This descriptive study examined Ananda School (Nevada City, California) grades K-7, or as it is now called, Living Wisdom School (LWS). The specific goal was to examine the model of spiritual development embodied in the LWS program, its interpersonal dynamics, and its curriculum. The study sought to understand how the school operates within the…

Social service programs for children and families have often distanced themselves from issues of religion and spirituality. However, in recent years, children's services and family therapy have gradually moved toward stronger emphases on ecosystemic influences, including those from organized religions. The overlapping and interacting roles of…

Explains the educational movements precipitated by Maria Montessori and Rudolf Steiner as comprising a pattern of reverse symmetries. Notes the influence of war on their philosophies. Discusses reverse symmetries in curriculum related to mathematics, geography, and history. Maintains that each of these two movements holds the other at its core,…

Outdoor education can foster spirituality through its ability to instill a sense of awe and wonder. Outdoor education should play a role in the spiritual development of young children, but in view of the United Kingdom's requirement that schools promote spiritual development, teachers need guidance in practical ways of involving and evaluating it…

Participants at a British workshop on outdoor education and spiritual development concluded that outdoor programs provide special opportunities for developing spiritual awareness; maximizing relevance to everyday life is essential; and facilitators need good group-work skills. Participants also discussed contemplation versus excitement in outdoor…

Describes a study of Catholic school administrators to determine practices related to staff development and decision making and the importance of spirituality. Indicates that respondents' Catholic identity was at the core of their educational strategies, with faculty's faith development emphasized along with academic development. (MAB)

Professional interest in spirituality and religion is growing. In light of this growth, the ethical standards designed to guide social workers' conduct in the area of religion have never been more important. This article explores perceptions of compliance with the profession's ethical standards that address religion among a sample of graduate…

Adolescents are objects of recruitment for religious cults. Identifying new religious movements, cults, and dissenting religious groups, understanding their practices, and discovering reasons for their attractiveness to some students are helpful to the school counselor. Suggestions are offered as to how to identify which cults are destructive, and…

In this article, the author features the Gesu School, a small, inner-city, K-8 Catholic school in Philadelphia. She describes how it has transformed itself since 1993 from a school barely eking out an existence to one with a $5 million--and growing--endowment fund and a powerful, ecumenical board of business executives and other lay people. The…

Spirituality is difficult to define, but two paradigmatic approaches to worldviews can help provide the basis for two groups of definitions.

The spiritual identity of the academy is historically based, and changes in that identity pose special problems for the search for truth in contemporary times.

What is faith development? Can it be assessed? Which environments and experiences are most conducive to growth in faith? These are a few of the questions that the Faithful Change research project attempts to address. (Contains 1 table.)

The authors describe the design of and student reaction to a counseling and spirituality course offered to full-time resident counselor education students at the University of Virginia, a secular university. The course was offered as a blended Internet-based and seminar course. The Internet components were the result of student feedback from…

The mass-casualty school shooting incidents in recent years have heightened concern about the safety of U.S. schools and prompted responses that, in many cases, have centered mainly on bolstering security on school campuses. Some researchers have concluded, however, that the most effective prevention efforts are those that are more comprehensive…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to evaluate the relationship between emotional eating and spiritual well-being. It was found that among college women lower levels of spiritual well-being correlated with higher levels of emotional eating (r = -0.22, p = 0.0015). In other studies emotional eating has been found to contribute to higher…