ABSTRACT
A growing number of authors are proposing one or another form of spirituality for inclusion within the curricula of public schools.2 Many see spirituality as a ‘safe’ alternative to religion-safe in the sense of being free of ties to any particular religious tradition and therefore acceptable for public schools in pluralistic liberal democracies. These authors typically take spirituality to be universal where religion is particular, and so believe that implementing proposals to re/introduce it into public education would not compromise liberal principles protecting individual autonomy and cultural diversity.3 In this paper I discuss in very general terms the prospects for success of such proposals. In the first section I briefly review the anticipated benefits-for students, teachers, and our communities-of some of the different conceptions of spirituality-in-schools. In the second section I argue that, in the short term at least, efforts to integrate spirituality within our public school curricula would be unlikely to meet with success, even granted considerable variation among the initiatives proposed. In the third section I endorse three long-term projects that I hope would help to create the conditions under which spirituality could be promoted within public education in a comprehensive and meaningful way. Although I write with Canadian educational systems in mind, my paper is addressed to all those who believe that we should be doing more to encourage and support both our own spiritual development and that of the students in our public schools.4
