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Miller o
n religious language:
I have unexpectedly found myself relying on words and phrases that
immediately produce religious connotations: the dark night of the soul, the
generation of hope, the power of forgiveness. While I did not set out to
consider religious matters, the language I've fallen into using has inevitably
led me to a set of concerns that tends to be avoided by those who share my
secular sensibilities. Under normal circumstances, I might find other, less
volatile terms. But these aren't normal circumstances. . . . The world as we
have known it is passing away and the world that is emerging is one that
appears to be fraught with danger. (25-26).
Miller o
n the telos of education:
This is what I believe the function of a secular public education should be:
to provide training in the arts of solving the problems of this world, training
that recognizes that people, who never leave behind their embodied
histories and their cherished beliefs, can't be revised the way papers can.
(197).