Whose Kids Are They Anyway?

Whose Kids Are They Anyway?
Author: Raymond R. Roberts
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 157
Release: 2010-11-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1608995852

Raymond R. Roberts makes a liberal's case for teaching religion and morality in public schools by first examining the intersection of religion and public education. He shows how proposals for moral education in public schools are shaped by definitions of religion. He argues that the public education's critics overstate the failures of public education because they examine public schools in isolation from negative trends in the family, the economy, the media, etc. From there he describes how a theory of spheres of influence gives us a better perspective from which to understand public education, including its relationship with religion.

Opposing Censorship in Public Schools

Opposing Censorship in Public Schools
Author: June Edwards
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 176
Release: 1997-12-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1135686165

In the past several years, hundreds of challenges a year to books used in public schools have been reported across the nation. Most of these have come from the Religious Right. This book confronts the attacks on public education and commonly used literature books by challenging the religious assumptions, the biblical interpretations, and the intimidation tactics of the Religious Right. Part I counters the claims of these censors by presenting opposing views on democracy, secular humanism, religion, the Bible, morality, and the purposes of literature. In Part II, six books frequently taught in high school classes are analyzed. Edwards shows why they have been challenged by the Religious Right, and presents a case for their moral and religious virtues as well as their literary worth. The book differs from other anti-censorship works because it deals primarily and directly with the religious and moral aspects that educators often tend to avoid. This book offers teachers and school administrators scholarly conterarguments that can help confront with literature challenges from the Religious Right.

Religion and American Education

Religion and American Education
Author: Warren A. Nord
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 502
Release: 2014-07-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1469617455

Warren Nord's thoughtful book tackles an issue of great importance in contemporary America: the role of religion in our public schools and universities. According to Nord, public opinion has been excessively polarized by those religious conservatives who would restore religious purposes and practices to public education and by those secular liberals for whom religion is irrelevant to everything in the curriculum. While he maintains that public schools and universities must not promote religion, he also argues that there are powerful philosophical, political, moral, and constitutional reasons for requiring students to study religion. Indeed, only if religion is included in the curriculum will students receive a truly liberal education, one that takes seriously a variety of ways of understanding the human experience. Intended for a broad audience, Nord's comprehensive study encompasses American history, constitutional law, educational theory and practice, theology, philosophy, and ethics. It also discusses a number of current, controversial issues, including multiculturalism, moral education, creationism, academic freedom, and the voucher and school choice movements.

Grappling with the Good

Grappling with the Good
Author: Robert Kunzman
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2012-02-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0791482057

2007 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Weaving together history, philosophy, and curriculum, Grappling with the Good offers a vision of public education in which students learn to engage respectfully with the diversity of beliefs about how to live together in society. Robert Kunzman argues that we can and should help students learn how to talk about religion and morality, and bring together our differing visions of life. He describes how such an approach might work in the K–12 setting, explores central philosophical principles, and shares his ongoing experiences and insights in helping students to "grapple with the good."

Moral and Spiritual Values in Education

Moral and Spiritual Values in Education
Author: William Clayton Bower
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2014-07-15
Genre: Education
ISBN: 081316219X

This book deals with the multiple problem of education in the public schools as it relates to moral and spiritual values. The author cuts a wide swath through the tangled underbrush of church and state, religion and education, sacred and secular, spiritual and materialistic, "body and soul," and lets in a lot of light. To these problems the author brings a lifetime of courageous reflection and experience. To them he also brings, as case studies, the actual experiences of actual children and teachers in actual classrooms in Kentucky, where an experimental program of education in moral and spiritual values has been in process for the past several years.