Common Ground: A Pipe Dream or a Dream Come True?

School Administrator, Nov, 1996 by Robert L. Simonds

After I finished a speech to the Colorado Association of School Boards not long ago, I noticed a beautiful, whitehaired lady circling the large group of board members that gathered about me. From the podium, I could see her staring at me with great anxiety. Once everyone else had dispersed, she approached cautiously.

She reached for my hand and smiling said, "Dr. Simonds, I'm so glad to see you in person. After all I've read about you, I thought for sure you were Satan incarnate! But you want the same thing we all want."

As the outspoken leader of a nationwide Christian parents network, I often am portrayed as the public schools' worst nightmare, a leader of the religious right eager to infiltrate America's public school classrooms with religious doctrine. So I was especially encouraged by the encounter in Colorado. Perhaps my efforts of the past two years to foster common ground between public schools and religious conservatives will lead to a productive end.

The idea of finding a peaceful solution to the serious conflicts between Christians and public school leaders is appealing and necessary. Both sides have been on the receiving end of harsh and often-unjust rhetorical name-calling and labeling. In that environment, trust in each other does not come easily.

I have come to promote a peace process that seeks common ground. The idea is to focus on the principles that the aggrieved parties hold in common--in this case, to provide the best education possible for the nation's children.

An Attitude Change

The turning point for me occurred at AASA's National conference on Education in San Francisco in February 1994.

AASA Executive Director Paul Houston, brand new to his job, sat down with me after hearing me debate Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. He asked, "Why don't we set up a meeting and try to find common ground that will result in a peaceful partnership between Christian parents and all our schools?"

After 13 years of directing a Citizens for Excellence in Education rebellion against public school transgressions of parental rights, I was thrilled though cautious. I had been through this diversionary trap on the local level before. However, Houston was committed to act. He soon organized a national task force on common ground with AASA as convener. We were on our way.

The task force laid out on the table the array of issues troubling parents and educators and through rational dialogue sought to reach a consensus, as best as possible, on each issue. Not unexpectedly, the focus over our 24 months of formal discussions was on religious issues. Setting aside the apparently unresolvable issues--sexual education, self-esteem, opt-in versus opt-out measures, and the role of religion in history, for example--we agreed on nine fundamental ground rules for debating issues in public education (see statement, page 24).

The joint statement adopted by 14 national education and religious organizations earlier this year is well thought out. If followed by schools and parents, these principles can provide the foundation upon which a true house of partnership can be built. However, it is only a foundation.

I am encouraged about the prospects of finding common ground at the community level by the work of three great men: Houston of AASA; Ron Brandt of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development where he has been the long-time executive editor of Educational Leadership; and Charles C. Haynes, editor of Finding Common Ground: A First Amendment Guide to Religion and Public Education.

All three realize the importance of just treatment of religious parents and children. Parents demand safe passage for their children in school. This means curriculum and instructional practices should do no harm to children's faith in God, their moral values, or their faith and trust in their families and parents.

A New Message

To encourage conciliation and cooperation between public schools and parents of faith, Citizens for Excellence in Education has dropped all retaliatory rhetoric. Our new message to 350,000 dues-paying parents and 1,700 CEE chapters nationwide is this: "Let your emphasis be on the creative and constructive--above the critical and corrective." We are now living by that code of conduct, though at some personal and organizational cost.

Many letters I receive tell me, "You are naive. Christians can do this; the schools will not." I reject that notion, even though I find it easy to understand why many continue to feel that way. Sink or swim, I have committed my organization and my life now to a peaceful solution. Our CEE income support (we are a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, gift-supported group) has dropped 40 percent from its peak 2 1/2 years ago.

Men of peace never seem to fare well. Political warfare seems to appeal to human nature as the only solution when it clearly is not. We all must change our outlook to one of cooperation where both partners confide in the other's abilities. Educators sometimes must be reminded they are dealing with an educated citizenry. I'm sure some educators are shocked to read public opinion polls that show parents slightly outrank teachers in their level of education.