DEWEY'S THEORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PUBLIC AND THE PUBLIC CHARACTER OF CHARTER SCHOOLS

In this essay, Leonard Waks reconsiders the issue of the public character of charter schools, that is, schools funded through public taxation but operated by non‐state organizations such as nonprofit and for‐profit educational corporations and nongovernmental public interest organizations. Using John Dewey's conception of a democratic public as a framework, Waks examines the following questions: (1) Are schools chartered and funded by government, but operated by nonprofit nongovernmental organizations, ever appropriate instruments of a democratic public? (2) If so, what criteria might distinguish those that are appropriate from those that are not? (3) How might public education be re‐institutionalized so as to include the charter schools that are appropriate? Waks concludes that Dewey's theory of democratic publics can play a useful role in thinking about how to balance the democratic benefits of charter schools for the various subcommunities of our society with the democratic requirement of broad public discourse and intergroup education.     

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF ONTARIO

What is happening to college students in terms of “the things that matter most,” the goals and purposes apart from which everything else they do loses its point? How are colleges and universities deliberately or indirectly influencing these “values”? These are crucial questions for American education on which some light is cast in the following articles.     

ACHIEVING PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Public schools are functionally provided through structural arrangements such as government funding, but public schools are achieved in substance, in part, through local governance. In this essay, Kathleen Knight Abowitz explains the bifocal nature of achieving public schools; that is, that schools are both subject to the unitary Public compact of constitutional principles as well as to the more local engagements with multiple publics. Knight Abowitz sketches this bifocal nature, exploring both the unitary ideal and its parameters, as well as the less understood forms of multiple, organic publics that come into being in response to localized problems in schools or districts. These publics often fail to realize their potential in the development of increased capacity for enhanced teaching and learning. The essay ultimately points to a practical application: that educational leadership of all types, and with some very specific kinds of habits and skills, is needed to help achieve public schools.     

TEACHING AGING IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: RESULTS OF AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

A survey of 500 public school teachers in Texas was conducted to determine the extent to which aging content is incorporated into curricula. Results show that very few teachers (3.6%) make specific provision for teaching about aging. Almost one‐half of the teachers who indicated they did not teach about aging stated they would include this area in their curricula if instructional materials were available. Most of the teachers (68%) indicated their willingness to participate in short‐term inservice training to better prepare themselves to teach about aging. From the results of this study it appears that educational gerontology has far to go in the direction of “gerontologizing” public schools at all levels. Yet the willingness of teachers to learn more about this important curriculum area is encouraging.     

TIME OF UNCERTAIN CONVERSATIONS: RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF THE POST-SOVIET LATVIA

This article describes the development of religious education within the system of public education in Latvia. It consists of three parts. The first part deals with the social context of a post-Soviet society and its impact on the development of religious education. The second part describes the four approaches to religious education in public schools that have emerged in Latvia during the last ten years: the confessional approach, the ecumenical Christian approach, the world religions approach, and the Christian ethics approach. The third part analyzes the problems and opportunities presented by the current stage of plurality of approaches.