Religion and Education

Abstract

Sunday schools, vacation church schools, summer camps and conferences, released time, and church-related elementary and secondary day schools are the principal programs for religious instruction in the United States today. A trend toward more nonpublic schools on the elementary and secondary levels can be observed. An opposite trend can be observed in higher education. Organized attempts are being made to co-ordinate efforts in religious education made in the home and by mass communications media with the efforts of the churches and the major faiths. In a broad sense, no institution which permits or encourages the discussion of ultimate values is without a religious aspect. The public schools, therefore, are brought within the pale of the discussion of religion and education. An intelligent appraisal of the needs of the United States for religious education, narrowly or broadly understood, requires answers to questions which have not yet been researched.