some writers also suggest that economic support for religious schools by the state violates the principle of the separation of church and state. Elmer Thiessen provides a philosophical defence of religious schools and colleges against these and other standard objections. He concludes with a radical proposal: a pluralistic educational system will better prepare students for citizenship in pluralist liberal democracies than a monopolistic state-maintained school system. In placing his argument within the context of liberal-democratic values Thiessen gives concrete examples of objections to religious schools and offers practical suggestions that follow from the philosophical treatment of the problem. In Defence of Religious Schools and Colleges bridges the gap between philosophical argument and educational practice. It will be of interest not only to philosophers and educational theorists but also to practitioners in education. Academics, policy makers, political theorists, lay-people, teachers, administrators, and parents – those who object to religious schools and colleges and those who find themselves trying to answer the objections – will benefit from reading this book.

In Defence of Religious Schools and Colleges

In Defence of Religious Schools and Colleges
Author: Elmer John Thiessen
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2001-07-19
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0773569162

In placing his argument within the context of liberal-democratic values Thiessen gives concrete examples of objections to religious schools and offers practical suggestions that follow from the philosophical treatment of the problem. In Defence of Religious Schools and Colleges bridges the gap between philosophical argument and educational practice. It will be of interest not only to philosophers and educational theorists but also to practitioners in education. Academics, policy makers, political theorists, lay-people, teachers, administrators, and parents - those who object to religious schools and colleges and those who find themselves trying to answer the objections - will benefit from reading this book.

In Defense of Religious Moderation

In Defense of Religious Moderation
Author: William Egginton
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2011
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 023114878X

William Egginton laments the current debate over religion in America, in which religious fundamentalists have set the tone of political discourse--no one can get elected without advertising a personal relation to God, for example--and prominent atheists treat religious belief as the root of all evil. Neither of these positions, Egginton argues, adequately represents the attitudes of a majority of Americans who, while identifying as Christian, Jewish, or Muslim, do not find fault with those who support different faiths and philosophies. In fact, Egginton goes so far as to question whether fundamentalists and atheists truly oppose each other, united as they are in their commitment to a "code of codes." Fundamentalists--and stringent atheists--unconsciously believe that the methods we use to understand the world are all versions of an underlying master code. This code of codes represents an ultimate truth, explaining everything. The moderately religious, with their inherent skepticism toward a master code, are best suited to protect science, politics, and other diverse strains of knowledge from fundamentalist attack and to promote a worldview based on the compatibility between religious faith and scientific method.

God, Grades, and Graduation

God, Grades, and Graduation
Author: Ilana M. Horwitz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2022
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0197534147

"It's widely acknowledged that American parents from different class backgrounds take different approaches to raising their children. Upper and middle-class parents invest considerable time facilitating their children's activities, while working class and poor families take a more hands-off approach. These different strategies influence how children approach school. But missing from the discussion is the fact that millions of parents on both sides of the class divide are raising their children to listen to God. What impact does a religious upbringing have on their academic trajectories? Drawing on 10 years of survey data with over 3,000 teenagers and over 200 interviews, God, Grades, and Graduation (GGG) offers a revealing and at times surprising account of how teenagers' religious upbringing influences their educational pathways from high school to college. GGG introduces readers to a childrearing logic that cuts across social class groups and accounts for Americans' deep relationship with God: religious restraint. This book takes us inside the lives of these teenagers to discover why they achieve higher grades than their peers, why they are more likely to graduate from college, and why boys from lower middle-class families particularly benefit from religious restraint. But readers also learn how for middle-upper class kids--and for girls especially--religious restraint recalibrates their academic ambitions after graduation, leading them to question the value of attending a selective college despite their stellar grades in high school. By illuminating the far-reaching effects of the childrearing logic of religious restraint, GGG offers a compelling new narrative about the role of religion in academic outcomes and educational inequality"--

Faith in Schools?

