During the second half of the twentieth century, faithful followers of non-Western religions immigrated into Western European countries. Their children were a challenge for the respective educational system in the host countries. In the Dutch context, the educational system consists of public and private schools in which religion is the most…

Debates about how moral education ought to be provided have engaged many of the best minds in education and stirred public controversies throughout U.S. history. The vast array of European peoples who settled the American colonies brought a commitment to moral education and a variety of approaches to the task. While French and Spanish settlers…

One cannot reflect on centuries of accumulated religious wisdom without experiencing a deepened sense of personal meaning and purpose--a phenomenon often marginalized in progressive education. Contemporary issues have religious dimensions. The four essays assembled in this special section consider religion's role in public education from different…

Lutherans maintain more schools than any other Protestant denomination. Together with other nonpublic schools in the Council for American Private Education, they foster relationships, gain support, and are involved in planning and carrying on education. (JMF)

Nineteenth-century common schools offered no course about religion or its role in American society. Moral education up through the mid-20th century embodied a kind of generalized Christianity. If universalized versions of the Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments prevail, educators should reconsider the merits of common-school philosophy. Contains…

The current attempts of religious and political conservatives to influence public education is placed in a wider historical context. The impact of religious groups and their ideas on the evolution of the public schools in America is traced from colonial times to the present. (PP)

Modern compulsory schooling ignores the spiritual component of human existence, to the detriment of individual and society. In American Protestant spirituality, everyone counts; a good life's requisites are spelled out: work as salvation, pain as path to self-knowledge, duty, compassion, acceptance of loss, preparation for death. But no teacher…

Analysis of data from the 1996 Religious Identity and Influence Survey found that certain conservative Protestant groups, especially Pentecostals and charismatics, perceived public schools as hostile to moral and spiritual values. This alienation was associated with the lower and middle classes, large families, rural residence, residential…