Religious Parents Research Articles

Wildwood Flowers: The Carter Family

Wildwood Flowers The Carter Family Bland Simpson Click for larger view Figure 1 The Carter Family didn't sing or play anything that couldn't be put on at a church. The group's Old Family Melodies, courtesy of Wilson Library's Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Carters started small, singing in churches . . . Alvin Pleasant Carter, born in 1891, sang in a quartet with two uncles and a sister in churches around Clinch Mountain in southwest Virginia. People called him A. P., or Doc. He learned to play the fiddle, but his religious parents would not allow the devil's box at home. Sara Dougherty, born in 1898, lived right over Clinch from A. P. with an aunt and a fiddling uncle. She learned guitar and banjo and autoharp. A. P. came over Clinch on a selling trip, drumming for a fruit tree company, and there over the mountain he found Sara accompanying herself with an autoharp as she sang "Engine 143." In June of 1915, A. P. and. Sara married. A. P. had a brother Ezra. Sara had a singing, music-playing cousin Maybelle Addington. In 1926 Ezra Carter married the seventeen-year-old Maybelle. Sara sang a husky lead, Maybelle sang an alto harmony, and A. P. sang bass. These three were the original Carter Family of Maces Springs, Poor Valley, Virginia. The Bristol News Bulletin, Wednesday, July 27, 1927, announced that producer Ralph Peer from the Victor Record label would be in Bristol, the city split down [End Page 135] the middle by the Tennessee and Virginia state line, for a week to ten days, seeking local talent to make commercial recordings of country and mountain dance music and songs. Brunswick Records had already offered "Fiddlin' Doc" and Sara a contract to record square-dance tunes, but they'd turned it down—hadn't wanted to upset A. P.'s churchy folks. But that'd been years before, and the Carter Family didn't sing or play anything that couldn't be put on in a church. It was family singing, truth telling, heartstring tugging. It wasn't dancing. The Carters agreed. Yes, let's go. But Bristol was twenty-five miles away, over mud-holed, rutted dirt roads. Maybelle was seven months pregnant. Ezra Carter said no, but A. P. made a deal with him: you let Maybelle go with us to meet the record man and I'll nub out some new ground for you. Ezra gave in. They loaded up Maybelle, swollen belly and all, and A. P. and Sara's eight-year-old Gladys and baby Joe, still at Sara's breast, and A. P. and Sara themselves all in a Model A Ford. They lit out over the bad roads and the family car broke down in the middle of a stream on the way. But it being summer and the streams being down that time of year, A. P. got out and got his feet wet and got the car to running again. Take more than a busted Model A to stop strong mountain stock like the Carters came from. They made it into Bristol and met Peer, who took them into his makeshift studios at 410 State Street, the old Anderson & Carr building, where he'd hung rugs on the walls for soundproofing . . . In the first days of August 1927, they recorded "Bury Me Beneath the Weeping Willow" and "The Storms Are on the Ocean." That was the beginning. A. P. scoured the hills looking for tunes for the Carters to record. Some folks outright gave A. P. tunes. Others sold him tunes for a few dollars—old tunes, pieces of tunes, ideas for tunes. And A. P. carried with him on these collecting jaunts a guitarist friend from Kingsport, Tennessee, a black man named Lesley Riddles. Riddles helped Maybelle as she developed her thumb-brush, hammer-on, pull-off guitar style that became the instrumental stamp of the Carter Family's music. Maybelle...

Var går gränsen?

This article introduces a study concerning parent s regulations regarding their child’s participating in social activities. The aim of the study is to examine how many pupils who are not allowed to participate in social activities and some educational elements at school, as for example sports and study tours. The ethnicity and gender perspectives are central for the questions. The implicit aim is to compare the situation among boys and girls with immigrant background in relation to boys and girls with Swedish background. The study contains a quantitative survey among 1193 children, 13 to 15 years old, living in a Swedish middle-sized city. The result from the analysis shows that most of the children are allowed to participate in the activities. However, regarding parental consent to participating in activities the results show that children with immigrant background experience restrictions to a larger extent than others. This result concerns in particular girls with immigrant background. Other significant findings in this study indicate that low-educated parents or/and religious parents have more restrictive norms considering pupils participating in social activities, especially for immigrant girls.

