This collection of essays, is based on lectures given by Jorgen Smit, the Leader of the Pedagogical Section of the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum, Switzerland, between 1984-1988. Smit was concerned as much with the inner schooling of the teacher as with teacher training. The essays address the inner path of the human becoming who…

The power of education is in its potential transformative effects on individuals. Many writers suggest that the prime task of the teachers is to awaken joy and wonderment through creative expression and in the quest for understanding. If education is to be a liberating experience then its central concern must be on the holistic nature of teachers…

This volume presents materials related to a symposium that addressed adult faith development. Chapters 1 and 2 provide background information on this topic and an overview of the symposium. Chapter 3 contains the hypotheses paper by Charles Bruning and Kenneth Stokes that was the basic document of the symposium. It provides a review of the…

This narrative details the responses of children and adults to a story about young children welcoming a boy with severe disabilities into their own story telling and re-enactment. Linking the act of story telling to the practice of the Hasidim, who would teach people to think about goodness by telling stories about holy men performing good works,…

Strategies that foster the religious and spiritual identities of campers include instilling a sense of purpose in the camp community, setting and implementing goals for transmitting values, providing feedback, using role models, planning activities that incorporate values into camp, and fostering acceptance of the individual. Describes steps to…

Challenges Montessori educators to assess how effectively a Montessori education achieves its spiritual goals in the formation of character. Maintains that the prepared environment may not be enough, given the assault of commercialism on the growing minds of children, especially in the form of advertising. (Author)

Spiritual development in religiously involved lay women was studied. Differences were found between those who had or had not experienced sexual abuse in childhood, suggesting that the sexually abused may turn to their faith and spirituality for support. Additional findings and implications for spiritual development and counseling are discussed.…

Increasing violence and suicide among adolescent boys is attributed to a lack of security in our fast-changing society and a lack of direction and value for young men. Rites of passage constructively channel the undirected energies of youth to initiate a purposeful and responsive adulthood. Nine British programs are described, and recommendations…

Presents early findings of an ongoing project to learn preschool and kindergarten children's understanding and expression of spirituality. Categorizes children's responses and discusses them in the context of theories that spirituality may be an innate feature of human consciousness. (JPB)

How do people define spirituality and religion and what, if any, relationship do they see between the 2 constructs? In this study, we answer these questions using a qualitative methodology with a nationally representative sample of graduate-level social work students affiliated with the National Association of Social Workers (N=303). A relatively…

This qualitative study examines the ways in which African American women use religion/spirituality to cope and to construct meaning in times of adversity. Content analysis of the narratives of a sample of African American women respondents (n = 23) revealed a set of eight nonoverlapping themes that explicate religiosity/spirituality's role in…

The author examines the discourses and practices of two Black women educators regarding the spiritual education of their daughters. Their daughters attended an independent African-centered community school in a large Midwestern city. Semi-structured interviews were conducted as part of a larger ethnographic study exploring the education of Black…

Johann Paul Friedrich Richter (1763-1825) adopted the pen-name "Jean Paul" in honour of Jean Jaques Rousseau. His "Levana or the doctrine of education" ("Levana oder Erziehlehre") was once a standard text and required reading in teacher education. Outside Germany the name of Jean Paul is now little known and the…

In spite of the fact that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights grants parents the right to an education in conformity with their own religious convictions, this paper argues that parents should have no such rights. It also tries to demonstrate that religious and cultural minorities have no rights to establish faith schools and that it is a…

This paper, the first of two parts, reports the claims of a participatory qualitative research project that explores the inner self-awareness and self-presentation of adolescent girls based on excerpts from their own adolescent writings. The participants selected material from their own diaries and poetry written between 1969-1999 (ages 11-17)…