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Schools Feel Chill of Education Regulations

Western New York, as one of the few areas in the U.S. with a magnet school system (in Buffalo), is likely to become a battleground for the new Department of Education rule that prohibits spending federal funds to teach "secular humanism" in magnet schools (see Editorials, p. 4). The rule will not be finalized until April 1985, but residents of Western New York have already had a taste of what its impact may be.

In the fall of 1984, area critics of public education and secular humanism combined forces to attack the Effective Parenting Information for Children program, known as EPIC. They have already succeeded in pressuring one school district to drop the program and are trying to get others to follow suit.

The assault shocked the administrators of the innovative and acclaimed program; Director Sandra Rifkin said that when EPIC was first charged with spreading secular humanism she had to consult a dictionary to find out what the term meant. Now she knows all too well how some view it; she has come under such fire that she refused to even discuss the controversy with FREE INQUIRY for fear of giving her opponents more ammunition.

EPIC was founded in 1977 by Robert L. Wilson, a Western New Yorker whose wife of thirty-nine years had been murdered during a burglary at their home. Her assail-

ant was a fifteen-year-old boy. Mr. Wilson checked into his background in an attempt to make some sense of his wife's death and found a troubled teenager who had spent his life in eleven holding centers and foster homes.

Social service agencies had dealt with the boy but failed to prevent the tragedy. Wilson saw a need for a program that would detect and help such individuals before they became a real danger to themselves and society. EPIC was the result. Public schools in the area adopted EPIC readily since it satisfied New York State Education Depart-ment requirements that students understand and accept the values of justice, honesty, self-discipline, due process, equality, and majority rule with respect for minority rights. The regents say that students must also understand and respect people of different races, cultural heritage, and religious and social backgrounds.

EPIC was structured to unite the com-munity, home, and school in guiding chil-dren in developing positive attitudes about themselves and strong senses of character and responsibility. Its goals were to prevent child abuse and neglect, teenage pregnancy, and alcohol and drug abuse. EPIC was installed in about fifty schools in Western New York, and officials from school systems around the country were calling to find out how to start one in their area.

To a group calling itself "Concerned Parents and Taxpayers of W.N.Y.," EPIC's activities smacked of secular humanism. In a pamphlet distributed to the public and

school officials, the group defined humanism thus: "There is no God—man's his own creator. There is no right or wrong. Ethics are situational. There are no basic truths; no absolutes; no feeling of individuality." It charged: "Young children . . . are indoc-trinated in an egotistic Gospel of Self-Esteem and Self-Fulfillment based on the abusive assumption of Encounter Group Therapy rather than any rational and realistic assess-ment of human nature."

The pamphlet went on: "From a Chris-tian point of view, the introduction of values clarification courses into both public and parochial schools presents both pedagogical retrogression and the influence of a decadent Secular Humanist ideology intent upon changing the values of the younger genera-tion away from traditional Judaeo-Christian ethics"(emphasis theirs).

The Concerned Parents and Taxpayers of W.N.Y. have already achieved some suc-cess in ousting EPIC; they are likely to press their case further when the Department of Education's rule banning federal expendi-tures for teaching secular humanism becomes final. However, as they are beginning to dis-cover, an even more effective tool may be at their disposal.

That weapon is in the form of yet another Department of Education rule, one that implements an amendment sponsored by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch to an educa-tion bill passed in 1978. The rule denies Department of Education funds to schools that ignore parents' wishes in structuring and presenting course material to students. Although the rule does not specifically name secular humanism as a subject parents may object to, some are already using the regu-lation to purge schools of what they regard as humanism's evil influence.

For example, in response to such a con-cern voiced by a parent in Cobb County, Georgia, school administrators presented teachers with a list of nine topics on which discussion was to be banned or restricted. It included "alternative" and "aberrant" sexual

ON THE BARRICADES

News & Views

8 FREE INQUIRY

behavior, evolution, abortion as a social or political issue, communism, witchcraft, reli-gion, personal inquiries, and "valuing"—instructional activities designed to promote student decision-making and value selection.

