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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1984)
Tuesday, February 21, 1934 Daily Nebraskan Pag Louisville certification battles 7J 1 1 a lzxij JL -i r- involve proletariat's rights ! 1 Colonial Dining Room Ey Jco Ifedey The controversy about tecxhcTccrticciion inLouis ville's Faith Christian School is not a matter of education or religious free dom, but an 'effort to end public education in Amer ica, three speakers said Sunday night at a Lin coln Indian Center for um. Paul Olson, professor of English at UNL, Tom Christie, a history and soc iology teacher at Lincoln High School; and Kevin Porch, a representative of the Socialist Workers Party, spoke at the for um, In Defense Of Public Education: What's Really At Stake in Christian School Controversy?" Olson said if what he called a "massively-funded conspiratorial effort to get rid of the public schools is successful, it will close down one of the last places in America for democracy and free dis cussion. Though he has not actually seen what goes on inside the Faith Christian School, Olson said schools similar to Faith Christian tend to stress indoctrination rath- , er than education. Olson said two pre vious U.S. Supreme Court cases that allowed par ents to have their child ren taught by non-certified teachers would not help people in favor of the Faith Christian School The two cases dif fer from the Faith Chris tian one, he said. In Yoder vs. Wisconsin, which involved the peo ple of the Amish religion, and a case between the Miccosukee Indian tribe and the state of Florida, Olson said three con cerns of the court were met The culture had some success in educating its children, the children grew, up without being a burd en on society, and there was a coherence of com munity. - Schools like Faith Christ ian do not have the cul tural history or the coher ency of community need ed to take the case to court, Olson said. Thus, its backers have not tak en their arguments con cerning teacher certi fication before any court, he said. Reasons behind funda mentalist movements against public schools in clude opposition to inte gration and to intellect ual discussion, Olson said. Integration has forced fund amentalists to contact cul tures and values unlike their own, Olson said. Pub lic schools are no longer the "Protestant prochial schools" they were in the past, he said, and this scares those who back U. - A '4-yjA fln fr it; HOil-itCl-TcUii-CU Kjia fcox" ian school movement. Christie described his education in the segre gated schools of South Carolina as. inadequate leaving him to play catch up ever since. He said he felt insulted as an indi vidual and as a black that the certification issue was - even being debated by the - administration.'' - ' . Schools similar to Faith : Christian were opened fct ' the past. to avoid : anti- segregation laws, Christie said. Their reasoning hing ed not on education, but on getting "Christianity in the public schools or elimating the public schools," he said. The Reagan admini stration contradicted it self, Christie said, by favor ing Christian schools while supporting the re cent reports that show a crisis in public educat ion. Porch said public edu cation is a product of class struggle. An attack against public education is an attack against the working class, he said. Though Porch later agreed with Olson that public education was introduc ed to create docile indus trial workers, Porch said that it oilers more than that: literacy. Workers would not be literate if the ruling class control led the educational pro cess, Porch said. "Free and public edu cation should be a natu ral right for every child," Porch said Describing him self as an avowed Marx ist, Porch said public edu cation was a reform wrest ed away from the ruling class and he said he wants the working class to use it. u .lf "P77T A fTr-iTrHs'iN ON FIGHTER 09 $ Coupon redeemable by Faculty U and Staff on Mondays. Students with proper ID redeemable on Tuesday. Enjoy Lunch In The Colonial Dining Room in the Nebraska Union! .tz s Expires February 29, 1S34 i O J L Y , j ' , , ,. , 1. lyW:; ! 1 1. ; II I:",- ii. : .; .:::::::::. V ; I 1 ' . ' ... f) XAr- -'L H' f 1..J L J ! , , I : ... .. ,. ! L 4 u hi j r. i m ur. er ;:W- ::S:? -i V. .ii'V x :: v.- 1 y X. O 1 k ) f n