ATTITUDE OF THE JEWS TOWARD WEEK‐DAY RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION

The purpose of this column is to keep religious educators abreast of the relevant significant research in the general field of psychology. Its implications for methods and materials in religious education are clear. Religious educators may well take advantage of every new finding in scientific research.

Each abstract or group is preceded by an evaluation and interpretive comment, which aims to guide the reader in understanding the research reported.

All of these abstracts are from PSYCHOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS and used by permission of that periodical. The abstract number is Volume 30, Number 5, October 1956.     

THE RELATION OF WEEK‐DAY RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION TO THE SUNDAY SCHOOL

This article seeks to demonstrate that in the burgeoning spiritual memoir literature of those leaving Ultra-Orthodoxy, scant attention is paid to the negative impact of schooling, yet it may be a significant contributing factor to the decision to leave traditional practice and community. Differing educational expectations for girls and boys—an amplified focus on modesty for females and scholarship for males—can become constricting and, ultimately, oppressive. Highlighting these inequities in other similar parochial systems or traditional but more progressive schools may shed light on how specific messaging may work counter to desired educational outcomes.     

CORRELATION OF PUBLIC SCHOOL AND WEEK‐DAY RELIGIOUS SCHOOL CURRICULA

This is helpful information, based on research into what is happening to religion in the schools     

EXAMINATIONS IN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION‐STATISTICS AND INFERENCES

Many aspects of multiracial education were investigated in a national survey of teachers’ opinions. This first part of a two‐part article reports on those items which covered necessary or desirable changes in the curriculum and other aspects of school life. These include topics such as religious education and assemblies, dress and diet, mother‐tongue teaching, English as a foreign language, racial bias in books, cultural adaptation and adjustment, special language needs of West Indian pupils, and deployment of immigrant teachers and non‐teaching staff.

A total of 510 teachers (171 primary and 339 secondary) from 25 schools responded to the questionnaire. In these schools the overall proportions of pupils of minority ethnic groups ranged from 18 to 84 per cent. Pupils of Asian, Cypriot, Italian and Afro‐Caribbean origin were represented in varying proportions.     

SEX‐INSTRUCTION AS A PHASE OF SOCIAL EDUCATION

Do teachers of religion use history in such a way as to challenge the imagination, stir the emotions, and encourage reflection? The author thinks not, but points to ways in which this may be done.