Spiritual Growth in the Secular Schools 
The development of compassion for others through awareness 
and service is a basic ingredient in most recipes for spiritual 
growth.   In many religious traditions, this is measured by the 
movement from solipsistic individuality to a shared concern for 
and participation in the larger community.  Increasingly, 
educators believe that the public schools can also function as 
communities in support of the development of understanding and 
compassion.  To do so requires the provision of a context that 
is incontrovertibly shared, such as the framework of democracy, 
in which individual and community are both highly valued.  A most 
effective pedagogy is the structuring of a democratic classroom, 
and the implementation of service-learning, through which 
intrinsic motivation to grow in concern for others is successfully 
fostered.  In this way, “spiritual” growth can be a concern of 
the secular schools.