"Culture" and the Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty: The Prevention Paradox

Many U.S. policymakers support changing the "culture" of poor parents to encourage marriage, work, and religion as a means to end the intergenerational transmission of poverty. In this article Jens Ludwig and Susan Mayer review and evaluate research on how parental work, marriage, and religion affect children's socioeconomic status as adults, as well as on the likelihood that changing these indicators of parental behavior will reduce poverty in the next generation. They conclude that even if policymakers were able to ensure that all children had married, working, and religious parents, the result would be a far smaller reduction in poverty among the children's generation than many people believe. The explanation for this "poverty-prevention paradox," say Ludwig and Mayer, is that the poverty rate in the children's generation depends not only on how many poor children grow up to be poor adults, but also on how many nonpoor children grow up to be poor adults. Reducing the chances that poor children become poor adults will dramatically lower future poverty rates only if most poor adults begin life as poor children. But most poor adults grow up as nonpoor children in the type of "pro-social" households that policymakers are pushing to attain. Moreover, little good evidence supports the idea that such parental behaviors as marriage, work, and religious adherence have strong causal effects on children's long-term economic success. The authors argue that encouraging positive social behaviors in the parents of poor children is a worthwhile goal in its own right. But they stress that policymakers should recognize the limits of this strategy for reducing poverty among future generations. There may be no substitute for a system of social insurance and income transfers for those children who do wind up poor as adults.

Vadr går gränsen?

This article introduces a study concerning parents regulations regarding their child’s participation in social activities. The aim of the study is to examine how many pupils who are not allowed to participate in social activities and some educational elements at school, as for example sports and study tours. The ethnicity and gender perspectives are central for the questions. The implicit aim is to compare the situation among boys and girls with immigrant background in relation to boys and girls with Swedish background. The study contains a quantitative survey among 1193 children, 13 to 15 years old, living in a Swedish middle-sized city. The result from the analysis shows that most of the children are allowed to participate in the activities. However, regarding parental consent to participating in activities the results show that children with immigrant background experience restrictions to a larger extent than others. This result concerns in particular girls with immigrant background. Other significant findings in this study indicate that low-educated parents or/and religious parents have more restrictive norms considering pupils participating in social activities, especially for immigrant girls.

Preserving religious identity through education: Economic analysis and evidence from the US

This paper models the decision of religious parents to send their children to private religious schools as reflecting their desire to shield their children from external influences and thus preserve their religious identity. It follows that when the share of the minority in the local population grows—and outside influences become less threatening—the demand for separate religious schooling among the members of the religious group decreases. This pattern implies concavity in the relationship between enrollment in private and religious schooling and the share of the religious group in the population. We present empirical evidence from United States county data on Catholic and private school enrollment that strongly supports our theory. The paper contributes to a better understanding of the demand for religious education.

The influence of individual characteristics and contraceptive beliefs on parent-teen sexual communications: A structural model

Purpose To explore relationships between parent and teen demographic characteristics, parent beliefs about the effectiveness, safety and usability of condoms and oral contraceptives, and parent-teen sexual communication. Methods One thousand parents of 13–17-year-olds were surveyed. Structural equation modeling was used to test direct and indirect relationships between parent and teen characteristics, parent effectiveness beliefs, and amount of parent-teen communication about the negative consequences of sex and where to obtain birth control. Results Parent effectiveness beliefs were directly related to parent-teen communication levels. Minority, religious, politically conservative, and low income parents reported lower effectiveness beliefs than other parent groups. Low income, minority parents reported more discussion with their teens about the negative consequences of sex and where to obtain birth control than high income, White parents. Politically conservative, religious parents reported more discussion with their teen about the negative consequences of sex than their liberal and nonreligious counterparts. In general, nonreligious parents reported more discussion about where to obtain birth control than religious parents. Parents were less likely to talk with males, younger teens, and teens not believed to be romantically involved. Parent and teen gender interacted to predict the amount of parent-teen communication. Conclusions Parent beliefs about condom and oral contraceptive efficacy, safety and usability related directly to amount of parent-teen sexual communication. Parent beliefs and communication levels varied across a number of demographic groups. Educating parent groups may result in more frequent and accurate sexual communications with their teenage children.

