Fanaticism and Schooling in the Democratic State

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11366372
AutoresDavid Blacker (0000-0003-0046-9776, autor de correspondencia)
Año1998
Volumen106
Número2
Páginas241-272
Fecha de publicación1998-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAmerican Journal of Education (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0195-6744 • E-ISSN: 1549-6511
EditorialUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/444182
OpenAlexW1992818024
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas19

The very idea of public schooling is currently under sustained challenge from an array of groups with sectarian social, political, religious, and cultural agendas. Some of these challenges come in the form of policy initiatives such as school vouchers, charter schools, "parents' rights" movements, and the rise of home schooling and other forms of nonpublic schooling. In the face of this momentum, the democratic state must continually find ways to balance individual parental and community rights against the public interest. But the state cannot bend over backward to meet every demand and, in particular, those of fanatics, whose agendas include commandeering educational institutions or opting out of "the system" altogether. By providing a conceptual framework for identifying and assessing fanaticism, and then by making the case that in a democracy fanatics should not be allowed to run schools of any kind, this article seeks to establish an outer boundary for what forms of school initiatives ought to be permissible. Among a range of examples included for discussion are the claims of certain fundamentalist parents and the racialist "Christian Identity" religion that undergirds much of the militia movement

Charter · Democracy · Economics · Fanaticism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Voucher · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Education Discipline and Inequality · Law · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Public Administration