"Morality for the "Democracy of God
George Albert Coe and the Liberal Protestant Critique of American Character Education, 1917-1940
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4848682 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David P Setran (0000-0001-8274-7711, Wheaton College - Illinois, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 107-144 |
| Publication date | 2005-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religion and American Culture A Journal of Interpretation (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1052-1151 • E-ISSN: 1533-8568 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1525/rac.2005.15.1.107 |
| OpenAlex | W2067252630 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 19 |
In the years between World War I and World War II in the United States, public and religious educators engaged in an extended struggle to define the appropriate nature of character education for American youth. Within a post-war culture agonizing over the sanctions of moral living in the wake of mass violence and vanishing certitudes, a group of conservative educators sought to shore up traditional values through the construction of morality codes defining the characteristics of the "good American." At the same time, a group of liberal progressive educators set forth a vigorous critique of these popular character education programs. This article analyzes the nature of this liberal critique by looking at one leading liberal spokesperson, George Albert Coe. Coe taught at Union Theological Seminary and Teachers College, Columbia University, and used his platform in these institutions to forge a model of character education derived from the combined influences of liberal Protestantism and Deweyan progressive education. Coe posited a two-pronged vision for American moral education rooted in the need for both procedural democracy (collaborative moral decision making) and a democratic social order. Utilizing this vision of the "democracy of God," Coe demonstrated the inadequacies of code-based models, pointing in particular to the anachronism of traditional virtues in a world of social interdependence, the misguided individualism of the virtues, and the indoctrinatory nature of conservative programs. He proposed that youth be allowed to participate in moral experimentation, adopting ideals through scientific testing rather than unthinking allegiance to authoritative commands. Expanding the meaning of morality to include social as well as personal righteousness, he also made character education a vehicle of social justice. In the end, I contend that Coe's democratic model of character education, because of its scientific epistemological hegemony and devaluing of tradition, actually failed to promote a truly democratic character
Democracy · Democratic ideals · Individualism · Liberalism · Morality · Political science · Politics · Protestantism · Sociology · Academic Freedom and Politics · American Constitutional Law and Politics · American History and Culture · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies
The transformation of the school
Pillars of the republic
Reconstruction in philosophy.
The Modernist Impulse in American Protestantism
Shifting the National Mind‐Set
A Social Theory of Religious Education
From Morality to Character
Education in the United States
The State and the Non-Public School, 1825-1925
The Damned and the Beautiful
Call School
Public Schools and Moral Education
Culture as History
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,27 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2024 (14) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |