Liberty and Equality: Conflicting Values in the Public Schools of a Liberal Democratic Society

EDITORIAL
The Journal of Educational Controversy in Our Time
Lorraine Kasprisin, editor

PROLOGUE
Editor: This inaugural issue is dedicated to Maxine Greene, my mentor and teacher, and truly a philosopher who is a “light in dark times”* and the inspiration behind this journal. Professor Greene was invited to write a prologue for this issue as a framework for understanding the meaning and purpose of this journal as a voice in the modern world. She reminds us that we must bring more to the pages of our journal than analytical reasoning if we indeed want to embrace the uncertainties, tensions, and controversies of our time in ways that maintain our humanity and avoid falling into simplistic answers that give us a comfortable but illusionary certainty.

*from the book, A Light in Dark Times: Maxine Greene and the Unfinished Conversation

From Jagged Landscapes to Possibility
Maxine Greene
William F. Russell Professor Emerita
Teachers College, Columbia University

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY: Some Thoughts on the Nature of Controversy

The Merits of Controversy
Shelby Sheppard
Western Washington University

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY: Some Thoughts on the Nature of Student Rights

Keeping the Constitution inside the Schoolhouse Gate—Students’ Rights Thirty Years after Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District
Nadine Strossen, President, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Professor of Law, New York Law School
Edited from the original version by Daniel Larner, Fairhaven College, Western Washington University

Dilemma or Tension Addressed in this Inaugural Issue:

Many of the tensions in public school policies are deeply rooted in the tensions inherent in the philosophy of a liberal democratic state. For example, while we seek to promote values like equality and liberty, there are times when these values conflict. In a recent court decision, Saxe v. State College Area School District, the third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a school district’s anti-harassment policy as a violation of the first amendment. The policy was intended to provide a safe, secure, and nurturing school environment for all students, including gay and lesbian students, to achieve equal educational opportunities. The plaintiffs in the case argued that their religion compelled them to speak out against what they considered the harmful and sinful nature of homosexuality, and argued that the school policy was a constitutional violation of their free speech and free exercise of their religion.

ARTICLES

Helping Students to Think
Nel Noddings
Stanford University

How Judge Alito Applied the First Amendment on Campus: His Important Decision On a Public School's Anti-Harassment Policy
Julie Hilden
FindLaw Commentator, Attorney and Writer

Saxe as Erosion of Individual Protections
Marc Claude-Charles Colitti
Michigan State University

On Educational Sensemaking and the Antinomy of Liberty and Equality
Karen Paiva
West Chester University

The Dilemma of School Anti-Harassment Policies and the First Amendment
Clyde Winters
Governors State University

To read the decision go to: Saxe v. State College Area School District or http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/cases/clcc.html?court=3rd&navby=case&no=994081

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

See the Rejoinders Section to read reactions to the articles in this issue.