Education and Liberal Religion

William Ellery Channing who first defined Unitarianism in America
writes of education.

Educators he suggests should stir up the minds of the young
their task is not to make them see with the teachers eyes, but to look inquiringly and steadily with their own
and there goal is not to give them a definite amount of knowledge,
but to inspire a fervent love of truth,
so that the young would not be conformed to outward regularities
but rather be in touch with their own "inward springs"
of inspiration and knowledge.

Education for Channing was a ministry,
a work that freed people from their bondage to ignorance,
a work that liberated people for creative endeavors,
and formed their independence for leadership and initiative

Education for religious liberals
has been integral to our vision of the good life,
and the good society in every generation
and this is because we have believed that education is the means
to awaken the soul, and to excite and enhance the life of the spirit.

In the 19th century tens of thousands of religious liberals were involved
in founding schools in their own towns
working to mobilize their fellow citizens to establish schools
in the cities

supporting the legislation that made schooling mandatory at the state level.

raising money to establish colleges and Universities,

Many young people from Unitarian and Universalist churches
volunteered to go South the teach in the schools
for the newly freed African American slaves

Religious liberals have and continue hold
the ideal of universal education close to their hearts
and central to their religious and ethical convictions.

We must admit that some of the passion
that religious liberals have shown for education
is a birth right,
our spiritual ancestors cherished education,
and we build on their example
and on their thinking.
The Unitarian and Universalist congregations
of the early nineteenth century
were a development of liberalizing Puritanism.

The Puritans were also committed to education,
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts required that each
town erect a school house,
and support a teacher.

They founded Harvard College and Yale College soon after settling,
relative to other countries during the seventeen century
colonial New England was a literate society---

There were short comings relative to our idea of universal education,
fees were charged at the town school,
the town subsidized the teacher,
but the teacher needed the tuitions of his charges,

There was a parallel set of schools in some towns
called Dame Schools,
schools run by women for the education of girls
whose parents paid fees for their daughters education,
a girl who could read was more likely to marry well,
so Puritan families of modest means would sacrifice
to assure their daughters schooling,

but there would be no college open to female students until the 1830s

The Puritans supported education
and established schools
and the Unitarians and Universalists
who descended from Puritans did as well.

the Puritan rationale for supporting schools was different
from their more liberal great great grandchildren.

The Puritans saw ignorance as a fertile ground for Satan to do his mischief,
and hoped to see the children drilled in piety and scripture
so that they would submit to a transcendent and fearsome God.

The Unitarians and Universalists saw ignorance as a disabling condition,
and hoped to see the young liberated to think for themselves
and make independent decisions in a free and democratic society.

The Puritans founded and subsidized schools
but expected tuitions
it was a fee for service educational system,
and they saw the fees as a burden to be taken up
by responsible families and aspiring youth.

Theodore Parker Grandfather had led the militia that faced the red coats
on Lexington Green.
His father was a soldier in the continental army
a select man for the town's government.
Upright citizens, a farming family. But still.......
Theodore Parker's family was too poor to pay the fees for their bright son
to go to the Lexington town school.

Parker worked at ten years old as a hired hand to earn tuition,
his father sold livestock to help his son get the schooling
he valued so much.

Parker was too poor for Harvard College, so he skipped it,
worked for a few years as a teacher, saved his earnings
which payed his tuition at the Divinity School.

When Parker became an adult he and thousands of other religious liberals
worked to create a free and universal public education system.

An ideal of the public school arose in the nineteenth century
from the deeply held religious beliefs of Unitarians and Universalists.

It continued in some ways the Puritan commitment to education,
but with an entirely new rationale,

the Unitarians and the Universalists
worked for an educated and empowered community
and these efforts were based on
a liberal theology of humanity and society.

Let us look some of the foundation ideas of religious liberalism
it is my intent to show that a commitment to education follows
directly from this religious commitment and world view.

First, Unitarians and Universalists have believed in
the inherent potential of each individual

We have expressed that idea differently at different junctures of our history.

