Visions of Schooling: Conscience, Community, and Common Education

VISIONS OF SCHOOLING: CONSCIENCE, COMMUNITY, AND COMMON EDUCATION, by Rosemary C. Salomone, Yale University Press, 2000 (Book)

Posted: 14 Mar 2000 Last revised: 26 Jun 2023

Abstract

At no time in the past century have there been fiercer battles over public schools than the present. Parents and educational reformers are challenging not only the mission, content, and structure of mass compulsory schooling, but also its underlying premise--that the values promoted through public education are neutral and, therefore, acceptable to any reasonable person. In this book, Salomone uses parental dissent and the litigation that it has provoked as a catalyst and context for exploring the deepest recesses of that myth. She reveals how the current government monopoly over education privileges those of economic means while foreclosing others from meaningful voice in the education of their children.

Salomone uses as her main focus the claims made by religious conservatives whose unswerving faith, combined with their attack on the hegemony of certain social norms promoted in the curriculum, present the starkest of backdrops against which to explore the concept of education for democratic citizenship in a society that values both freedom of conscience and civic commitment. Through a detailed case study of continuing conflict over values and educational purposes in the Bedford, New York school district, she explores the legal and policy issues that arise when widely disparate world views stand in the way of political compromise on educational materials, techniques, and programs. Basing her argument in political liberalism, interwoven with strands of feminist jurisprudence, she reaffirms the interests of children in the debate over values and choice, suggests that most but not all religious views are compatible with democratic government, and recognizes religion as an important force in preserving civil society. Drawing a distinction between common schooling and common education, she advances a plan for "structured choice" that redefines, but does not sever, the relationship between education and the state and that respects diverse values and visions of schooling, while preserving the core commitments that bind Americans together as a nation.

Note: This is a description of the paper and not the actual abstract.

Suggested Citation

Salomone, Rosemary C., Visions of Schooling: Conscience, Community, and Common Education. VISIONS OF SCHOOLING: CONSCIENCE, COMMUNITY, AND COMMON EDUCATION, by Rosemary C. Salomone, Yale University Press, 2000 (Book), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=212810

Rosemary C. Salomone (Contact Author)

St. John's University - School of Law ( email )

8000 Utopia Parkway
Jamaica, NY 11439
United States
718-990-6622 (Phone)

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