In proving ourselves worthy of the public trust, we must first trust ourselves and our abilities to foster dialogue, broker consensus, and develop curricula. We then must trust others in their abilities to engage in such activities and to collectively arrive at decisions which, at times, may be at variance with our original or preferred solution. It will not be easy. Too many educators and community members are unable or unwilling to contribute to civil dialogue and civic understanding. Participants in Curriculum, Religion and Public Education , however, sought common ground by identifying world views, searching for overlapping curricular consensus, practicing defensible partiality, and establishing trust.
World views underscore various religious and ideological assumptions.
From there we seek overlapping curricular consensus in school community encounters. Practicing conversational restraint and reasonableness, our grounded beliefs are submitted to social consensus. All those in attendance are called upon to weigh conflicting views and to engage in dialogue. This leaves plenty of room for correction in the light of still further evidence, still further communication, still further agreement and testing. Curriculum, Religion and Public Education models this approach.