Other groups are taking similar action. Some parents in Western New York are cir-culating a form to school officials that lists twenty-four topics in which they request their child not be involved unless they give written permission. The list includes "instruction in nuclear war," "guided fantasy techniques," "education pertaining to alcohol and drug abuse," and "nonacademic personality tests."

Groups from the National Education Association and People for the American Way are fighting these attacks on public education and secular humanism. Editorials opposing the Department of Education's actions have appeared in major newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post and the Milwaukee Journal. But the opposition has considerable force: the local groups who initiate these measures have the backing from organizations like Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum, and even the White House. Even Department of Education Secretary William J. Bennett has gone on record in encouraging parents to challenge the teachers and school officials on their children's courses. Regretfully, the U.S. pub-lic schools may be the scene of an all-out attack by the foes of secular humanism.

—Andrea Szalanski.

New Humanist Laureates Elected

The Academy of Humanism, founded in 1983, seeks to develop public awareness of the positive alternative presented by the humanist outlook. The Academy brought together thirty distinguished, internationally known nontheistic humanists to encourage and cultivate scientific inquiry and other humanistic values.

In 1984, six outstanding humanists were elected to membership in the Academy as

Humanist Laureates: —Mario Bunge, Frothingham Professor

of Foundations and Philosophy of Science at McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

—Joseph Delgado, professor and chair-person in the Department of Neuropsychi-atry at the University of Madrid. Formerly a professor at Yale University, Dr. Delgado is one of Spain's leading scientists and a pioneer in the area of animal brain research.

—Alberto Hidalgo, president of the Sociedad Asturiana de Filosofiá in Oviedo, Spain.

—Franco Lombardi, professor of phi-losophy at the University of Rome.

—Jole Lombardi (wife of Franco Lom-bardi), distinguished Italian educator and organizer of a laic university for older per-sons.

—Thomas Szasz, professor of psychia-try at the State University of New York College of Medicine in Syracuse and a leader in the movement against involuntary com-mitment to mental hospitals.

These new members not only strengthen the international appeal of the Academy, but also provide a broader base from which to combat the growing worldwide threat to intellectual freedom and scientific inquiry posed by religious fanaticism, rampant irra-tionalism, and repressive social forces. The Academy offers its warmest welcome to the new Laureates.

The Academy membership notes with deep regret the passing of Humanist Laure-ates George O. Abell, professor of astron-omy at the University of California at Los Angeles, and Chaim Perelman, professor of philosophy at the University of Brussells, Belgium.—Steven L. Mitchell

Madison Committee Meets

The James Madison Memorial Committee held its annual commemoration of Madi-son's birthday at Georgetown University on

March 16, 1985, at a dinner meeting chaired by Georgetown President Timothy Healy. The discussion centered on Madison's role in the struggle for religious liberty. Within weeks of his birthday in 1785, Madison wrote Memorial and Remonstrance, a classic statement on religious freedom that made a singular contribution to the passage of the Bill Establishing Religious Freedom.

The committee also explored ways to become an effective participant in the development of Montpelier, Madison's Virginia home. Late in 1984, the property was transferred to the National Trust. Recently, George Smith was appointed cura-tor, and he is eager to open the estate to the public. However, funds are in short supply. With help from concerned citizens, Mont-pelier's opening may coincide with the 1987 bicentenary celebration of the Constitutional Convention.—Robert Alley

Fundamentalist-Humanist Dialogue Canceled

The Evangelical! Fundamentalist-Humanist Dialogue, sponsored by FREE INQUIRY, has been canceled. The two-day meeting was originally slated for October 12 and 13, 1984, at the University of Richmond and post-poned, at the request of the evangelists and fundamentalists scheduled to participate, until after the November presidential and congressional elections. Attempts to resched-ule the event have been fruitless.

FI Cartoonist Wins Award

Tom Toles, who provides the original drawings for each issue of FREE INQUIRY,

has won first place in the 1984 John Fischetti Editorial cartoonist competition. Mr. Toles was selected for the national honor over 130 leading editorial cartoonists. It was presented at Columbia College in Chicago.

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