Learning about Religion, Learning from Religion: A Guide to Religion in the Curriculum and Moral Life of Public Schools with Recommendations for Textbook Publishers, School Boards and Educators.

American Textbook Council, 475 Riverside Drive, Room 448, New York, NY 10115 ($10). Tel: 212-870-2760; e-mail: [email protected].

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John Templeton Foundation, Radnor, PA.

Administrators; Practitioners; Teachers

Christianity; Cultural Education; Curriculum Development; Elementary Secondary Education; Ethical Instruction; Judaism; Moral Issues; Public Schools; Religion Studies; Student Needs; Textbook Content

This guide completes a 6-year American Textbook Council project on religion in the schools. An inquiry into textbook content expanded into this exposition on religion, curriculum, and character education. The guide explores the sources of moral instruction in an era when spirituality comes in many forms, and cracks in public culture are apparent. Public schools, like other agencies of culture, have lost the conviction that the universe, nature, existence, and human lives are guided by the "Divine," and the moral force of the curriculum is rarely considered. The guide first poses the problem of what public schools should say and do regarding religion. The importance of religion in schools and trends in textbooks are discussed. Appendixes list basic texts, as well as subjects and themes in U.S. and world history. (Contains 21 endnotes.) (BT)

2002

ED461584