In the case of "Pico v. Island Trees Union Free School District," involving school library censorship by a Long Island (New York) board, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1982 failed to decide whether board discretion or First Amendment rights should prevail, and instead remanded the case to lower courts. The author of this document first…

A 20-year study to monitor moral developmental stages is summarized with a focus on the invariant sequence and internal consistency of each stage. It is theorized that an individual passes through several stages in attaining moral judgment. As children grow older, they are able to integrate diverse points of view on a moral conflict. Each stage…

This paper proposes that schools resume their historic role in cultivating basic moral values in their students, based on what is defined as our national ethos: (1) a belief in the worth and perfectability of human life; (2) a belief in democracy; (3) faith in reason and the orderly solution of conflict; (4) respect for knowledge and commitment to…

Available evidence does not support the notion that aging is associated with increasingly conservative social and political attitudes, or the idea that attitudinal rigidity is the norm among older cohorts. To examine whether aging is associated with attitudinal rigidity, nine surveys from the National Opinion Research Center were analyzed to…

This issue of "The Community College Humanities Review" contains a series of articles, reviews, and reports addressing various issues related to values education and other areas of the humanities. The issue contains: "The Study of History and the Question of Human Values," by Abraham Ascher; "A Moral Imperative for Teaching Values in a Literature…

Trends in students' religious activities and attitudes between 1973 and 1983 were studied at the University of Maryland, College Park. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 270 incoming freshmen in 1973 and to 389 freshmen in 1983. Findings suggest a continuation of the trend of decreasing religious orthodoxy among students, with both…

The third annual study of censorship incidents in public schools revealed that during the 1984-85 school year, censors took aim at an array of courses, textbooks, teaching methods and materials, as well as a wide assortment of books, plays, and films. More than 42% of the challenges that were directed at instructional materials resulted in removal…

Discusses the theoretical and practical importance of the interaction between children and their environment. Discussions of moral dilemmas in children's literature provide a rich source of interaction that could help children clarify the basis for moral development of higher levels of moral reasoning. (Author/SDH)

Alice Miller, the former psychoanalyst, has gained world renown for her controversial and provocative writings on child rearing. Miller contends that traditional child rearing practices--in schools, ecclesiastical settings, and the family--consist of physical and emotional cruelty that she labels "poisonous pedagogy." According to…

This paper explores the need to examine value systems in composition courses concerned with persuasive writing. Values are defined as beliefs used to evaluate or structure experience. When concepts and facts are related to daily life, as they are in persuasive writing, they either reinforce values already formed or necessitate a change in values.…

This paper traces the development of parent education in America from 1700 to the present. Discussed are the emphasis, scope and organizational patterns of delivery during five periods: 1700-1850, 1850-1900, 1900-1930, 1930-1955, and 1955-present. From 1700 to 1850 information to parents generally reflected Calvinist-Evangelical philosophy. The…

This paper examines the place of morals and values in the early school in the North West Territories (1885-1905), and in Alberta and Saskatchewan (1905-1945). The purpose is to determine whether values and morals have always been a part of the goals and/or curricula of the Canadian public schools. Department of education annual reports, curriculum…

The involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with both United States and foreign news media has been recorded in numerous publications. This report reviews the important aspects of the CIA-press relationships as they have appeared in print and discusses the implications of these relationsihps for the credibility of the press. Media…