Contrasting rhetorics of the two Holmes Group reports are examples of the polar types of educational rhetoric that have characterized the literature on educational reform in the United States. In "Tomorrow's Teachers," the argument for educational reform rests on technical grounds; the position is that of the educational expert and the…

A compilation of diverse lesson plans, project ideas, and resources for teaching the United States Constitution to junior high and senior high school students is presented. The document contains seven sections: (1) Teaching the Constitution: An Interdisciplinary Approach; (2) A Sampling of New Books on the Constitution; (3) Films and Videotapes;…

Positive Action, an American curriculum intended to facilitate teachers' use of positive affective and democratic elements in educational practices, was used in two Moscow schools over a 1.5 year period. A review of problems associated with the "deindividualization" of past Soviet educational practices points out the need for programs…

Education for citizenship in a constitutional democracy has been a long-standing goal of schools in the United States. To achieve this goal, students must learn their civil rights and responsibilities in a free society. This ERIC Digest discusses: (1) the importance of teaching about the responsibilities of citizenship; (2) deficiencies in…

United States President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev have strongly emphasized in several speeches that their ultimate goal is peace between their respective nations. However, this apparent shared goal has not come about, largely because they lack a common understanding of the meaning of peace. Both have stated that they wish…

The Civic Achievement Award Program (CAAP) was established by the U.S. Congress in response to national concerns about the need to increase civic literacy among the nation's young people. The program was designed to provide elementary and middle school educators with interdisciplinary materials that focus on providing a base of civic competence,…

Evaluation affects the people who participate and the situation studied, and there is no guarantee that the effects will be democratic, constructive, or equitable. A case study illustrates that even the most scrupulous attention to ethical principles and procedures for the release of information cannot always protect the interests of participants…

At Orchards Elementary School (Idaho), curriculum inquiry is focusing on the nature of a democratic school. As democracy is more of a process than a specific content, the Orchards faculty have concentrated more on changes in methods of delivering curriculum than on changing specific items of curriculum. Questions of worth and value have all…

Religious services and programs have been a feature of U.S. broadcasting since regularly-scheduled radio began in the 1920s. With the emergence of television, broadcast religion is more pervasive than ever before. It has also become the focus of debate over its role in United States politics. Televangelism is best regarded as a dialogue between…

This volume is part of a series of monographs from Australia devoted to outlining an alternative approach, based on neo-Marxist concepts, to educational administration. The introductory essay in the volume is an argument for the democratization of education by establishing a case for changing schools: by discussing industrial democracy as a…

This study sets out to examine fundamental aspects of citizenship education in Swedish schools, based on the theory that, in a democracy with a system of compulsory public education, curricula are the products of political compromise, accommodating the aims of several different groups. From this perspective, the school as an ideological state…

There is a need for a common educational core to satisfy the requirements for reproducing a democratic society. Although historically the common schools were couched in the rhetoric of a common educational experience, democratic localism tended to undermine the commonality through a large number of antidemocratic practices. However, recent decades…

Present day right wing attacks on schools and the back to basics movement are in many ways similar to the criticisms made during the McCarthy era of 1949-54, neither movement offering any novel solutions to educational or social problems. Allen A. Zoll and the National Council on American Education provided much rhetoric on constitutional rights…

AN HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE WALDORF SCHOOL PLAN TRACES THE MOVEMENT FROM ITS FOUNDING IN STUTTGART, GERMANY IN 1919, BY THE WALDORF ASTORIA COMPANY AND UNDER THE DIRECTION OF RUDOLF STEINER, TO ITS INTRODUCTION INTO SWITZERLAND, OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES, THE AMERICAS, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, AND SOUTH AFRICA, A TOTAL OF 175 SCHOOLS AS OF 1963. THE…