Between Church and State: Religion and Public Education in a Multicultural America [Hardcover]

Prof. James W. Fraser (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 30, 1999

The relationship of religion and public education is, once again, a burning issue, with renewed debates about school prayer, ways to teach the Bible, and the relationship of religion and science. Though too few people know about it, battles over the proper relationship of religion to public education have gone on in the United States for as long as there have been public schools. At the most basic level, the debates about the relationship are debates about the nature of democratic culture. Who defines the dominant culture of the nation? How are minority rights and traditions protected? How are the deepest, and sometimes most diverse, issues of faith reconciled with the very public and common nature of schooling? How, after all, do we find a way for the school to be the public square where respectful and informed conversation can happen around beliefs which are both deeply held and radically different from individual to individual and sub-group to sub-group? Between Church and State explores these issues in terms of historical context, contemporary public policy debates, and practical steps for educators and other concerned citizens.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Between Church and State clarifies the historical context of some of America's most controversial educational issues, including classroom prayer, school vouchers, creationism and evolution, sex education, and the teaching of values. James W. Fraser rejects both the liberal idea that "the Christian right is engaged in a campaign to impose God on public schools whose purposes have always been secular" and the conservative idea that, when the Supreme Court banned prayer and Bible reading in the classroom in the '60s, "God was kicked out of the public schools." Countering these high-pitched recriminations, Fraser carefully examines the way that public education in early America "was pressed into service as a new kind of national church, commissioned to carry the common culture and morality of the nation" after the Constitution definitively separated church and state. He describes the fierce debates that arose when public education was called upon to honor the worldviews of Catholic immigrants, freed African Americans, and other ethnic and cultural groups who won battles over their right to respect and inclusion in the nation's common life. And he begins to answer the central question raised by his book--"How should a diverse and democratic society deal with issues of religion in public schools?"--in two important ways. First, his sobering survey of the controversies that have reigned since the earliest days of public education clears the air of "nostalgia for a simpler past that never was." Second, he asserts that "if the United States is to survive and thrive in the twenty-first century, the nation's schools must be places for embracing and building tolerance and a love of diversity." Multiculturalism is more than a buzzword for Fraser; it's a historical and contemporary fact. His book brings it alive--and awakens thoughtful empathy in the reader, the political consequences of which can only be good. --Michael Joseph Gross

From Publishers Weekly

In a book that works better as history than as commentary (but attempts both), Fraser, a professor of history and education at Northeastern University, addresses the thorny relationship between religion and education in America. From Puritan times until recently, he demonstrates, Americans invited God into the classroom. But the terms of that invitation were never clear. Each colony organized its public schools around its own predominant faith, so nationhood brought a dilemma: Whose religion should be taught? The prominent Massachusetts educator Horace Mann offered a solution: use the Bible to inculcate a generic Unitarian faith. But this alienated other Protestants, not to mention freethinkers and Catholics. Later in the 19th century, the influx of Jews, Eastern European Catholics, African-Americans and Native Americans into public education made Mann's faith in a one-size-fits-all religiosity hopelessly na?ve. Fraser goes to great lengths to show that even the simplest religious exercise, such as a start-of-the-schoolday prayer, could be unavoidably problematic for many faiths represented in America's classrooms. But while he acknowledges the "potential for cultural tyranny" by groups such as the Christian Coalition, he argues against the current style of purely secular public education and in favor of a "multicultural" approach in which all faiths would have a "place at the table." Fraser offers no specifics about the substance of such an approach, however. Nor does he explain how to avoid the divisiveness that nearly derailed religion-based public education in a less culturally diverse time, two centuries ago. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 252 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1ST edition (July 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031221636X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312216368
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,753,579 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Easing Toward A Middle Ground, March 28, 2000

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19YCopy5 (CPR/MECKeag) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Between Church and State: Religion and Public Education in a Multicultural America (Hardcover)

James W. Fraser, now Dean of the School of Education at Northeastern University in Boston, details for the reader a fascinating history of the issue of church and state in public education in the United States, all the way back to our country's origins, and how the issue has come to be polarized with those who want absolutely no influence of religion whatsoever in both education and the public square at one end of the spectrum and those who would seemingly like to see Christianity, conservative Christianity with all its secular and nationalistic aspects, as the dominating, or only religious influence, at the other end.

Fraser makes the case for a middle ground, the allowing of religious expression through its students, regardless of their individual religion, and an equal respect for all by all participants. Respect for all would be expected from the educators as well.

The history of the issue will come as much of a surprise to those at either end of the spectrum as the resulting simplicity and validity of the suggested solution.

Since Fraser as a clergyman or former clergyman probably stands to the Liberal end of the theological spectrum, and thus would be historically placed at one end of the argument, and your reviewer as a clergyman stands to the so-called evangelical right, or other end, I would like to heartily reccomend both his book and his conclusions.

The book deserves wide reading by those on both sides of the issue. Especially those with the loudest rhetoric. Then maybe we can find the middle ground Fraser suggests, and with the respect that all deserve.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sensible, detached, incomplete, August 18, 2003

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Avid Reader (Franklin, Tn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Between Church and State: Religion and Public Education in a Multicultural America (Hardcover)

This book offers a good historical overview of the relationship between church and state and in particular, public education and religion. The author emphasizes themes both modern and ancient. On the modern side, there is diversity - a concept in danger of becoming a societal demand rather than a cultural expression. There is also the issue of sensitivity to other believers (or non-believers), again an idea that has gone to its illogical conclusion of universal neutral expressions concerning religious issues.

The author rightly speaks for the role of religious ideas in a liberal education. The most powerful arguments for introducing children to religion and its role in society are traditional: (1) An education is incomplete without a knowledge of the historical importance of religion. Indeed, one might rightly be as viewed culturally illiterate without such learning. (2) An understanding of different religious faiths does more to promote acceptance and diversity than any federal mandate possibly can.

It is nothing less than cultural suicide to forbid teaching of the incredible importance of religion in art, music, literature and government. What kind of educational establishment denies to students a study of the major historical and literary influences of that culture? The biggest illusion is that we can ignore our cultural roots without long-term societal peril. It is as if one taught an art course and omitted perspective or trained a surgeon without knowledge of the circulatory system.

It is no surprise that societies that once included religious knowledge as part of the curriculum - Western Europe, the United States and Australia exhibit the greatest religious tolerance. Not coincidentally, Latin America, the Muslim "Arc", India and Africa (Mandated Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism and tribal beliefs respectively) are the most intolerant regions on Earth. There is a short distance from ignorance to prejudice to hatred and we ignore the warning signs at our own peril.

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Resource!, March 4, 2006

By 

John Martin "J_Foster_Books" (Oklahoma City, OK United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Between Church and State: Religion and Public Education in a Multicultural America (Paperback)

Fraser has done a thoughtful job of researching and writing this excellent text on the history of religion and education in America. The whole "church and state" debate is not all the media cracks it up to be, and here Fraser looks simply at the historical facts: a great read for any educator, home-schooler or anyone interested in "church and state" issues in our nation's history.