God's Schools: Choice and Compromise in American Society / Edition 1

by Melinda Bollar Wagner

Overview

Many of us assume that Christian day schools foster a strict and conservative environment that is very different from the rest of the United States. Christian educators themselves foster this view when they say that following biblical strictures requires that they not always conform to this world. Melinda Wagner goes beyond this stereotype to portray the way these schools foster American popular culture and "professional education culture" as well as "Christian culture." In her participant observation study of a variety of Christian schools (sponsored by fundamentalist, evangelical, new charismatic, Holiness, and Pentecostal Christians), Wagner describes and interprets how such compromises are made.

In American culture, children are taught to meet challenges, to compete, and are rewarded for individual achievement. Conservative Christians label this individualism as "secular humanism," and find it antithetical to their view of the self. Instead, these Christians seek a culture of love, compassion, orderliness, non-competitiveness, and separation from the material trappings of this world.

But in reality, Wager finds that the schools mix Christian values with the values of American culture. She discovers that even in Christian schools students compete fiercely and are recognized for individual achievements. Christian schools incorporate norms and strategies from mainstream American education. Alternative Christian schools are not as alternative as they could be; they are walking the Christian walk the American way.

The Christian schools serve as a case study of the process of culture building. Conservative Christians are trying to revitalize their culture. Yet all along the way, they quite consciously compromise.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813516073
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	12/01/1990
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Melinda Bollar Wagner is a professor of anthropology at Radford University. 

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables
Preface
1 Introduction
2 Christian Schools in Southeastern Valley
3 Through Classroom Windows
4 Christian Culture: The Christian Walk
5 Ideological Boundaries: The Christian Sense of Self
6 Being Christocentric
7 Walking the Christian Walk the American Way: The Fruits of Sprit versus Competition
8 Walking the Christian Walk the American Way: Separation versus Worldliness
9 Education Culture in the Christian Classroom: Snoopy and Scripture, Phonics and Prayer
10 Making Decisions: The Revitalization Process at Work
11 Discerning God's Will
12 Conclusion: Choice and Compromise
Appendix: Methods
Notes
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

A major contribution to the growing literature on fundamentalism and American life. 

University of California-Santa Barbara - Wade Clark Roof