Chapter 1 -- School
Wars: Resolving our Conflicts over Religion and Values
The Current Conflict
This chapter begins by bringing to light the conflict between various religious leaders at the "right" and various liberal leaders at the "left".
A System in Gridlock
Challenges to materials and practices in the public schools have occurred for decades but the number of challenges in recent years has increased dramatically.
Critics believe that public schools are conveying a relativistic value system to children and an incorrect view of history and science.
Some of the opposition is said to have been generated by organizations such as Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition and American Center for Law and Justice, Citizens for Excellence in Education, and Mel and Norma Gabler's Educational Research Analysts.
Some groups opposing the views of these organizations are the National Educational Association, the Freedom the Read Foundation, the American Library Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the American Civil Liberties Union, People For the American Way, and the National Council of Teachers of English.
The perspective of the groups involved in public school battles often are diametrically opposed.
When polarization of diverse beliefs becomes extreme, public school institutions cease to function well as servants to the public.
Historical Perspectives
Books and curricular materials used in the United States have been challenged since the beginning of the common schools in the nineteenth century.
Social reformers argued that a strong, free public education system would help to provide a common ground for assimilating diverse peoples into American culture.
Humanitarianism spoke to the "infinite worthiness in man" which is the idea that each human being is part of the divine and is inherently good and perfectible.
Common schools were not free from all religious influence.
In the nineteenth century, public schools used the Bible in what was said to be a nonsectarian way; this lead to controversy.
The publication of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species in 1859 explains a turning point in the history of ideas and set forty the theory of evolutionary change.
John Dewey wrote several books detailing his philosophy of education emphasizing the evolving process of learning which should take place through living (active, practical, self-directed engagement of subject matter).
The increasingly diverse population that resulted from mass immigration greatly affected American culture.
The women's movement and the civil rights movement contributed to changing ideas about lifestyles and traditional concepts of the family.
Other changes occurred during the 1960s:
| Federal funds were made available to schools to finance change and innovation. |
| Educators began emphasizing thinking and decision-making skills rather than simply teaching facts. |
| School sponsored prayer and Bible reading were declared unconstitutional and a state statute barring the teaching of evolution was struck down. |
The history of public education is filled with conflict over what children should learn and how they should be taught.
Grady, B., Hall, T. & Marzano, R. (1996). School Wars: Resolving our Conflicts over Religion and Values. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.