_________________________________________ / (religion) % Already the spirit of our \ | schooling is permeated with the feeling | | that every subject, every topic, every | | fact, every professed truth must be | | submitted to a certain publicity and | | impartiality. All proffered samples of | | learning must go to the same assay-room | | and be subjected to common tests. It is | | the essence of all dogmatic faiths to | | hold that any such "show-down" is | | sacrilegious and perverse. The | | characteristic of religion, from their | | point of view, is that it is | | intellectually secret, not public; | | peculiarly revealed, not generally | | known; authoritatively declared, not | | communicated and tested in ordinary | | ways...It is pertinent to point out | | that, as long as religion is conceived | | as it is now by the great majority of | | professed religionists, there is | | something self-contradictory in | | speaking of education in religion in | | the same sense in which we speak of | | education in topics where the method of | | free inquiry has made its way. The | | "religious" would be the last to be | | willing that either the history of the | | content of religion should be taught in | | this spirit; while those to whom the | | scientific standpoint is not merely a | | technical device, but is the embodiment | | of the integrity of mind, must protest | | against its being taught in any other | | spirit. | | | | -- John Dewey, "Democracy in the | \ Schools", 1908 / ----------------------------------------- \ ^__^ \ (oo)\_______ (__)\ )\/\ ||----w | || ||