Against civic schooling

Social Philosophy and Policy

Volumn 21, Issue 1, 2004, Pages

  Murphy, James Bernard ^a  

^a DARTMOUTH COLLEGE   (United States)

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EID: 3042611640     PISSN: 02650525     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0265052504211104     Document Type: Review

References (189)

1. Available on-line at http://neahin.org/programs/schoolsafety/september11/ materials/hshome.htm [accessed April 30, 2003].
2. Available on-line at http://www.socialstudies.org/resources/moments [accessed April 30, 2003]
3. See Chester E. Finn, Jr., et al., September 11: What Our Children Need to Know (Washington, DC: Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, 2002): available on-line at http://www.edexcellence.net/Sept11/September11.pdf [accessed April 30, 2003].
4. See Kate Zernike, "Lesson Plans for Sept. 11 Offer a Study in Discord," New York Times, August 31, 2002, late edition-final, sec. A, p. 1, col. 3.
5. Thomas L. Friedman, "9/11 Lesson Plan," New York Times, September 4,2002 (editorial), sec. A, p. 21, col. 5.
6. William J. Bennett, "A Time For Clarity," Wall Street Journal, September 10, 2002 (editorial). I comment on these debates in James Bernard Murphy, "Good Students and Good Citizens," New York Times, September 15, 2002 (editorial), sec. 4, p. 15, col. 2.
7. William J. Bennett, "A Time For Clarity," Wall Street Journal, September 10, 2002 (editorial). I comment on these debates in James Bernard Murphy, "Good Students and Good Citizens," New York Times, September 15, 2002 (editorial), sec. 4, p. 15, col. 2.
8. According to the founders: "[T]he civic virtues to be fostered in the vast majority of Americans as national and also as state citizens are not so much virtues enabling participation in rule as they are virtues enabling vigilant judgment of the few representatives who are to participate in rule." See Lorraine Smith Pangle and Thomas L. Pangle, "What the American Founders Have to Teach Us about Schooling for Democratic Citizenship," in Lorraine M. McDonnell, P. Michael Timpane, and Roger Benjamin, eds., Rediscovering the Democratic Purposes of Education (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2000), 26-27.
9. "Citizens are women and men educated for excellence-by which term I mean the knowledge and competence to govern in common their own lives. The democratic faith is rooted in the belief that all humans are capable of such excellence . . . . " Benjamin R. Barber, An Aristocracy of Everyone (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 5.
10. "Should schools go beyond teaching the most basic virtue of toleration and also teach mutual respect?" Amy Gutmann, "Why Should Schools Care about Civic Education?" in Rediscovering the Democratic Purposes of Education, 81.
11. "It is probably impossible to teach children the skills and virtues of democratic citizenship in a diverse society without at the same time teaching them many of the virtues and skills of individuality or autonomy." Amy Gutmann, "Civic Education and Social Diversity," Ethics 105, no. 3 (1995): 563.
12. For example, John Tomasi argues that politically liberal civic virtues ought to be compatible with liberal and nonliberal ways of life, not only with "some philosophical ideal of moral autonomy (such as that inspired by the work of Mill or Kant), but also with those that come from more embedded, traditionalist ways of understanding reasons for action and attitude (the 'reasonable Romantics/or citizens of faith)." See Tomasi, "Civic Education and Ethical Subservience: From Mozert to Santa Fe and Beyond," in Stephen Macedo and Yael Tamir, eds., Moral and Political Education, NOMOS XLIII [hereafter Nomos] (New York: New York University Press, 2002), 207-8.
13. According to the Pangles, however, "[i]t is a mark of the grave difficulties into which our democracy has fallen that the very idea of civic virtue has passed out of currency . . . . " See "What the American Founders Have to Teach Us about Schooling for Democratic Citizenship," 21. In reality, as we have seen, the language of civic virtue is ubiquitous in debates about civic education.
14. According to the Pangles, however, "[i]t is a mark of the grave difficulties into which our democracy has fallen that the very idea of civic virtue has passed out of currency . . . . " See "What the American Founders Have to Teach Us about Schooling for Democratic Citizenship," 21. In reality, as we have seen, the language of civic virtue is ubiquitous in debates about civic education.
