SPIRITUAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

Abstract

Bearing the losses and inconveniences of our time as best we may, it is the part of men to labor persistently and patiently for the clarification and development of the positive creed of life implicit in democracy and in science, and to work for the transformation of all practical instrumentalities of education till they are in harmony with these ideas. Till these ends are further along than we can honestly claim them to be at present, it is better that our schools should do nothing than that they should do the wrong things. It is better for them to confine themselves to their obviously urgent tasks than that they should, under the name of spiritual culture, form habits of mind which are at war with the habits of mind congruous with democracy and with science. It is not laziness nor cynicism which calls for the laissez‐faire policy; it is honesty, courage, sobriety, and faith. (Dewey 1977,168)

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Susan Laird

Susan Laird is Associate Professor in Educational Leadership, Policy Studies and Women's Studies at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma.