Two surveys among leading American educators indicated that the majority of schools have neglected intergroup education during the last decade and that increased emphasis on science and technology in the school system has brought about a sharp decline in intergroup education and the humanities.
The results of the two studies were presented today to the first of a series of conferences and seminars on prejudice, discrimination and intergroup relations marking the dedication of the Institute of Human Relations of the American Jewish Committee.
Dr. Hilda Taba, Professor of Education at San Francisco State University, reported that “the emphasis on programs for gifted students” in science and mathematics is often “destructive to group relations. ” This, she said, was due to the fact that this sort of specialized training “conflicts with the stress on human relations and social development,” In general, Dr. Taba stated, the ability grouping in itself “creates the kind of competition among students, teachers and schools which is detrimental to human relations.”
Dr. Kenneth Benne, director of the Boston University Human Relations Center, said that there was general agreement that the United States does not now have “enough teachers and administrators well qualified to advance intergroup education.”
Dr. John C. Bennet, Dean of Faculty at Union Theological Seminary, said in a paper prepared for the conference that Christian teaching materials contain elements “which stimulate anti-Jewish prejudice” but that Christianity”provides powerful antidotes to anti-Semitism.”
The results of his study, Dean Bennett stated, “are a reminder that the religious roots of anti-Semitism are still important. ” There has been a tendency in this country, he said, to assume that the religious factor in anti-Semitism is incidental. This is a superficial view, “and does not account for the fact that the Jewish minority is singled out as a target of prejudice and abuse in so many and contrasting circumstances. “
Dean Bennett stressed: “If there is any element in the teaching that surrounds the Gospel that has unfortunate by-products for intergroup relations, I think that this places a special imperative on Christians to counteract such effects. “
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