15. In "The Role of Civic Education," a report issued as part of the National Standards for Civics and Government (Calabasas, CA: Center for Civic Education, 1998), Margaret Stimman Branson distinguishes three essential components of civic education as civic knowledge, civic skills, and civic dispositions, without attempting to theorize about the relations among them. See http://www.civiced.org/articles_role.html [accessed April 30, 2003].
16. In "The Role of Civic Education," a report issued as part of the National Standards for Civics and Government (Calabasas, CA: Center for Civic Education, 1998), Margaret Stimman Branson distinguishes three essential components of civic education as civic knowledge, civic skills, and civic dispositions, without attempting to theorize about the relations among them. See http://www.civiced.org/articles_role.html [accessed April 30, 2003].
17. "A virtue, then, can be defined as a deep and enduring acquired excellence of a person, involving a characteristic motivation to produce a certain desired end and reliable success in bringing about that end." Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski, Virtues of the Mind: An Inquiry into the Nature of Virtue and the Ethical Foundations of Knowledge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 137.
18. See William A. Galston "Civic Knowledge, Civic Education, and Civic Engagement: A Summary of Recent Research," in Constructing Civic Virtue: A Symposium on the State of American Citizenship (Syracuse, NY: Campbell Public Affairs Institute, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, 2003), 35-59. Galston's brief for civic knowledge fails to consider, however, the inadequacy of civic knowledge and the dangers of its misuse.
19. For the origins of public schooling in Europe and America, see Charles Leslie Glenn, Jr., The Myth of the Common School (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988), 15-62; for the origins in France, see Christian Nique, Comment l'Ecole devint uns affaire d'État: 1815-1840 (Paris: Nathan, 1990).
20. For the origins of public schooling in Europe and America, see Charles Leslie Glenn, Jr., The Myth of the Common School (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988), 15-62; for the origins in France, see Christian Nique, Comment l'Ecole devint une affaire d'État: 1815-1840 (Paris: Nathan, 1990).
21. Rogers M. Smith, Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), 217.
22. Lawrence Cremin says of Jefferson: "Granted his abiding concern with the education of the people, he defined the people in political terms-as free white males." See Lawrence A. Cremin, American Education: The National Experience 1783-1876 (New York: Harper & Row, 1980), 114. Smith says of the Jeffersonians: "Education came to be so identified with preparation for citizenship that noncitizens were often denied it." See his Civic Ideals, 189.
23. Lawrence Cremin says of Jefferson: "Granted his abiding concern with the education of the people, he defined the people in political terms-as free white males." See Lawrence A. Cremin, American Education: The National Experience 1783-1876 (New York: Harper & Row, 1980), 114. Smith says of the Jeffersonians: "Education came to be so identified with preparation for citizenship that noncitizens were often denied it." See his Civic Ideals, 189.
24. As Cremin says: "In essence, Mann accepted the propositions of the republican style of educational thought and recast them in the forms of nineteenth-century nondenominational Protestantism." Cremin, American Education, 136-137.
25. As Diane Ravitch rightly observes: "Mann's nonsectarianism, we now recognize, was nondenominational Protestantism." See her "Education and Democracy," in Diane Ravitch and Joseph P. Viteritti, eds., Making Good Citizens: Education and Civil Society (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), 18.
26. Liberal moral education is usually neo-Kantian and emphasizes critical reflection and autonomous choice; conservative moral education is usually neo-Aristotelian and emphasizes character formation and virtue.
27. See the critique of liberal and conservative moralism in Amy Gutmann's Democratic Education, rev. ed. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 56-64.
28. Gutmann, for example, wonders "why so much taxpayer money should go to schooling that gives up on the central aims of civic education." See her "Civic Education and Social Diversity," 572-73.
29. Gutmann, for example, insists upon teaching critical reflection, while William Galston does not.
30. John Dewey takes this comprehensive view of education in his Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (1916; reprint, New York: Free Press, 1944), 10-22, as does John Passmore in his The Philosophy of Teaching (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980), 21-22.
31. John Dewey takes this comprehensive view of education in his Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (1916; reprint, New York: Free Press, 1944), 10-22, as does John Passmore in his The Philosophy of Teaching (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980), 21-22.
