About Us
Mission
The Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education supports the moral and spiritual development of young people by providing resources and educational opportunities to elementary, middle, and secondary schools.
CSEE fulfills this mission by developing and providing programs and resources for:
- ethical development and moral leadership;
- community service and character education;
- student leadership, advisory programming, issues of school climate, and ethical and disciplinary issues in schools
- exploration of students' religious heritages and the spiritual dimensions of their lives; and
- the study of ethics, religion, world religions and inter-religious understanding.
Services
Workshops & Conferences
CSEE offers national and regional events annually, on a variety of topics related to our mission. Presenters are nationally known figures and or seasoned veterans in the field. Regular events include...
- Advising and Advisory Systems
- Honor Codes and Honor Councils
- Service Learning/Community Service
- Teaching the World's Religions
- Summer Ethics Institute for Adults
- Annual Chaplains Conference
- Spiritual Development for Children
Consultations
CSEE's consultants all have years of experience both working in schools and working in the field of their consultancy. For a reduced consultation price for CSEE member schools, our consultants help schools envision new possibilities, work through problems, or fine tune their existing programs.
Newsletters & Resources
CSEE has created and/or published curricular resources for independent schools in a variety of areas. Creating Classrooms and Homes of Virtue is used by scores of elementary schools throughout the country, as is the middle school ethics program, Applied Ethics.
In addition, CSEE publishes several newsletters for our members, and recommends books and other materials that our schools or consultants have found to be especially valuable. In a few cases, we have arranged marketing agreements that allow us to offer these resources at a reduced cost to member schools.
History
The Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education was founded in 1898 as an outreach of the Young Men's Christian Association. The organization separated from the YMCA by the middle of the 20th century, and became known as the Council for Religion in Independent Schools (CRIS).
The acronym CRIS was changed to CSEE in the mid-1990s, as the United States was becoming increasingly pluralistic religiously, and as an increasing number of non-religiously affiliated schools sought membership for the quality of programs CRIS/CSEE offered for moral and spiritual development and ethical leadership.
