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.     

MUSIC IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL∗

One task facing adult religious education is to become more intentional in understanding homosexuality and homosexual persons, to the end that these persons might find religious groups to be more open and accepting and that religious persons of good will might become more articulate allies of homosexual persons in the larger society. The paper proposes a curricular design built upon Maria Harris's model for “fashioning a people.” The proposal is intended to be a framework by which professional religious educators are enabled to evaluate existing resources and to plan curricular strategies in light of their own theological understandings.

     

THE CO‐OPERATIVE SCHOOL OF RELIGION IN PRACTICE

A report of a conference of leaders, both men and women, in the fields of secular education, religious education, community and social work, and business and professional life. In the group are Protestant, Catholic, Jew and those having less formal attachment to organized religion—the Ethical Culturist, the New Thought adherent, the pure humanist and the scoffer at man‐made schemes for personal and social salvation.     

THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF CHURCH LEADERSHIP IN THE FIELD OF EDUCATION FROM THE SUNDAY‐SCHOOL VIEWPOINT

Dorothy Day's love of the poor originated from reading novels that portrayed the poor as persons worthy of respect. This article explores how Day's reading novels opened her mind and heart to the realities of poverty. The methodology is literature-based. Dorothy Day's autobiography reveals the novelists who captivated her mind and cultivated a religious heart: Charles Dickens, Upton Sinclair, Jack London, and the Russian authors Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy. As a journalist and writer, Day described how the poor struggled to survive and how love is needed to counter the challenges that poverty presents. Finally, two novels by authors favored by Day will serve as examples for educating young adults religiously and encouraging love for the poor.     

THE SPECIAL CHURCH‐SCHOOL BUILDING

The purpose of this column is to keep religious educators abreast of 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 section describes a group of findings which have been reported in PSYCHOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS together with titles of these works so that those who wish may go to the original source

This column is written as a service to religious educators by the Union College Character Research Project. All abstracts are used with permission of the periodical, PSYCHOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS. The abstract numbers are Volume 36. Number 2, April 1962     

THE IMAGE OF TECHNICIAN OCCUPATIONS AMONG SCHOOL‐LEAVERS

Two groups of secondary schoolboys of below average academic ability were studied. The control group received traditional English teaching; the experimental group had experience of SRA Reading Laboratory 2a included in their English lessons. After nine weeks, no differences were shown in the reading performance of the two groups. Caution is advocated in the interpretation of this result.     

MISSISSIPPI INTEGRATION‐A BREAK WITH THE PAST

On November 21, 1988, the University of Massachusetts held a convocation for its School of Education to celebrate its new dean, Marilyn Haring‐Hidore. David C. Berliner delivered the keynote address, “The Transformation of the Teaching Profession,” based on this article, originally published with the above title in 1987 as Chapter One in Talks to Teachers: A Festschrift for N.L. Gage, which Berliner co‐edited with Barak V. Rosenshine; this is the book to seek out if you want to follow up references in the text such as “Chapter 2” or “Chapter 4.” The original article is being reprinted with the permission of both David Berliner and McGraw‐Hill; the latter purchased the rights to the book from Random House about the time that Berliner was concluding his address.