A school that is associated with a particular faith or religion and/or is integrated with life in a faith community is one of the

schools referred to as sectarian schools. Schools that do not meet this criterion are sometimes called secular schools. All public schools in the United States are secular schools, but there are many sectarian schools as well. Sectarian schools promulgate the faith tradition or a belief system that they are associated with, as well as teaching academic subjects in the light of the faiths values. There are three main faiths in the United States that have associated sectarian schools: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Sometimes sectarian schools may be recognized by their names. Christian schools often have a saints name as part of their name, although be careful with schools like St. Lawrence University, named for its proximity to the St. Lawrence River. Jewish schools may be called yeshivas. And Islamic schools may be referred to as madrasahs, of which there are many English transliterations. Sectarian schools differ in the ways that they incorporate faith-based concepts and values into their instruction. Christian school departments and course offering titles often look very much like a secular school when it comes to math, science, English, social studies, and foreign language. But there is often an extra department for religion and a yearly course in that subject area added onto the usual course load. Bible study is also often provided. Definition: What is a nonsectarian school? As you browse private school profiles, you will usually see the schools' religious affiliation described. In the private school world a nonsectarian school is usually a secular institution or an institution which adheres to no particular religious belief or tradition. Examples include schools like The Hotchkiss School and Annie Wright School. The opposite of a nonsectarian school is a sectarian school. It will describe its religious affiliation as Roman Catholic, Baptist, Jewish and so on. Examples of sectarian schools include Kent School and Georgetown Prep which respectively are Episcopal and Roman Catholic schools. Why is this important? Does it matter whether a school is sectarian or nonsectarian? This is information which you need to know when you choose a school. For example, let's say you are Jewish. You probably would find it difficult to have to sit through a Roman Catholic mass if you decided to go to Georgetown Preparatory School. It's been done before, but it is something to consider seriously. There would have to be lots of good reasons besides religious affiliation why Georgetown was the best fit for you. Non-Sectarian School A nonsectarian school is a private school that functions and has developed curriculum officially independent of religious orientation and influence. To be a nonsectarian school does not mean, however, that the school operates in an environment void of religious influence; rather, any incidences of religious influence are unintentional. 1. to induce some one to convert to one's own religious faith 2. to induce some one to join one's own political party or to espouse one's doctrine Proselytizing ( /prsltaz/) is the act of attempting to convert people to another opinion or religion. The word proselytize is derived ultimately from the Greek language prefix (toward) and the verb (to come) in the form of (a new comer). [1] Historically in the Koine Greek Septuagint and New Testament, the word proselyte denoted a gentile who was considering conversion to Judaism. Though the word proselytism originally referred to Early Christianity (and earlier Gentiles), it now refers to any religions' or religious individuals' attempts to convert people to their beliefs or even any attempt to convert people to another point of view, religious or not.

Hidden curriculum refers to messages communicated by the organization and operation of schooling apart from the official or public statements of school mission and subject area curriculum guidelines. In other words, the medium is a key source of messages. The messages of hidden curriculum usually deal with attitudes, values, beliefs, and behavior. There are numerous such messages conveyed indirectly. For example, that reading and mathematics are the most important elementary school subjects is clearly if implicitly communicated by scheduling more time for these subjects than for others, such as science and social studies, scheduling them in morning prime time rather than in the afternoon, and testing them more often than other subjects or skills. The messages of hidden curriculum may complement or contradict each other as well as the official curriculum. For example, while school social studies curriculum typically emphasizes and even celebrates democratic political systems and principles, such as one person-one vote, majority rule and minority rights, separation of church and state, equality before the law, and due process, these principles are not always practiced in public school classrooms and corridors. Hidden curriculum can support or undermine official curriculum. Prominent displays of athletic trophies in the hallway near the school's main officebut not recognition for debate or music or scholarshipcommunicates a hierarchy of valued accomplishments that puts sports ahead of academics. It is likely that hidden curriculum has the most impact when there is an aggregate or a pattern of consistent messages. When hidden and explicit curricula conflict, it may be that hidden curriculum, like nonverbal communication, carries more weight. Much of the organization and culture of schooling now referred to as hidden curriculum was once explicit assertive socialization according to a 1977 study by Elizabeth Vallance. The nineteenthcentury McGuffey readers, for example, were intended to inculcate good behavior, such as passivity, punctuality, and respect for authority, through their stories, Protestant Christian prayers, and direct admonitions. Such teachings became implicit, if not hidden, by the early twentieth century because they were seen to be working and could be taken for granted as natural and normal. Students new to U.S. public schools, such as recent immigrants, were expected to adapt and fit in, for example, by looking at the teacher when spoken to, learning and using standard English, waiting (to speak, for the teacher's attention, for permission to use the toilet), and working hard. Thus, a major purpose of the hidden curriculum of U.S. public schools has been cultural transmission or teaching students the routines for getting along in school and the larger society. In other words, hidden curriculum usually serves to maintain the status quo, specifically the dominant culture and prevailing socioeconomic hierarchy. It is this conservative bias, portrayed in articles by Jean Anyon and Michael Apple, that has been targeted by critics concerned about aspects of hidden curriculum, which work against diversity, equity, and social justice. Nonpublic schools, in contrast, such as Quaker or elite private schools, convey different hidden curriculum messages. Earlier studies of hidden curriculum were conducted primarily in public elementary schools with a focus on academic classrooms. More recent work also has examined physical and business education and student cultures, with attention to messages about race/ethnicity, disability, and gender/sexual orientation as well as social class, politics, and culture. For example, Annette Hemmings investigated what she calls a "hidden corridor curriculum" that students have to negotiate in one way or another. Played out in hallways, lunchrooms, restrooms, and other nonclassroom spaces in two urban high schools she studied, it was dominated by a hostile, alienated youth culture antagonistic to typically middle-class school and social norms. Two related aspects of hidden curriculumor sources of hidden curriculum messagescan be distinguished: the structural or organizational and the cultural. These categories and the illustrative examples that follow can be useful guides to what to look or listen for in examining the nature and extent of hidden curriculum at a particular school. Read more: School Curriculum - Hidden Curriculum - Messages, Students, Schools, and Political

- StateUniversity.com http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1899/Curriculum-SchoolHIDDEN-CURRICULUM.html#ixzz27DGPZ0YI Hidden Curriculum The term 'Hidden Curriculum' was first used by sociologist Philip Jackson in 1968, although the concept has been around longer. Jackson argues that what is taught in schools is more than the sum total of the curriculum. He thought that school should be understood as a socialisation process where students pick up messages through the experience of being in school, not just from things that they are explicitly taught. A recent definition of a hidden curriculum was given by Meighan ("A Sociology of Education", 1981): The hidden curriculum is taught by the school, not by any teacher...something is coming across to the pupils which may never be spoken in the English lesson or prayed about in assembly. They are picking-up an approach to living and an attitude to learning. From Wikipedia The hidden curriculum has a big influence on pupils, making it as important, if not more important than the national curriculum. For example, it is one thing for a school to teach about democracy in a Citizenship lesson, but if the pupils in the school are given no voice and are treated unjustly by the school system then a much louder, negative message is given to those pupils about the nature of society. The Hidden Curriculum is a Guardian article about the mixed messages schools can send to children. Given that people constantly pick up messages from their environment, it is clear that the way a school is designed, the materials used, and its subsequent maintenance and cleanliness has an influential role in education. A building that looks and feels like a prison has one kind of impact, whilst a light and airy, inviting building has another. The school building sends out a message to pupils and staff about how much they are valued and also about how much their education is valued. This is an important consideration to have in mind when negotiating the school design process. School Culture: The Hidden Curriculum By: Craig D. Jerald Walk into any truly excellent school and you can feel it almost immediately a calm, orderly atmosphere that hums with an exciting, vibrant sense of purposefulness. This is a positive school culture, the kind that improves educational outcomes. In this article: More than "safe and orderly" Making it positive: Vision and values Making it strong: All about alignment Conclusion Walk into any truly excellent school and you can feel it almost immediately a calm, orderly atmosphere that hums with an exciting, vibrant sense of purposefulness just under the surface. Students carry themselves with poise and confidence. Teachers talk about their work with intensity and professionalism. And despite the sense of serious business at hand, both teachers and students seem happy and confident rather than stressed. Everyone seems to know who they are and why they are there, and children and staff treat each other with the respect due to full partners in an important enterprise.

Sociologists recognized the importance of school culture as early as the 1930s, but it wasn't until the late 1970s that educational researchers began to draw direct links between the quality of a school's climate and its educational outcomes. Harvard researcher Ron Edmonds, often regarded as the father of the "effective schools" movement, included "safe, orderly climate conducive to learning" on his influential list of schoollevel factors associated with higher student achievement. "The school's atmosphere is orderly without being rigid," he observed, "quiet without being oppressive, and generally conducive to the instructional business at hand." 1 Yet despite its importance, organizational culture is possibly the least discussed element in practical conversations about how to improve student achievement. Perhaps that is because factors such as strong leadership, close monitoring of student progress, a common and coherent curriculum, and teacher collaboration all seem like pieces of the puzzle that educators can directly affect. On the other hand, even the synonyms we use to describe a school's culture terms such as "atmosphere" and "climate" make it sound more like an environmental condition than an educational one. And much like the weather, school culture seems to exist beyond direct human control. But educators in highly effective schools, especially those that serve large populations of disadvantaged students, do not seem to regard the organizational culture as beyond their control. They talk about it and work on it as if it were a tool they can shape and wield to achieve outcomes they desire. Gaining a deep understanding of what a strong, positive organizational culture looks like and how it works can help educators become more thoughtful about developing one. More than "safe and orderly" Too often, educators interpret the effective schools research to mean that the school's climate should be safe and orderly and only safe and orderly. Few would argue that those attributes are unimportant. Beyond the ethical responsibility to provide children with safe surroundings, such conditions help protect instructional time from needless interruptions and distractions. But discussions of school climate that begin and end with classroom management and student discipline miss an important part of the puzzle. A truly positive school climate is not characterized simply by the absence of gangs, violence, or discipline problems, but also by the presence of a set of norms and values that focus everyone's attention on what is most important and motivate them to work hard toward a common purpose. Analyzing an extensive body of research on organizational culture, leadership and change experts Terrance Deal and Kent Peterson contend that "the culture of an enterprise plays the dominant role in exemplary performance." They define school culture as an "underground flow of feelings and folkways [wending] its way within schools" in the form of vision and values, beliefs and assumptions, rituals and ceremonies, history and stories, and physical symbols. 2 According to Deal and Peterson, research suggests that a strong, positive culture serves several beneficial functions, including the following:

Fostering effort and productivity. Improving collegial and collaborative activities that in turn promote better communication and problem solving. Supporting successful change and improvement efforts. Building commitment and helping students and teachers identify with the school. Amplifying energy and motivation of staff members and students. Focusing attention and daily behavior on what is important and valued. 3

Hidden curriculum describes things that are taught to students which arent part of the primary and open curriculum. It is all the messages the school sends about what is important, what behaviors are appropriate, who is valued, and much more, through a variety of more quiet communications. These messages may occur in the ways the school creates schedules, in its art or building maintenance, and in the behaviors it tacitly discourages or allows, to name just a few

examples. Its argued that hidden curriculum can especially affect students in areas of upward mobility and emotional growth or it can create confusing mixed messages that vie for attention with open curriculum. There has been much study on this topic, and few deny that it prevails in most schools, though some schools consciously try to determine if theyre sending consistent messages that are not in line with open curriculum. It is difficult to always be consistent individual communications are often marked by inconsistent messaging and unintended communications, so the goal of fully ridding an organization of a hidden curriculum is optimistic.

Aim:

Hidden Curriculum: understanding the place of conflict and consensus perspectives over and above simple description.