32. John Wilson argues that an intention to educate is necessary to the concept of education in his Preface to the Philosophy of Education (London: Routledge, 1979), 20-22. Cremin defines 'education' as "the deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort to transmit, evoke, or acquire knowledge, attitudes, values, skills, or sensibilities, as well as any outcomes of that effort"; see Lawrence A. Cremin, Public Education (New York: Basic Books, 1976), 27.
33. John Wilson argues that an intention to educate is necessary to the concept of education in his Preface to the Philosophy of Education (London: Routledge, 1979), 20-22. Cremin defines 'education' as "the deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort to transmit, evoke, or acquire knowledge, attitudes, values, skills, or sensibilities, as well as any outcomes of that effort"; see Lawrence A. Cremin, Public Education (New York: Basic Books, 1976), 27.
34. Passmore, The Philosophy of Teaching, 21.
35. A striking exception to this rule is the work of Nancy L. Rosenblum, who frequently takes to task other political theorists for failing to consider the importance of nonscholastic civic education: "There are good reasons to take some of the burden of democratic education off schooling and to acknowledge a division of educational labor." Nancy Rosenblum, "Pluralism and Democratic Education: Stopping Short by Stopping with Schools," in Nomos, 164.
36. William Galston, "Civic Education in the Liberal State," in Nancy L. Rosenblum, ed., Liberalism and the Moral Life (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989), 89-101. As we shall see, this chapter is not about education but about schooling.
37. Ibid., 89.
38. As Galston does when he speaks of civic education (meaning schooling) in "most times and places."
39. "Are the ideas and institutions-and above all the worth-of democracy adequately conveyed in American schools?" See Education for Democracy: A Statement of Principles (Washington, DC: Education for Democracy Project, 1987), 8-9.
40. William Galston, "Individual Experience and Social Policy: Thinking Practically about Overcoming Racial and Ethnic Prejudice," in Nomos, 429.
41. As Tomasi says: "Most debates about liberal civic education proceed from the assumption that civic education concerns fitting children for the role they are to play as public persons." In other words, these debates proceed on the assumption that civic education means teaching civic values and virtues to children in school; the controversy is about which values and virtues to teach. Tomasi makes it clear that he shares this assumption: "What would it mean, in a diverse society, to educate people about the meaning of their political autonomy?" This is a great question, but his answer relies only on the school: "Political liberal civic education must take as its task not only the preparation of students for liberal politics but also their preparation for life. . . ." See Tomasi, "Civic Education and Ethical Subservience" in Nomos, 196, 198, 206. Political theorist and public schoolteacher Meira Levinson even argues that autonomy can only be learned at school-leading Rob Reich to observe that, by this logic, "prior to the advent of institutional schools, no one was autonomous." See Rob Reich, "Testing the Boundaries of Parental Authority Over Education: The Case of Homeschooling," in Nomos, 298-99.
42. As Tomasi says: "Most debates about liberal civic education proceed from the assumption that civic education concerns fitting children for the role they are to play as public persons." In other words, these debates proceed on the assumption that civic education means teaching civic values and virtues to children in school; the controversy is about which values and virtues to teach. Tomasi makes it clear that he shares this assumption: "What would it mean, in a diverse society, to educate people about the meaning of their political autonomy?" This is a great question, but his answer relies only on the school: "Political liberal civic education must take as its task not only the preparation of students for liberal politics but also their preparation for life. . . ." See Tomasi, "Civic Education and Ethical Subservience" in Nomos, 196, 198, 206. Political theorist and public schoolteacher Meira Levinson even argues that autonomy can only be learned at school-leading Rob Reich to observe that, by this logic, "prior to the advent of institutional schools, no one was autonomous." See Rob Reich, "Testing the Boundaries of Parental Authority Over Education: The Case of Homeschooling," in Nomos, 298-99.
43. Eamonn Callan, Creating Citizens: Political Education and Liberal Democracy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 163.
44. Ibid., 169-71.
45. Ibid., 166. Callan asks advocates of separate schools to "show how a satisfactory common education can be given to children who do not attend common schools."