Faith in Schools?
Author: Ian MacMullen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2016-05-31
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0691171386

Should a liberal democratic state permit religious schools? Should it fund them? What principles should govern these decisions in a society marked by religious and cultural pluralism? In Faith in Schools?, Ian MacMullen tackles these important questions through both political and educational theory, and he reaches some surprising and provocative conclusions. MacMullen argues that parents' desires to educate their children "in the faith" must not be allowed to deny children the opportunity for ongoing rational reflection about their values. Government should safeguard children's interests in developing as autonomous persons as well as society's interest in the education of an emerging generation of citizens. But, he writes, liberal theory does not support a strict separation of church and state in education policy. MacMullen proposes criteria to distinguish religious schools that satisfy legitimate public interests from those that do not. And he argues forcefully that governments should fund every type of school that they permit, rather than favoring upper-income parents by allowing them to buy their way out of the requirements deemed suitable for children educated at public expense. Drawing on psychological research, he proposes public funding of a broad range of religious primary schools, because they can help lay the foundations for young children's future autonomy. In secondary education, by contrast, even private religious schools ought to be obliged to provide robust exposure to the ideas of other religions, to atheism, and to nonreligious approaches to ethics.

Slaying Goliath

Slaying Goliath
Author: Diane Ravitch
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2020-01-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0525655387

From one of the foremost authorities on education in the United States, Slaying Goliath is an impassioned, inspiring look at the ways in which parents, teachers, and activists are successfully fighting back to defeat the forces that are trying to privatize America’s public schools. Diane Ravitch writes of a true grassroots movement sweeping the country, from cities and towns across America, a movement dedicated to protecting public schools from those who are funding privatization and who believe that America’s schools should be run like businesses and that children should be treated like customers or products. Slaying Goliath is about the power of democracy, about the dangers of plutocracy, and about the potential of ordinary people—armed like David with only a slingshot of ideas, energy, and dedication—to prevail against those who are trying to divert funding away from our historic system of democratically governed, nonsectarian public schools. Among the lessons learned from the global pandemic of 2020 is the importance of our public schools and their teachers and the fact that distance learning can never replace human interaction, the pesonal connection between teachers and students.

Educating the Muslims of America

Educating the Muslims of America
Author: Yvonne Y Haddad
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2009-02-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0199705127

As the U.S. Muslim population continues to grow, Islamic schools are springing up across the American landscape. Especially since the events of 9/11, many have become concerned about what kind of teaching is going on behind the walls of these schools, and whether it might serve to foster the seditious purposes of Islamist extremism. The essays collected in this volume look behind those walls and discover both efforts to provide excellent instruction following national educational standards and attempts to inculcate Islamic values and protect students from what are seen as the dangers of secularism and the compromising values of American culture. Also considered here are other dimensions of American Islamic education, including: new forms of institutions for youth and college-age Muslims; home-schooling; the impact of educational media on young children; and the kind of training being offered by Muslim chaplains in universities, hospitals, prisons, and other such settings. Finally the authors look at the ways in which Muslims are rising to the task of educating the American public about Islam in the face of increasing hostility and prejudice. This timely volume is the first dedicated entirely to the neglected topic of Islamic education.

Inspiring Faith in Schools

Inspiring Faith in Schools
Author: Marius Felderhof
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2016-05-23
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1317115937

Inspiring Faith in Schools addresses the privileging of secularism that appears to affect RE in countries influenced by modern western thought. The authors argue that a more engaging form of RE would emerge if religious life were to inhabit centre stage. Currently religious faith is made to hover in the wings awaiting the call to face the inquisitorial challenge of the modern day enquirer. The consequent relationship between pupil and the Divine as the purpose of study is then already intrinsically irreligious, as indicated in the Book of Job by putting God in the dock, whereas it is the pupil who should be (cross-)examining his or her life. What are the ways of exciting and engaging the young so that they begin to entertain the possibility of religious life as a genuine option for themselves? Leading scholars in philosophy and theology from the UK, Australia, Canada and the USA come together to address these questions together with RE experts. Marius Felderhof writes an Afterword summing up the challenges faced by such a re-visioning of RE.

Foundations of Education

Foundations of Education
Author: Matthew Bruce Etherington
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2014-06-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1630873047

Ideas about education have consequences. This book, edited by Matthew Etherington, provides readers with ideas and insights drawn from fifteen international scholars in Christian thought within the fields of philosophy, theology, and education. Each author responds to the philosophical, historical, and sociological challenges that confront their particular line of educational inquiry. The authors offer a view of Christian education that promotes truth, human dignity, peace, love, diversity, and justice. The book critically analyzes public discourse on education, including the wisdom, actions, recommendations, and controversies of Christian education in the twenty-first century. This timely book will appeal to those concerned with Christian perspectives on education, Aboriginality, gender, history, evangelism, secularism, constructivism, purpose, hope, school choice, and community.