To start [asking the class]: In school wewhat are taught subjects. That's interesting in itself - but we are much else besides Think about a Hidden Curriculum in schools might be, starting to told think sociologically ? in school. A clue - it is connected with learning about socialisation and about the functionalist perspective, and What are these extras? They are about socialising us into norms, values and beliefs; or getting us to especially learning about ideology in the Marxist perspective. absorb the ideology of wider capitalist society. Here is a reminder:

Norm: an expectation of social behaviour regarded as normal Value: a social ideal that we regard as being of quality Belief: something held in the mind regarded as being true for now Ideology: the thinking direction of a whole group or society

Quickly discuss what specific extras are taught in school, and how these expectations relate to training us to behave in the wider world.

There is a further challenge about the hidden curriculum: what about within subjects? What hidden curriculum elements relating to norms, values, beliefs and ideology in wider society can be identified in such subjects as RE, English, Economics, Business Studies?

Here are some examples of all important extras:

We learn by being motivated through external rewards (results) and thus learn to respond to external rewards in capitalism (see Bowles and Gintis, 1976). Teachers have authority over us, and we learn subservience to the authority of others (see Bowles and Gintis, 1976). Students learn about being good representatives of the school; we learn loyalty to employers Students do learn how to handle money, essential to survive. Students learn that some do well and some fail, which is a model for a competitive society. Students learn that they cannot cheat in exams or will be punished, as cheats in wider society are supposed to be punished. Students learn not to use discriminatory language, which goes against valuing others and meritocracy. Students learn about being valued individuals; our society is individualist. Students are offered choices; ours is a consumer society of limited market opportunities. Sixth formers follow an expectation to be more mature, as one of the transitions from school, towards a more accountable adult form of behaviour. We are severely punished for using violence, because violence is not only painful to others but because, unless organised by the State, violence is unproductive in a structured society.

Learning via subjects (incidentally, knowledge is divided into subjects specialisms because in capitalism we specialise in work - called the division of labour - see again Bowles and Gintis, 1976):

Overtly the government has introduced subjects like Citizenship in order to promote social inclusion and to improve interest in politics. Schools teach RE for cultural values, moral outcomes and good citizenship.; an emphaisis on Christianity includes the notion of historical continuity. Schools teach Economics and Business Studies to pass on an ideology of capitalism. PE represents people being fit, and energetic for being capable to work. In English an emphasis on Shakespeare suggests a "belonging to England" nationalist citizenship agenda. History has a large focus on Britain and Europe to show how cultural values evolved and suggest the importance of monarchy, country and national obedience down the ages.

How to Manage Faith Integration in a Classroom By Lucy Clarke, eHow Contributor Every student in an educational environment comes from a different spiritual background. Some may have more firm beliefs than others, but it is important that all are treated with equal amounts of respect. Young students in particular must learn to accept that there are varying belief systems, and not to take offense when surrounded by those different from their own. When introduced properly, students can even learn to take an interest in the beliefs of others. Faith integration in a classroom can be managed in a few ways.

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1 Engage students in a discussion about acceptance. Acceptance is the key point when managing any potential source of negativity in the classroom. Have students brainstorm various ways that they are accepted and accept others on a daily basis. They will realize that most of the things that they provide acceptance without a second thought for are those that cannot be controlled, such as race and gender. Discuss how the same goes for religion, as belief systems are akin to parts of an individual's make up, in the way that they are present but not alldefining.

Have students do presentations on personal beliefs to the class. This does not have to be strictly religious. It can incorporate religious faith, or it can be about personal beliefs in things like family and community. Students will have the chance to learn about what faith means to each individual, perhaps gaining a different perspective on the matter and new insight into faiths that had previously been a mystery to them.
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3 Instill a zero tolerance policy for intolerance. If a student is intolerant of a classmate's faith in any way, sit down with them to discuss the matter. Ask them to explain to you why they were intolerant, and in doing so they may see the error in their own ways. Have them apologize to the other student(s) immediately.