This document, a handbook for teaching peace education, is for use as part of a carefully planned strategy to achieve both the substantive and normative goals of peace education. Objectives include knowledge of the causes of violence and injustice and the possibilities of transcending them and attitudes favoring the behavioral and structural…

The growing movement for teaching about religion in the public schools, as distinguished from religious instruction or devotional exercises, reflects widespread concern regarding the phenomenon of religious illiteracy and the lack of knowledge or understanding of the significant role played by religion in U.S. life, past and present, and in world…

This curriculum is designed to assist Catholic school teachers and parish catechists in their efforts to foster a pro-life attitude in students in grades 7 and 8. Following an introduction is the curriculum which features six lessons. These are: (1) Unique in all the world; (2) The first nine months of human life; (3) The hard facts about…

A random telephone survey of 562 residents of the Pacific Northwest was designed and conducted to determine public sentiment toward the teaching of values within the public schools. The respondents were asked either the open-ended question of whether it was appropriate to teach values within the public school curriculum, or one of two…

This paper provides an overview and critique of a team taught, senior level, interdisciplinary college course entitled "AIDS: Challenges and Crises." The details of the course and its underlying rationale are outlined. The paper concludes with a curriculum proposal rooted in the idea of critical education for citizenship. Those who teach political…

Since the publication of Samuel Shem's "House of God," medical students and residents have been famous for their cynical conversations about patients and life on the wards. This image is largely a caricature, yet peer pressure, medical machismo, stressful working conditions, and house staff subculture do foster negative attitudes and…

In this speech, the author describes what has been learned through years of experience teaching an introductory course in environmental issues at the University of California at Berkeley. The course is described as a broad interdisciplinary survey of the various environmental problems facing the earth; it is an examination of local and global…

Americans traditionally have looked to the public schools to play a role in transmitting society's values to students, and on various occasions the U.S. Supreme Court has emphasized the role of the nation's schools in inculcating basic values. For many years Maine has had a statute mandating the teaching of virtue and morality and another that…

Intended to help teachers avoid the problems of privacy posed by asking students to keep journals or personal notebooks, this starter sheet outlines some of the assumptions behind journal assignments and suggests guidelines for assigning journals. The first section presents a list of assumptions about the connections between thought and language…

This document contains two sets of lessons designed to teach elementary and secondary students about apartheid in South Africa. The goals of the lessons are: (1) to create a greater awareness of recent events related to the practice of apartheid by the South African government; (2) to provide a greater understanding of the effects of apartheid on…

Based on the premise that knowledge of evolutionary theory is essential for understanding the natural world, this document was designed to assist science teachers and others as they consider the issues that influence the teaching of evolution. The position is taken that there is no conflict between data and sound theories based on science and…

Focusing on the rationales and materials for teaching social issues in the English classroom, this thematic issue contains the following articles: "Introduction: Reflections of Society in Literature" (M. B. Fleming); "Addressing Social and/or Controversial Issues in the English Classroom" (S. Totten); "The Growing Threat to Quality Education: How…

This examination of the treatment given to peace and security issues in American social studies textbooks begins by summarizing the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Curriculum Guidelines and a 1983 study of high school social studies topic priorities. Following a review of past textbook studies and a brief discussion of textbook…

Background, rationale, and promising practices for teaching about science-related social issues in the science and social studies classroom are presented. Material is divided into five sections, each introduced with a topical question. The first section considers the challenges associated with the pervasive influences of science and technology in…

This study is a history of the societal-problems approach in social studies education as revealed in secondary school social studies textbooks used in Problems of Democracy courses from 1895 to 1985. The central thesis is that the definition of the problems approach and the problems selected for study by educators as illustrated by the textbooks…