Religious Schools v. Children's Rights - Hardcover

Dwyer, James G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801434262 ISBN 13: 9780801434266

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 1998

Synopsis

Despair over the reported inadequacies of public education leads many people to consider religious schools as an alternative. James G. Dwyer demonstrates, however, that religious schooling is almost completely unregulated and that common pedagogical practices in fundamentalist Christian and Catholic schools may be damaging to children. He presents evidence of excessive restriction of children's basic liberties, stifling of intellectual development, the instilling of dogmatic and intolerant attitudes, as well as the infliction of psychological and emotional harms, including excessive guilt and repression and, especially among girls, diminished self-esteem.

Courts, legal and political theorists, and the public typically argue that families and religious communities are entitled to raise their children as they see fit and that the state must remain neutral on religious matters. Dwyer proposes an alternative framework for state policy regarding religious schooling and other child-rearing practices, urging that the focus always be on what is best, from a secular perspective, for the affected children. He argues that the children who attend religious schools have a right to adequate state regulation and oversight of their education. States are obligated to ensure that such schools do not engage in harmful practices and that they provide their students with the training necessary for pursuit of a broad range of careers and for full citizenship in a pluralistic, democratic society.

About this title

About the Author

James G. Dwyer is Professor of Law at the College of William and Mary. He is the author of Vouchers within Reason: A Child-Centered Approach to Education Reform, also from Cornell, and The Relationship Rights of Children.

Reviews

Take the premise that parochial and especially fundamentalist schools violate and negate opportunities for the whole education of those students they serve; add an overwhelming amount of documentation of the law, studies done, and written works; and reinforce with alarming descriptions of children deprived of the learning skills needed for critical thinking, leading to the "severe repression of their minds." Complement this with forceful arguments that individual state policy should regulate religious schooling to achieve "what children need and are entitled to receive." Such is Dwyer's accomplishment in this serious book, which should be read by anyone making educational decisions. Dwyer (Chicago-Kent Coll. of Law, Illinois Inst. of Technology) contrasts children's rights to a quality education with their right to religious schooling, claiming that the state has a compelling interest in stepping in where schools fail. As serious to the well-being of children as desegregation, Dwyer's ideas deserve to be read. Recommended for academic libraries.?Kay Bowes, Wilmington Inst. Lib., DE
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0801434262
• ISBN 13: 9780801434266
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 216