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Visions of Schooling: Conscience, Community, and Common Educationreviewed by Terence A. Beck - 2003 ![]() Author(s): Rosemary C. Salomone Publisher: Yale University Press, New Haven ISBN: 0300081197, Pages: 352, Year: 2000 Search for book at Amazon.com Rosemary C. Salomone is a law school professor who has moved from advocating church-state separation and believing that vouchers would skim off the most "successful students and involved parents from the public schools" (p. xi) to a belief that parental choice is the best way to stop what she sees as the unraveling of the social fabric. She writes from a position of privilege. Her change in views came primarily from watching her Caribbean nanny and other working class families deal with the New York City public schools and from her own process of finding the best possible (private) school for her son. Salomone begins building her case with two chapters of history
followed by three chapters of legal precedent. She then moves
to directly considering political philosophy before examining the
realities of accommodating dissent within the current system and
the benefits of parental choice. In her discussion of history, Salomone traces the influences of
republicanism, Protestantism, and progressivism on the formation
and development of public schools. She makes the case that
public schools are non-neutral places that indoctrinate by
"normaliz[ing] a dominant ideological perspective" (p. 38).
Salomone then introduces historical conceptions of childhood and
parenting. She walks the reader through the theories of
Locke, Rousseau, and Mill, "organized child saving" (p. 47) from
the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s, and the United Nations Declaration
of the Rights of the Child. Salomone introduces Martha
Minnow's notion of the relational rights of children, asserting
that children have rights to autonomy, connection, and
protection. Enter the Supreme Court. Salomone examines major court
cases regarding the question of parental, student, and state
interests in education and the place of religion in schooling for
democracy. Using legal precedent, Salomone establishes the
rights of students to educational opportunity, the rights of
parents to direct that education, and the right of the state to
compel attendance and make reasonable regulations for all schools
and curriculum. She gives a thorough hearing to the
claims of conservative advocacy groups, examining the generally
tepid responses such claims have received from the courts.
She considers the Court's recognition of religion's unique place
under our constitution, pointing out that schools cannot coerce
expression (e.g. saluting the flag), but acknowledging that "mere
exposure" to offensive materials does "not place a burden on the
free exercise of… religious beliefs" (p. 124).
Salomone completes this section with a case study of a
controversy in the community of Bedford that began over the game of
Magic, illustrating the impact of values-based conflict on
schools and communities. Throughout these three particularly
cogent and cohesive chapters, Salomone creates a picture of a Court
hesitant to interfere in the management of schools but dedicated to
parental authority in directing the education of their children,
provided such education is not "inimical to the public
welfare." She further suggests that children have the right
"to be educated in values that are not inimical to those of the
family, provided those values are not contrary to democratic
citizenship" (p. 99). Through political philosophy Salomone addresses questions of
what she means by democratic citizenship education, educational
authority, and core (and therefore non-negotiable) values in a
democratic education. To Salomone, democratic education
"instills in students those political beliefs and values that are
the bedrock of a liberal democratic state" (p. 198). She
takes issue with Gutmann's (1999) assertion that "political
education is a mechanism for leading children to appreciate and
evaluate ways of life that are contrary to those of their family"
(p. 199), preferring to trust parents to act in the best interests
of their children, with the state policing only the
extremes. She concludes this section with an examination of what is
entailed in accommodating those who dissent from non-core values in
common schools and a discussion of how a system of common education
might be accomplished apart from common schools. Salomone
argues that accommodation is an unhappy and unwieldy compromise for
families and administrators, denying students a cohesive education
that works in harmony with the values of the family.
Salomone's answer is a system of choice that includes
government-regulated sectarian schools, giving maximum authority to
parents without sacrificing the legitimate interests of the
state. A system of vouchers that pays full tuition or
maintains a graduated scale would allow families to select a school
that affirms and reinforces their own values and would give to the
poor the choices currently available to affluent
Americans. Visions of Schooling is well researched and despite the
use of right-wing terms like "government monopoly," the author
generally avoids the "ideological and inflammatory rhetoric" (p. 9)
that so often surrounds discussions of the future of schooling in
the United States. Particularly strong is Salomone's
discussion of several values-based court cases. While
especially beneficial to educational practitioners and theorists,
this book might be appropriately required of pre-service
administrators and teachers. Still, the work is not without
problems to which readers should attend. I note two here.
First, throughout the text Salomone maintains that we must
examine the specifics of solutions, not simply abstract notions of
how they are supposed to work. Thus, she challenges common
schools based on what they actually do rather than relying on the
theory behind the status quo. This is a viable standard that
is not generally applied to Salomone's own solution.
In fairness, the voucher plan Salomone advocates has not been tried
and thus we cannot know the specifics. However, it is
disingenuous to assert that the untried is superior simply because
we cannot see the devil in the details. For example, it is
one thing to speak abstractly of government regulation to make sure
that schools receiving vouchers are not acting in ways inimical to
the public welfare. It is another thing entirely to monitor
such schools effectively. Can a school dedicated to
the unquestioned authority of scripture nurture the kinds of
critical thinking and notions of equality a liberal democracy
demands? Salomone's notion of policing this extreme may invite
perceived and actual discrimination toward certain religious and
cultural communities. Second, in her desire to provide students with communities that
support their families' values, Salomone fails to appreciate fully
that coherence between the school and the home is necessary but
insufficient for democratic education. As Robert Putnam
(2000) has pointed out, democratic citizens not only require such
"bonding" groups but also participation in groups that bridge
differences. In "bridging" groups students expose their
primary moral language to the examination of those who do not share
it. Clearly, Salomone is not blind to this need.
However, her emphasis on supporting the values of the home leaves
it no real place. Salomone recognizes that her solution is not perfect. She
concludes by stating that the issue concerns "what imperfections
society is willing to accept and what tradeoffs it is inclined to
make in promoting divergent interests" (p. 266). Visions
of Schooling is a significant work for anyone willing to
consider seriously these important questions. References
Gutmann, A. (1999). Democratic education. (2nd ed.).
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: the collapse and revival
of American community. New York: Simon &
Schuster.
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