DO PUBLIC SCHOOLS TEACH SECULAR HUMANISM? WHY WE MAY NEVER KNOW

Members of the New Right regularly charge that public schools teach secular humanism. This alleged teaching of secular humanism is held responsible for varied social ills and is perceived as a violation of constitutional prohibitions against the advocacy of one set of religious beliefs over others. Although New Right attacks may be perceived as political tactics, the author explores them as empirical claims that schools are in fact teaching secular humanism. Currently, there is no persuasive body of research supporting the New Right allegations. The author questions whether or not such research could be designed and concludes that it could but, for various reasons, is unlikely ever to be enacted.     

Behavioral Marriage Therapy: II. Empirical Perspective

Two recent published reviews of research on behavioral marriage therapy stimulated us to supplement these accounts with additional relevant data. First, we place research on behavioral couples therapy in the broader context of outcome research on nonbehavioral marital therapy. We then summarize the results of 23 studies of behavioral couples therapy not included in these previous reviews and conclude that these additional data on controlled and comparative studies do little to enhance the current empirical status of the efficacy of behavioral marriage therapy and in no case do they establish the superiority of social learning approaches. It is concluded that an open mind to all sources of data on the efficacy of marital therapy is needed if the field is to make meaningful advances.     

Guidance and Counseling in New Zealand

This article describes guidance and counseling in multicultural New Zealand as a professional service facing social change and supported by training, research, and a national association.     

A Fortnight of My Life is Missing: a discussion of the status of the human 'pre-embryo'

ABSTRACT Summed up in the coinage of the term 'pre-embryo'is the denial that human beings, as such, begin to exist from the moment of conception. This denial, which may be thought to have significant moral implications, rests on two kinds of reason. The first is that the pre-embryo lacks the characteristics of a human being. The second is that the pre-embryo lacks what it takes to be an individual human being. The first reason, I argue, embodies an untenable view of what it is to be human. The second reason exploits certain logical difficulties which arise over the possibility of twinning. I question the relevance of the appeal to such difficulties and conclude that there is no good reason for denying that a human being begins to exist from the moment of conception.