Private education in the United States has endured pressure from all sides. However, religious schooling has not only survived but is growing and thriving. The paper examines the impact of private education on trends such as quality, decentralization, and consumer choice, and outlines four private school issues that remain unresolved. (SM)

Argues against the limited definition of spiritual education as strictly concerned with the mystical and transcendental. Maintains that a broader application of spiritual education can and should be offered. Asserts that this application needs to be developed in terms of curricular objectives and assessment. (MJP)

Criticizes the assumption that citizenship education is the defining mission of social studies. Cogently analyzes the defects of this argument, including a lack of related scholarship, inconsistent application from the schools, and little evidence of positive benefits. Proposes a curriculumwide integration of citizenship education. (MJP)

Offers four themes in the scaffolding of a critical education that advance grassroots activism in learning communities of praxis (scale, ownership, connection, and enterprise). Presents an example of a youth development project that affirms democracy via shared decision making, group motivation, self-esteem, and agenda setting opportunities…

This article explores the issue of ethical impact of conversation in the classroom, arguing that the experience of critical inquiry conducted through classroom dialog can cultivate precisely those ethical characteristics required of participants in the public life of a deliberative democracy. (SM)

Criticizes the traditional approach to childhood social studies curriculum, "Me, My Family, My Community," as being superficial and inadequate. Maintains that a rapidly changing world will demand students with highly developed thinking and social skills. Includes guidelines for an optimal social learning environment for early childhood.…

Dominant social, economic, and political philosophies manifested in the recent debate over the University of Costa Rica general studies curriculum reforms are discussed. It is concluded that the debate is really about the university's role in an environment that values privatization, individual (contrasted with social) benefits of higher…

Describes recent developments and resources in the rapidly growing field of human rights education. Explains the importance of teaching this subject with a global perspective. Includes a human rights lesson plan, student exercises, and a list of selected resources. (MJP)

Administered an anonymous questionnaire to pregnant adolescents living at a residential facility in a southwestern city while they were in the process of deciding whether to keep their infant or place it for adoption. Found that contextual variables influenced the choice of placing for adoption, including family background and interaction…

Elected president of Iran in 1997, Khatami promised to bring about political reform, freedom, and religious democracy. He charged schools with creating moral, politicized, and empowered individuals with a strong Iranian-Islamic identity, but capable of relating to the West. While reflecting some of Khatami's goals and values, schools continue to…

This study explored judgments and reasoning of Chinese 13- to 18-year-olds regarding making decisions involving children in peer, family, and school contexts. Findings indicated that judgments and reasoning about decision-making varied by social context and by the decision under consideration. Evaluations of procedures became more differentiated…

Suggests that education leaders are currently faced with changing bases of social cohesion, changing instruments of economic control, and changing forms of organization. Democratic leaders are seen as those that enable the formulation of social, learning, and culturally responsive public educational institutions. (Contains 2 notes and 49…

Questions Lawrence Kohlberg's complexity hypothesis that individuals exhibit higher stages of moral judgement in complex socio-political surroundings. Tests the moral judgements of adolescent students from The Netherlands and the former German Democratic Republic. Results of the tests failed to support Kohlberg's hypothesis. (MJP)

Discusses several issues related to a modern approach in the interpretation of civil freedom and its relationship to the notion of family. First, presents some definitions and distinctions regarding the sociology of political freedom, which it suggests should become the sociology of citizenship. Then, applies those ideas to families, particularly…

Asserts that all of the major principles of political democracy are embedded in the tenets of multicultural education. Multicultural education facilitates the translation of principles of democratic living into practice for a society populated by people from many different ethnic, racial, cultural, and social backgrounds. (MJP)