Reviews modern and postmodern conceptions of the child and associated educational practices. The modern conception conflated the universal biological child with the individual psychological child. Although this dual conceptualization of child nature was probably necessary to the establishment of free public education, it often hinders effective…

Postmodern social changes, ways these changes have contributed to the assumption of additional child-rearing functions by schools, and the modeling role of Catholic and other religious schools are discussed. Controversies in secular and religious schools arise from the transition from modern to postmodern values, not from parents'/schools' bad…