Jefferson wrote that each individual was born
with certain inalienable rights.

Channing wrote that there was a divine spark in each and every individual,
and we were called by God to help give that spark expression,
to let it burst into flame,
to realize our inner divinity.

and to extend support to each other in that process.

Ballou wrote God loves each of us and we show our love for God
by loving our neighbors and ourselves
realizing our potential, what we are called to be.

Contemporary Unitarian Universalists talk about the worth
and dignity of each individual.

If we assert that human beings have potential
as an article of our faith
and that we must support its realization,

it follows for many Unitarians and Universalists
that the way to realize this potential is education.

Education means to realize potential,
it comes from the Latin meaning to draw out
drawing out that potential that is inside us already,
but not realized, not yet part of our lives.

Thus in Channings words,
education is about taping into our inner springs,
rather than conforming to an outward conformity.

So education has been seen by religious liberals
as linked to their ideal of human potential.

Second, the religious liberals have believed in the goal
of a renewed and just society.

Channing would call the Kingdom of God on earth.
looking at the biblical call for a world of peace, equality and justice.

This vision of a just society was and is a religious vision
for Unitarians and Universalists.

If every citizen of the new United States was participate in the society
every citizen must be educated.

So in the 19th century
the push for free and accessible public schools was linked
to the religious vision of the kind of community
they were called to build.

For many Unitarian Universalist today,
there concern for public education continues
to be linked to their commitment
to building a just and democratic world.

Third,
Religious liberals believed that people became whole
by developing themselves

Orthodox Christianity argues that people become whole
by going to heaven,

by turning themselves over to God,
and submitting to God's revelations,
we would live forever as spirits in God's heaven.

While most Universalists and many Unitarians believed
that souls do indeed go to heaven.
are united with God in eternity.
It was by realizing one's potential on this earth that was led to God.
not obedience to doctrines, not submission to mystery,
rather being of good character.

Religious liberal theology has put its emphasis on salvation in this world,
Channing called salvation by character.

To be honest, courageous, caring, and justice seeking,
to be a peace maker was a question of setting those qualities as a goal,
and seeking to be that kind of person.

The Unitarians and Universalist took character seriously
it was not an instantaneous conversion
it took discipline, and reflection,
and the ability to care for oneself by improving oneself.

Education was of course self improvement,
and helped people develop the ability to reflect.

to be educated requires work, focus and discipline.

So for religious liberals salvation by character
and a life span of self education and reflection
were all interrelated and tied up together.

If we reflect on the theology of education that I have developed,
education is aimed at the development of the individual's power
to be a self actualizing person

and a good citizen,

And schools have been the means toward this end.
Religious liberals have hoped that by improving the schools,
we might improve education.

But we need to step back.

Is it possible that there is another vision
of what the schools should accomplish
that is contradictory to the ideal of education.

Is it possible that schools might function very well,
and contribute little to really educating young people?

I think so. Let me explain.

As we have seen the Puritans were supporters of schools,
but their idea of the goal of schooling
was congruent
with their Orthodox and Elitist theology.

As Calvinists they believed that God
had chosen a few people for salvation
and that the rest of the people needed to be controlled
or they would commit mayhem and mischief
due to their depravity.

Thus we see one idea of the schools,
a means of instilling people with respect for authority
a means of teaching self control to Satan's children.

And when the economy of the new country began to expand,
we experience a new demand put on the schools
the employers wanted workers with skills,
so the schools are institutions to teach people skills
that will be useful to their employers
and
coincidentally useful to themselves...
We have all heard the notion that if a child gets stays in school,
they will earn more than some one who drops out,
so the schools as places that prepare one for the labor market
is another view of the what the schools must accomplish.

Later still the United States experienced a large immigration
of non English speaking immigrants,

earlier through missionaries and mission schools
the English, Spanish and French had forced the Native Americans
to give up their own languages and cultures
and tried to assimilate the indigenous peoples
into mainstream society

During the last half of the nineteenth
and during most of the twentieth century
this assimilation function became assigned to the schools.
Teach them English, Make them American.
America the Melting Pot
in which the stock was always Anglo Saxon.