46. Ibid., 220.
47. Ibid., 166. Callan goes on to say ". . . once we reject the crazy idea that a common education can be completely repudiated . . ."
48. Gutmann, Democratic Education, 14.
49. She does briefly discuss libraries, cultural institutions, and literacy programs. And in one place she lists these agents of deliberate education: "libraries, bookstores, museums, newspapers, movies, radio, television, and other cultural institutions" (ibid., 234). Her list is interesting for what it omits, such as churches, prisons, corporations, civic associations, the Boy Scouts, etc.
50. Ibid., 15.
51. "We can appreciate the centrality of schooling to democratic education and still recognize that there is much more to democratic education than schooling" (ibid., 16). Whence this centrality?
52. For Tocqueville's view that democratic education is a matter of laws and mores (moeurs), see Democracy in America, trans. Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1:2, 9, 265. "Political associations can therefore be considered great schools, free of charge, where all citizens come to learn the general theory of associations." Ibid., 2:2, 7, 497.
53. For Tocqueville's view that democratic education is a matter of laws and mores (moeurs), see Democracy in America, trans. Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 1:2, 9, 265. "Political associations can therefore be considered great schools, free of charge, where all citizens come to learn the general theory of associations." Ibid., 2:2, 7, 497.
54. For a smattering of an immense literature comparing schooling with other modes of political socialization, see Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in five Nations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963), 304, 355, 381, 387; Fred I. Greenstein, Children and Politics (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1969), 4, 166; M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi, The Political Character of Adolescence: The Influence of Families and Schools (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974), 181-227; M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi, Generations and Politics: A Panel Study of Young Adults and Their Parents (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), 230, 231, 269, 270; John L. Sullivan, James Piereson, and George E. Marcus, Political Tolerance and American Democracy (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 115-17, 251; Herbert McClosky and Alida Brill, Dimensions of Tolerance: What Americans Believe about Civil Liberties (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1983), 371, 420; Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady, Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), 416-60; and Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 302-407.
55. For a smattering of an immense literature comparing schooling with other modes of political socialization, see Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in five Nations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963), 304, 355, 381, 387; Fred I. Greenstein, Children and Politics (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1969), 4, 166; M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi, The Political Character of Adolescence: The Influence of Families and Schools (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974), 181-227; M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi, Generations and Politics: A Panel Study of Young Adults and Their Parents (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), 230, 231, 269, 270; John L. Sullivan, James Piereson, and George E. Marcus, Political Tolerance and American Democracy (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 115-17, 251; Herbert McClosky and Alida Brill, Dimensions of Tolerance: What Americans Believe about Civil Liberties (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1983), 371, 420; Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady, Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), 416-60; and Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 302-407.
56. For a smattering of an immense literature comparing schooling with other modes of political socialization, see Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in five Nations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963), 304, 355, 381, 387; Fred I. Greenstein, Children and Politics (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1969), 4, 166; M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi, The Political Character of Adolescence: The Influence of Families and Schools (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974), 181-227; M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi, Generations and Politics: A Panel Study of Young Adults and Their Parents (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), 230, 231, 269, 270; John L. Sullivan, James Piereson, and George E. Marcus, Political Tolerance and American Democracy (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 115-17, 251; Herbert McClosky and Alida Brill, Dimensions of Tolerance: What Americans Believe about Civil Liberties (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1983), 371, 420; Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady, Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), 416-60; and Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 302-407.
57. For a smattering of an immense literature comparing schooling with other modes of political socialization, see Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in five Nations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963), 304, 355, 381, 387; Fred I. Greenstein, Children and Politics (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1969), 4, 166; M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi, The Political Character of Adolescence: The Influence of Families and Schools (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974), 181-227; M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi, Generations and Politics: A Panel Study of Young Adults and Their Parents (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), 230, 231, 269, 270; John L. Sullivan, James Piereson, and George E. Marcus, Political Tolerance and American Democracy (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 115-17, 251; Herbert McClosky and Alida Brill, Dimensions of Tolerance: What Americans Believe about Civil Liberties (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1983), 371, 420; Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady, Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), 416-60; and Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 302-407.