Advocacy and Involvement: The Role of Parents in Western Islamic Schools

Muslim parents share many of the same ideals that other religious parents do when considering comprehensive religious schools. For those who see Islamic schooling as a viable option, supporters claim that these schools help to (1) preserve the culture and customs passed down from generation to generation, and (2) provide Muslim children with a proper identity consonant with one's home environment, thereby ensuring a positive sense of self. In this article the author will explore the role that Muslim parents play in Islamic schooling; in particular the author will examine the reasons why those parents who favor Islamic schools do, and what they hope to gain either for themselves or their children by enrolling them.

Moving beyond Censorship: What Will Educators Do If a Controversy over His Dark Materials Erupts?

A PRODUCTION of it staged at the National Theatre in England provoked a storm of controversy. Also in the U.K., the Association of Christian Teachers called it blasphemy. (1) New Line Cinema is already developing it into a movie. And, even before the movie's release in the U.S., a few trendy English teachers may be assigning it, and some elementary teachers may be reading selections from it to their classes. Soon religious parents in America will start to hear about it and become concerned. Some may actually read it. Yet, in this case, a close reading and some background research will raise even more questions and probably provoke even more outrage. What is it? It is Philip Pullman's best-selling trilogy, His Dark Materials. And the reason it will cause such commotion is that, unlike J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, Pullman's books contain material that will offend Christians for clear reasons. The trilogy contains direct attacks on Christianity, not just the supposed promotion of a form of witchcraft. In fact, throughout Pullman's entertaining and creative stories, one finds anti-Christian pokes, anti-Christian symbolism, and even occasional anti-Christian diatribes. Readers are treated to such arguments as Every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling, as well as rants about the church's obsession with original sin. Pullman also enjoys reinterpreting the biblical story of the Fall as the actual beginning of true human freedom. To top it off, his trilogy ends with what is clearly meant to represent the death of the Christian God--the Authority--a demented, decrepit angel with delusions of past grandeur. The content of the book will not be the only source of controversy. In an article appearing in the Washington Post, Pullman espoused his hatred for The Chronicles of Narnia and its author, C. S. Lewis, claiming Lewis celebrated bullying, racism, misogyny. In the same article, Pullman admitted that he was trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief through his work. (2) All in all, Pullman gives plenty of ammunition to religious critics. So what will educators do when the Philip Pullman controversy erupts? They could try to haul out the same defenses used for the Harry Potter series--the books inspire kids to read, they are moral tales after all, the message is really quite harmless, censorship is not an appropriate liberal response to controversial literature, etc. And certainly one can find evidence to support some of these claims. The fact that Pullman's books have sold over four million copies means that kids--not just libraries and literary critics--are gobbling up the work. The trilogy also ends with a rather clear moral message. After helping to get rid of the church, the senile god, and stupid conceptions of the afterlife, Lyra, the heroine in the story, argues that now we have to be all those difficult things like cheerful and kind and curious and patient, and we've got to study and think and work hard, all of us, in all our different worlds, and then we'll build ... the Republic of Heaven. In other words, there is still a moral to Pullman's story. Yet it should be obvious that such defenses will fall flat. If public school teachers started reading from or requiring their students to read works by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, authors of Christian fiction books that have made the New York Times list of best sellers, groups like Americans United for Separation of Church and State would be up in arms and rightfully so. Although these books might inspire kids to read or encourage virtuous behavior, they preach a particular religious world view. Of course, what makes Pullman's work even more unusual is that it is not really a positive presentation of a world view as much as it is an attack on a different one. His Dark Materials feeds on Christianity. Furthermore, educators cannot claim that such accusations against Pullman's works are unsophisticated. …

Familial and Religious Influences on Adolescent Alcohol Use: A Multi-Level Study of Students and School Communities

A multi-level Durkheimian theory of familial and religious influences on adolescent alcohol use is developed and tested with hierarchical linear modeling of data from Icelandic schools and students. On the individual level, traditional family structure, parental monitoring, parental support, religious participation, and perceptions of divine support and social constraint are associated with less adolescent alcohol use. Individual parents knowing other parents (intergenerational closure) is not associated with less alcohol use among their children, but all students drink less in schools where such intergenerational closure is high. The religiosity of individual parents is not significantly related to their children’s alcohol use, but female students drink significantly less in schools where religious parents are more prevalent. The results are generally consistent with the proposed theoretical model.

