This paper uses the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the case of "West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette" to illustrate the impact of changes in Western Culture world views of reality on educational and legal philosophy. The report argues that Western culture has replaced vertical assumptions, with its conception of individuals who function in a collective reality which "transcends" the natural order of things, with horizontal Greco-Roman naturalism, which posits that the natural order of things "includes" individual reality. The Court's horizontal assumptions were applied in the 1943 case of "West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette" which deferred to individual decision-making against infringements made by institutions. The report concludes by favoring the retention of both vertical and hoirzontal assumptions in educational decision-making and teaching on the basis that these assumptions best preserve individual liberties, collective institutions, and thus democratic forms of government. (JAM)