But the tensions created by pluralism are not limited to schools. They
extend throughout society. And the movement toward "going our separate
ways" isn't limited to schools, it extends to many other public programs
(see, e.g. charitable choice). In theory, it could apply to almost the
entire public sector.
Moreover, while we avoid confronting our differences by separating
ourselves, we also lose the opportunity to appreciate all the things that
we have in common and the values that we do share, and the experience of
learning how to work out our differences at the local level of the
neighborhood school.
During his recent visit to a Synagogue in Germany, Pope Benedict XVI
condemned religious bigotry and spoke of the need to get to know each other
much better. How do we do that if we increasingly fragment society along
religious lines?
As to Mike McConnell's comment, most of what I learned that is important to
me, I learned outside of school. That's true for my children as well. What
children learn when important things are not taught in school is that not
everything that is important "in the real world of intellectual inquiry,"
and the rest of the real world as well, is taught in school. Why is that a
problem?
Alan Brownstein
UC Davis
At 07:49 AM 8/22/2005 -0700, you wrote:
You know, I think the bottom line is our society is too pluralistic for a
one-size-fits-all curriculum at the government school monopoly.
I empathize with Sandy when he expresses concern about students being
taught ID (and teachers being required to teach ID) in the public schools.
Many others feel the same way about sex ed, gay pride week, and
evolutio-as-fact in the government schools.
I still think Mike McConnell said it best when he said: "A secular school
does not necessarily produce atheists, but it produces young adults who
inevitably think of religion as extraneous to the real world of
intellectual inquiry, if they think of religion at all." The public
schools are designed to inculcate and assimilate and mold impressionable
children--many believers simply don't like the mold designed (or did it
evolve) by those who control the public school curriculum.
So many of the issues that cause deep friction among us concern who gets
to control what our children are taught in the public schools. I wish we
could agree to disagree, and go our separate ways to schools of our own
choosing.
From my perspective, one of the advantages of teaching ID in the public
schools is that it would allow liberal secularists to appreciate the
value of opt-outs (parental excusals from objectionable curriculum), of
academic freedom for teachers (as Sandy put it, of teachers required to
teach things they disdain), and school choice (being allowed to exit
without penalty).
Cheers, Rick Duncan
University of Nebraska College of Law
Lincoln, NE 68583-0902
"When the Round Table is broken every man must follow either Galahad or
Mordred: middle things are gone." C.S.Lewis, Grand Miracle
"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or
numbered." --The Prisoner
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