9:45 Connections ~ sharing joys and concerns
9:55 Gathering ~ music
10:00 Service ~ The dominant narrative about the relationship between religion and the public schools in the US is about conformity with Constitutional law. One believes that if only folks understood the meaning of “establishment” and “free exercise” then controversy would lessen. Yet it hasn’t. In part it is due to a misunderstanding of the relevant parts of the Constitution on the part of some people, but it is also due to an ignorance on the part of many (who should know better) with the role education plays in the development of citizens and the development of civility.
Today’s speaker, Eugene Bartoo, was born in northern Pennsylvania and grew up in small towns in upstate New York. He graduated from Penn State University and did his graduate degrees at SUNY Buffalo. After teaching mathematics in high schools in New York State for ten years he took a brief turn as an Assistant Superintendent (age 31) and then joined academe at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. In 1978 he was offered a department chair at UTC in the new School of Education, which he occupied for the next 18 years. He retired as the Rout Professor of Education in 2007. He has been a member of the board of the Tennessee ACLU and is married and has four children and eight grandchildren.
11:15 Forum ~ topic unknown