Value Assumptions in Education : (Religion and Education in America)

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In the beginning, we seem unaware of the value assumptions which lie behind the type of educational scheme we advocate. We simply accept the existing program as obvious for our situation. The assumptions a community shares in common allow it to think that the existing view of education is obvious. However, once we begin to question our educational system as we have been doing in America recently, this indicates that we have either given up the value assumptions behind our present plan or else they have been forgotten.
We become perplexed and at sea. We seem unaware that all educational programs rest on value assumptions. When these values change, or when we fail to reappraise our underlying educational aims from time to time, we feel an urge to throw the old system out. Often we do this without realizing what the original educational intent was. We argue and are uncertain until new value assumptions are accepted either consciously or unconsciously.
We have problems today about using or imposing discipline in our educational program, and also issues about what basic requirements we should impose, liberal arts vs. vocational courses, etc But let me briefly comment on only one value assumption in American education, a very fundamental one: the role of religion in relation to our educational goals. First, one characteristic about American education, which we often forget or take for granted, is its incredible diversity and plurality. One comes to realize how unique this diversity is to the United States when one travels abroad. Almost every country one can visit around the globe has a more centralized, more state controlled and financed, educational system than ours.