Secular education
Secular education is a system of public education in countries with a secular government or separation between religion and state.
History[edit]
Secular educational systems were a modern development intended to replace religious ecclesiastical and rabbinic schools (like the heder) in Western Europe. Secular schools were to function as a cultural foundation to diffuse the values of a human culture that was a product of man's own faculty for reason.
This contrasted against religious education which placed value on tradition - knowledge that was "revealed" - instead of the "human values through which manifested the uniqueness of the human being in nature as a creature who is himself a creator, a being who shapes his environment and who fashions himself within that environment". For Jews the ideal was the Maskil, the Jewish equivalent of Enlightenment philosophers or humanists.[1]
Actions and controversies[edit]
Banning of religious symbols[edit]
In the French public educational system conspicuous religious symbols have been banned in schools.
While some religious groups are hostile to secularism and see such measures as promoting atheism,[2] other citizens claim that the display of any religious symbol constitutes an infringement of the separation of church and state and a discrimination against atheist, agnostic and non-religious people.