Dynamic Models of Religious Conformity and Conversion: Theory and Calibrations

This paper develops behavioral and deterministic overlapping generations models to explain and simulate changes in the proportion of secular and religious people. Under the behavioral approach, the role of the church is to generate an externality associated with the investment in enhancing the conformity rate among young believers. Under the deterministic approach, changes in the number of nonbelievers are explained by different birth rates among secular and religious parents as well as the relative proportion of nonconformists among the young in each group. This model is then used to calibrate for (non)conformity rates among secular and religious people.

Education for Autonomy: the Role of Religious Elementary Schools

I argue that religious elementary schools whose pedagogical methods satisfy the principle of rational authority have distinctive advantages over secular elementary schools for the purpose of laying the foundations for ethical autonomy in the children of religious parents. Insights from developmental psychology bolster the argument from conceptual analysis. Before children have the cognitive capacities to engage in authentically autonomous reflection, their long-run interest in developing autonomy is best served by developing their understanding of and provisional identity within their primary culture and by encouraging a limited form of ethical reasoning within the framework provided by that secure cultural identity.

Overcoming a Crucial Objection to State Support for Religious Schooling

INTRODUCTION In their recent overview of religious education, Hanan Alexander and Terence McLaughlin discuss the characteristics of education in religion and spirituality and the benefits and challenges presented by religious education in liberal democracies. One of the questions they do not address, but which they suggest needs further consideration, is the extent to which the state should offer financial support for religious schooling. In recent years, religious parents in both the United States and Canada have challenged state refusal to fund school choice when it involves religious schooling, and have received a varied response. In the Cleveland case, the court ruling seems to offer encouragement to those seeking funding for religious education. In Canada, where a number of provinces offer support for religious schools, the courts have ruled that the state has no legal obligation to do so. The response to these rulings has been divided between those who support parents in their claims for funding and those who fear religious schooling will lead to the erosion of public education. Both the growing interest in parental choice in education and the lack of consensus regarding the appropriate liberal response to the demands of religious parents, suggest that a great deal more dialogue is required on the question of state support for religious schooling. That dialogue must take into consideration both reasonable arguments advanced in favor of state support, and an examination of the objections to state funding for religious schools. In this essay, I begin with a brief overview of some of the claims that may be advanced in support of funding religious schooling. I then examine an important criticism of religious education — that is the charge that religious schools cannot offer a satisfactory civic education. If it can be shown that this particular charge against religious schooling is unfounded, one of the most serious objections to state support would have been overcome and claims for funding could be more seriously considered.

The unique and the unifying: Children's narratives of cultural differences

SUMMARY Pioneering efforts to map relations between religious and secular Jews in Israel, and to foster these relations by arranging encounters between them, usually take place among teenagers and adults. Very few attempts have been made to document and examine the narratives of secularism and religiosity of young children and the institutional attempts to influence those narratives. The purpose of this paper is to examine different narratives and perceptions of religiosity and secularism in the light of an intergroup encounter among children and parents at a school in Jerusalem, Israel. The study examines interrelations, informal relations, and manifestations of tolerance among religious and secular children and parents.

Coping patterns of religious and secular parents with their children's cancer

Coping patterns of religious and secular parents with their children's cancer

'Fellow travellers' and 'true believers': A case study of religion and politics in Alberta schools

The topic of religion within public schools has generated interest in several countries in recent years. In Canada, the United States, and England, educational policies favouring greater parental choice in education through grantmaintained schools, Charter schools and voucher plans have renewed parental interest in this area. Alternatively, one might argue that the lobbying by religious parents and others for choice has influenced educational policy. The dynamics of change are not always clear. This paper explores these dynamics through a two-part longitudinal case study in Alberta, Canada. My examination of events over a period of almost twenty years reveals both the micro-politics around religious programming in public schools and the macro-level changes in the policy context between the late 1970s and mid-1990s. This micro-macro approach provides a sense of the impact of local histories on education policies as well as parallels between sites.

Can a life ever not be worth living?

