Public Education Is A Sacred Calling

The education of children and youth in general is an immense undertaking with personal, local, regional, and even international implications for the present and the future. While the United States' public education is based on non-sectarian, liberal, democratic values, the current challenges to public education's vision and purposes are many, and, in our current cultural milieus, they originate from multiple interacting factors. While building upon what seems to be a religious term--"sacred calling"--this "primer" (1) examines diverse contexts and directions which influence the endeavor of public education (negatively and positively); and (2) attempts to encourage and inspire the efforts of educators and citizens alike for the common good. These pages are intended for a wide audience which includes, for example, classroom educators, school administrators, school board members, parents, community groups with religious associations, civic associations which are not religious, etc. As citizen stakeholders, we all can be "coached up" through this book's balanced assessment of basic and secondary issues, which often are either forgotten, disregarded, twisted, or taken for granted.

Increasingly, counselors are practicing spiritual or complementary interventions. In balance, how counselors use such interventions is under closer examination by law. This effort to protect clients is embedded in ethical and legal principles, but rarely addressed in the mental health literature. This book will fill that gap by offering a clear understanding of the context of the law. Detailed case studies are given in each chapter as a centerpiece to the understanding, interpretation, and application of the laws. The author, with his unique qualifications in legal and spiritual areas, pays critical attention to the issues of culture throughout this resource that includes handy appendices of a legal glossary, abbreviations, literature review, and an exercise on how to find the law.

Vols. for 1866-70 include Proceedings of the American Normal School Association; 1866-69 include Proceedings of the National Association of School Superintendents; 1870 includes Addresses and journal of proceedings of the Central College Association.

Our current ecological derangement is not only a biological crisis but more deeply a crisis of consciousness, culture, and relationship. The core ethical responsibility of our contemporary era, therefore, and the aspiration of this ecopsychological/ecospiritual book, is to create a mutually enhancing relationship between humankind and the rest of nature. To address the urgent concerns of global warming, mass extinction, toxic environments, and our loss of conscious contact with the natural world, psychologist Will W. Adams weaves together insights from Zen Buddhism, Christian mysticism, phenomenology, psychoanalysis, and the practice of psychotherapy. Through a transpersonal, nondual, contemplative approach, Adams explores the fundamental malady of supposed separation (or dissociation): mind over body, self over others, my tribe over others', humans over the rest of nature. Instead of merely discussing these crucial issues in abstract terms, the book presents healing alternatives through storytelling, poetry, and theoretical inquiry. Written in an engaging, down-to-earth manner grounded in vivid descriptions of actual lived experience, A Wild and Sacred Call speaks across disciplines to students, experts, and nonspecialists alike.