This article offers an analysis of the dimensions of consensus on education using Diane Ravitch's statement: "The single biggest problem in American education is that no one agrees on why they educate." The interesting problem is to determine which consensus on educational issues varies, whose consensus it is, and how and why it varies. The author…

The disestablishment clause of the U.S. Constitution has led educators in the United States to establish guidelines about addressing religion in the classroom. As a basic rule, districts have allowed teaching about religion without encouraging or supporting a particular religion. This article suggests that patriotism and patriotic expressions are,…

Historians often identify Horace Mann and other middle-class reformers of the mid-nineteenth century as the catalysts of the Common School Movement, the forerunner of today's public school systems. Despite education historians' focus on Mann and his ilk as the original advocates of common schooling, the notion of free universal public education…

This article describes an action-research project in which the author sought to enact her philosophy of democratic education. A brief discussion of this philosophy along with its pitfalls and promises is followed by details of the author's attempt to co-construct a graduate education course with her students. The article concludes with reflections…

What David J. Ferrero has called "the Hundred Year's War between "progressives" and "traditionalists"" continues unabated in the twenty-first century. Undoubtedly, current initiatives in public education favor those who support traditional approaches, yet many critics believe inflexible state tests are restricting teachers' flexibility in…

This article provides an overview of constructivism and its implications for classroom practices. To that end, it first describes the basic features of constructivism along with its major forms or variations. It then elucidates the constructivist view of knowledge, learning, teaching, and the relationship among these constructs. More specifically,…

Wonderful schools do not simply have to be imagined. Phenomenal examples of education going right for children exist in the United States. These schools are serving all populations of children and families. What becomes clear, even with schools that appear quite different from one another, is that common themes emerge across effective schools and…

Based on public opinion, public schools have never made the kind of dramatic, positive impact on the lives of the poor that it originally intended. In order to assess whether public schools are effective or not, the author attempts to answer several questions. These questions include: (1) Is school a sorting mechanism?; (2) Is public education a…

The conflict between the followers of Jacques Maritain and the followers of John Dewey seems to amount to this: each group accuses the other of promoting education for tyranny. Pragmatism, for the Deweyans, frees human beings from the idea of a fixed human nature to pursue freely their ever-evolving ideas of happiness or fulfillment. According to…

Jacques Maritain and John Dewey were two of the towering figures in philosophy of education. Maritain led an international revival of Aristotelian and Thomist philosophies known as Integral Humanism. Dewey, a founding figure of Pragmatism, exercised a significant influence on American education. Originating in very different philosophical…

"What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the Academy and the Church?" According to third-century Christian apologist Tertullian, not much. From precisely the opposite perspective, the twentieth-century "secular humanist" John Dewey would have echoed Tertullian, although he was as greatly indebted to Christian…

There is a growing momentum in academia for liberal arts departments to become involved with schools of education in the preparation of teachers and efforts to improve schools. A major difficulty comes from the stereotypical view that each group has of the other. For example, liberal arts professors accuse education faculty of ignoring content…

An ethic of caring assumes that all children have the right to education that affirms their identity while preparing them for life. Bilingual education can be the bridge between schools' socializing role and the formation of cultural identity for language minority students. (SK)

The Francis Parker School in San Diego, California has a long history of unstructured service learning. The school's focus is on the whole student and the principle of individual responsibility. (SK)

Reflective activities are critical components of service learning because they connect service with course content. Methods include journals, experiential-research papers, ethical case studies, directed readings, and electronic dialogs. (SK)