Beyond Beliefs

The 1960s inspired the visionary, awakened the dreams of youth, and excited the imagination of a world that recently had emerged from phantom atomic shelters. With the renewal of the search for the milennium, however, there came no abatement in the fears that had first been generated when impotent men unleashed atomic power. Cynics continued to parade their doubts while fatalists popularized their despair. The events of the past decade revealed that Americans hold a diversity of values and convictions. While the deeds generated by their differences unveiled appalling injustice and numberless violations of our sacred democratic charter, they also served to illustrate to a doubting world that many Americans continued to cherish a belief in liberty, a hope in equality, and a dream of fraternity. The conflicts, however, also revealed that the centripetal forces of national institutions, especially the public schools, had not succeeded in removing the ideological differences among the citizens of the United States. With the advent of the seventies, America began a long overdue examination of itself. Many questions remain concerning the future direction of the United States, and they must be answered, for the direction we take will be largely determined by our willingness to look courageously at ourselves. This text is written to assist the teacher, the future teacher, and the concerned layman in analyzing the ideological fabric called Americanism. It is designed to provide an overview of American ideological emphases and their educational implications. If individuals who read this book increase their awareness of the fact that some conflicts among human beings result from sincere ideological differences, we will have achieved our goal. Disagreement between and among individuals need not imply malevolence, ignorance, or dishonesty. Lack of consensus is not less noble than agreement. This book offers a way (not the way) of viewing differences and similarities in the ideological fabric labeled Americanism. It should serve the teacher as the beginning of his or her exploration into the mysterious world of ideology and education. - Introduction.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Philosophy, Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.