Chapter 12

Front 1

Home schooling

Back 1

A growing trend (but a longtime practice) of parents or guardians educating their children at home, for religious, philosophical, or safety reasons. (page 360)

Front 2

Literacy

Back 2

The ability to read and write. (page 361)

Front 3

Tracking

Back 3

Dividing students into groups according to ability. (page 367)

Front 4

Hidden curriculum

Back 4

Traits of behavior or attitudes that are learned at school but not included within the formal curriculum -- for example, gender differences. (page 368)

Front 5

Intelligence

Back 5

Level of intellectual ability, particularly as measured by IQ (intelligence quotient) tests. (page 368)

Front 6

IQ (intelligence quotient)

Back 6

A score attained on tests of symbolic or reasoning abilities. (page 369)

Front 7

Functional literacy

Back 7

Having reading and writing skills that are beyond a basic level and are sufficient to manage one's everyday activities and employment tasks. (page 370)

Front 8

Standardized testing

Back 8

A procedure whereby all students in a state take the same test under the same conditions. (page 370)

Front 9

Religion

Back 9

A set of beliefs adhered to by the members of a community, incorporating symbols regarded with a sense of awe or wonder together with ritual practices. Religions do not universally involve a belief in supernatural entities. (page 373)

Front 10

Theism

Back 10

A belief in one or more supernatural deities. (page 373)

Front 11

Alienation

Back 11

The sense that our own abilities as human beings are taken over by other entities. The term was originally used by Karl Marx to refer to the projection of human powers onto gods. Subsequently he used the term to refer to the loss of workers' control over the nature and products of their labor. (page 375)

Front 12

Sacred

Back 12

Describing something that inspires awe or reverence among those who believe in a given set of religious ideas. (page 375)

Front 13

Profane

Back 13

That which belongs to the mundane, everyday world. (page 375)

Front 14

Secular thinking

Back 14

Worldly thinking, particularly as seen in the rise of science, technology, and rational thought in general. (page 377)

Front 15

Secularization

Back 15

A process of decline in the influence of religion. Although modern societies have become increasingly secularized, tracing the extent of secularization is a complex matter. Secularization can refer to levels of involvement with religious organizations (such as rates of church attendance), the social and material influence wielded by religious organizations, and the degree to which people hold religious beliefs. (page 378)

Front 16

Religious economy

Back 16

A theoretical framework within the sociology of religion that argues that religions can be fruitfully understood as organizations in competition with one another for followers. (page 378)

Front 17

Church

Back 17

A large, established religious body, normally having a formal, bureaucratic structure and a hierarchy of religious officials. The term is also used to refer to the place in which religious ceremonies are carried out. (page 379)

Front 18

Sect

Back 18

A religious movement that breaks away from orthodoxy. (page 379)

Front 19

Denomination

Back 19

A religious sect that has lost its revivalist dynamism and become an institutionalized body, commanding the adherence of significant numbers of people. (page 379)

Front 20

Cult

Back 20

A fragmentary religious grouping to which individuals are loosely affiliated but which lacks any permanent structure. (page 380)

Front 21

Religious nationalism

Back 21

The linking of strongly held religious convictions with beliefs about a people's social and political destiny. (page 381)

Front 22

Liberation theology

Back 22

An activist Catholic religious movement that combines Catholic beliefs with a passion for social justice for the poor. (page 382)