So we see four competing views of what the schools need to accomplish.
First.
Teach control to the unruly, teach discipline to the undisciplined.

Second.
Turn the students into skilled workers with competencies
that can be measured by standardized measuring devices

Third,
Assimilate diverse cultures into a mainstream culture,
so that individuals can participate in a mass society

And Forth, that education stuff. you remember

free the mind for independent thought,
nourish individual talent

unleash inner springs of creativity
become self actualizing.

teach responsible citizenship so that people are able
to participate in making the decisions that affect their lives.

Four competing agendas,
four competing demands.

And each of these visions of what the schools are supposed to accomplish
have their own methods of instructing students.
and each tell the teachers to do somethings,
that are in contraction to what
the other visions tell the teachers to do.

If the teacher is going to be about education
that teacher is going to encourage writing creative essays and poetry,
teaching art, and teaching students problem solving,
pondering ideas and their meaning.

If a teacher is about getting students ready to be cogs in the work force,
to submit to work for some employer,
and to speak English and know how to be like every one else,

then the teacher will emphasize standardized testing,
full of multiple choice questions
and imagination free writing sample tests,

If we want to teach submission and fear of authorities
then we will build big schools which lack any sense of community
except for that which is organized by the administration
and we will line our youth up in lines
and move them from place to place with bells
policed with hall monitors.

If we want to assimilate people from other cultures into our culture
we will not teach them about their ancestors history
and we write all our text books to tell the story
as if everyone came on the same boat
with the same Bible and read the same books at home.

We will teach sameness.

What we want from our schools can be controversial!

Not every politician who says that he or she is for education
necessarily knows what education is all about,

or they wouldn't support some of the things that they do.

Now there are good arguments for these four agendas for our schools,
and to a degree our schools do a little of all four,
although with the latest fad of standardized testing
education is an endangered enterprise in the schools.

But let me state unequivocally
I believe if we emphasized education

and de-emphasized control, job training, and assimilation
it would be better both the individuals young people involved
and the future of our country as a whole.

Now to say that is to invite those who want to practical
to point out that so many young people appear to be out of control,
that we do need a skilled workforce
and we assimilated workers can fit into the economy better
than unassimilated workers.

And I grant those protestations,
that is why I said emphasize education
and de-emphasize the others.
I didn't say eliminate the control, job training, and assimilation.

I was a college teacher.
Most college teachers will agree with what I am about to say,
the ability to college level work
requires being able to think, and take initiative,
to be creative and to question authority.

And does any one doubt that the economy of the United States
in the future is going to create more and more jobs
requiring just those attributes,
that we need more people who will think outside the box,
more people who can work with others in creative team,

and too much obedience training, test taking,
and assimilation into sameness

makes it harder to be creative, and self actualizing,
to participate as an equal in solving problems.

Education is not simply a luxury,
it is a necessity.
It will make minds of the kind that Channing wrote about
in our responsive reading.

Education enables minds that do not bend to outward circumstances
that protects itself against the usurpation's of institutions

The product of a liberal education will question authority,
college teachers delight in students that question college teachers.
but they will also question preachers who misuse their gospel,
politicians who abuse their trust,
and social arrangements that do not enhance the ideals of democracy

I can understand the fear and trembling that
re-introducing eduction into the public schools
will cause among those who need
to control and value conformity,

but our country need many more citizens equipped to freedom,
and less equipped for passivity and conformity

our economy needs many more scientists and enterprenuers
who can think for themselves
when the answer isn't a, b, or c,
because it will be non of the above.

Our liberal religious attachment for education
for equal access, and responsible exercise of freedom
our religious commitment to enabling human potential
are not passé

There time is coming for all of the alternatives
have shown themselves to limit the human spirit
and restrict the individual potential.