"Learnfare" is a term applied to the mandating of school attendance for teen parents and/or school age dependent children in households receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) benefits as a condition of continued eligibility. This idea emanates from policymakers' concern about high truancy and dropout rates generally,…

As the secondary school has become an agent of mass education, it has been beset by complex problems, particularly in the identification of its educational role and its purposes as a social institution. Key features of the identity crisis in Australian secondary schools are described. (MLW)

British standards governing school attendance have been modified and strengthened by the 1993 legislation. The required education may be received outside the public school system, but alternative schools in the private sector remain subject to control or regulation. (77 footnotes) (MLF)

Free but compulsory state education systems may be untenable. Contradictions appear between education in newly democratized eastern Europe and in Britain, where the government advocates free market but centralizes control of curriculum and instruction. Other contradictions lie between state education as social control and consumer choice. (SK)

Discusses goals of teaching French as a foreign language as set forth in the "Recommended Statement of 16+ National Criteria for French" and compares them to the goals of Ontario's bilingual immersion program. Discusses the feasibility of accomplishing these goals within the framework of the compulsory education system in Great Britain.…

Analyzes Kennedy's speech before an ideologically hostile college audience and, particularly, his use of the question-and-answer session that followed the speech as a means of reinforcing his arguments and promulgating his value hierarchy. (PD)

The fundamental characteristics of private and public education--voluntarism and government control--are described and related to authority, consensus, and commitment in schools. The paper argues that public schools rely on legal/rational authority and private schools on value consensus and traditional authority. (AM)

Discusses court cases and proposed legislation dealing with such issues as school prayer and the right of parents to educate students at home for religious reasons. (JM)

The arguments for and against mandatory continuing education for professionals and critiques of these arguments are presented. A cybernetic model based on comparison of practice performance to standards of practice, educational remedies for weaknesses, and evaluation for relicensure or recertification is presented. (Author/MLW)

Anne Keeton's examination of Ontario's special education programs and needs is critiqued. (JMF)

Brigitte Kitchen's criticisms of the author's view of special education and its applications are refuted. (JMF)

Examines the legal reasoning behind the Yoder and Mozert court cases, which objected to mandatory secondary education and to a required reading series, respectively, discussing why one was granted and the other rejected; asserting that the two cases are essentially similar, turning on the notion of mere exposure as harm; and discussing how the…

Explores ways in which the body is incorporated into the professional identities of teachers of two low-status secondary school compulsory subjects. It is argued that there is an increasing tendency for lower status school subjects to become more "masculine" in orientation and that coeducation does a disservice to both girls and women…

In this article, the author comments on Professor White's response to his criticisms of White's attack on compulsory religious education (White, 2004). Religious education, the author contends, raises questions of fundamental importance and complexity that compulsion is necessary if people are to create anything resembling a religiously literate…

Discussion of compulsory school attendance in United States focuses on a national exodus from public schools into self-education or other alternative education by the 5 percent of the nation's children classified as gifted. Nurturing of the innovative mind and entrepreneurial daring by the public library movement is addressed. Six references are…