The conjoined twins Mary and Jodie's (named by a High Court Judge in order to protect their identity) parents came to Britain in the hope that the twins could be successfully separated following birth. The lack of sophisticated medical services in their own remote European community necessitated their journey. However, the parents’ hopes were dashed when medical investigations revealed that Jodie was dependent on Mary for heart and lung function. Based on their own social concerns and moral thinking, which is underpinned by their religious beliefs, Mary and Jodie's parents have requested that nature should be allowed to take its course.

Developmental Maturity Expectations of Israeli Fathers and Mothers: Effects of Education, Ethnic Origin, and Religiosity

This study investigated expectations of maturity in children among 380 Israeli Jewish fathers and mothers of 6-month-old infants. Subjects were administered a questionnaire which included items reflecting three developmental domains: Cognitive Maturity, Biosocial Maturity, and Social Autonomy. Regarding Cognitive Maturity mothers had earlier expectations than fathers, intermediate and higher educated parents had earlier expectations than lower educated and nonreligious (Secular) parents and moderately religious (Traditional) parents had earlier maturity expectations than religiously strict (Orthodox) parents. A reverse pattern could be observed for Biosocial Maturity: lower educated parents had earlier expectations than higher educated parents, Orthodox parents had earlier expectations than Traditional or Secular parents and parents of Asian or North African origin had earlier maturity expectations than parents of European or American origin. On Social Autonomy mothers had earlier maturity expectations than fathers and Secular and Orthodox parents had earlier expectations than Traditional parents. The results suggest that parental expectations of maturity form a multidimensional construct in which sex and social background of the parent are related to early expectations in some areas and late expectations in others, depending on the values of their societal subgroup.

CHOOSING A RELIGIOUS SECONDARY SCHOOL: PARENTAL CONSIDERATIONS

This study examined the considerations involved when parents of sixth‐ and eighth‐graders in Israeli religious state elementary schools choose a religious secondary school for their children. While academic achievement was an important factor in parental choice, as religious Jews the parents were also greatly concerned with die secondary school's religious level. By means of discriminantal analysis, our study attempted to distinguish between two groups of parents: those who stressed the institution's religious level as opposed to those who stressed its academic level. We found that more religious parents, parents who had studied in boarding schools, and parents of Western origin belonged to the first category. Parents of younger children, less religious parents, and some parents of Oriental origin belonged to the latter group. The article also treats variations in parental attitudes according to parental gender, religious and communal identification, and child's grade and gender.

John Langdon Down: the man and the message.

John Langdon Down was the son of a village grocer. Born in Torpoint, Cornwall, in 1828, he was the 6th child of religious parents. He worked in the family business until he was 18 years old and he then qualified as a pharmacist before ultimately entering medical school at the London Hospital. He won numerous medals and prizes and immediately after taking his medical degree he was appointed medical superintendent of the Royal Earlswood Asylum for Idiots in Surrey. He reformed the institution and his efforts at classification resulted in his description of what he called Mongolian idiocy. His findings were based on measurements of the diameters of the head and of the palate and on his series of clinical photographs. He was a pioneer of the use of photography in hospitals. Mongolian idiocy became a widely used term but in 1961 a group of genetic experts wrote to the Lancet suggesting four alternatives. The editor chose Down's syndrome. WHO endorsed this later. Langdon Down was a supporter of liberal causes. He made important contributions to medical science, developed a large practice and he died a wealthy man in 1896. Normansfield, his private training and educational centre, had an international reputation. Only recently has his place in medical history been recognized.

Religious Parents, Secular Schools: A Liberal Defense of an Illiberal Education

How far ought good liberals to go in accommodating parents with religious objections to the public school curriculum? This article argues that liberal democratic ideals are best honored when we allow parents to structure their children's education in ways compatible with their religious beliefs. Both liberal and democratic theorists, as well as a number of recent judicial decisions, are criticized for opposing such accommodation and for arguing their case against religious parents on a distorted characterization of religious parents' goals. An account of religious parents' concerns that avoids privileging a secular worldview is presented and this account is used to argue for the political benefits of a broad “principle of parental deference.” In conclusion, a new account of where public schools ought properly to draw the line, detailing three exceptional cases in which parental religious concerns ought not to be accommodated, is offered.