58. For a smattering of an immense literature comparing schooling with other modes of political socialization, see Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in five Nations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963), 304, 355, 381, 387; Fred I. Greenstein, Children and Politics (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1969), 4, 166; M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi, The Political Character of Adolescence: The Influence of Families and Schools (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974), 181-227; M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi, Generations and Politics: A Panel Study of Young Adults and Their Parents (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), 230, 231, 269, 270; John L. Sullivan, James Piereson, and George E. Marcus, Political Tolerance and American Democracy (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 115-17, 251; Herbert McClosky and Alida Brill, Dimensions of Tolerance: What Americans Believe about Civil Liberties (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1983), 371, 420; Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady, Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), 416-60; and Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 302-407.
59. For a smattering of an immense literature comparing schooling with other modes of political socialization, see Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in five Nations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963), 304, 355, 381, 387; Fred I. Greenstein, Children and Politics (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1969), 4, 166; M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi, The Political Character of Adolescence: The Influence of Families and Schools (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974), 181-227; M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi, Generations and Politics: A Panel Study of Young Adults and Their Parents (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), 230, 231, 269, 270; John L. Sullivan, James Piereson, and George E. Marcus, Political Tolerance and American Democracy (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 115-17, 251; Herbert McClosky and Alida Brill, Dimensions of Tolerance: What Americans Believe about Civil Liberties (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1983), 371, 420; Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady, Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), 416-60; and Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 302-407.
60. For a smattering of an immense literature comparing schooling with other modes of political socialization, see Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in five Nations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963), 304, 355, 381, 387; Fred I. Greenstein, Children and Politics (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1969), 4, 166; M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi, The Political Character of Adolescence: The Influence of Families and Schools (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974), 181-227; M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi, Generations and Politics: A Panel Study of Young Adults and Their Parents (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), 230, 231, 269, 270; John L. Sullivan, James Piereson, and George E. Marcus, Political Tolerance and American Democracy (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 115-17, 251; Herbert McClosky and Alida Brill, Dimensions of Tolerance: What Americans Believe about Civil Liberties (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1983), 371, 420; Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady, Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), 416-60; and Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 302-407.
61. For a smattering of an immense literature comparing schooling with other modes of political socialization, see Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in five Nations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963), 304, 355, 381, 387; Fred I. Greenstein, Children and Politics (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1969), 4, 166; M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi, The Political Character of Adolescence: The Influence of Families and Schools (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974), 181-227; M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi, Generations and Politics: A Panel Study of Young Adults and Their Parents (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), 230, 231, 269, 270; John L. Sullivan, James Piereson, and George E. Marcus, Political Tolerance and American Democracy (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 115-17, 251; Herbert McClosky and Alida Brill, Dimensions of Tolerance: What Americans Believe about Civil Liberties (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1983), 371, 420; Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady, Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995), 416-60; and Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), 302-407.
62. For a smattering of this large literature, see Kenneth P. Langton and M. Kent Jennings, "Political Socialization and the High School Civics Curriculum in the United States," American Political Science Review 62, no. 3 (1968): 852-67; Paul Alien Beck and M. Kent Jennings, "Pathways to Participation," American Political Science Review 76, no. 1 (1982): 94-108; and Richard G. Niemi and Jane Junn, Civic Education; What Makes Students Learn (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998).
63. For a smattering of this large literature, see Kenneth P. Langton and M. Kent Jennings, "Political Socialization and the High School Civics Curriculum in the United States," American Political Science Review 62, no. 3 (1968): 852-67; Paul Alien Beck and M. Kent Jennings, "Pathways to Participation," American Political Science Review 76, no. 1 (1982): 94-108; and Richard G. Niemi and Jane Junn, Civic Education; What Makes Students Learn (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998).
64. For a smattering of this large literature, see Kenneth P. Langton and M. Kent Jennings, "Political Socialization and the High School Civics Curriculum in the United States," American Political Science Review 62, no. 3 (1968): 852-67; Paul Alien Beck and M. Kent Jennings, "Pathways to Participation," American Political Science Review 76, no. 1 (1982): 94-108; and Richard G. Niemi and Jane Junn, Civic Education; What Makes Students Learn (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998).
65. Gutmann, Democratic Education, 15.
66. "Schools develop moral character at the same time as they try to teach basic cognitive skills, by insisting that students sit in their seats (next to students of different races and religions). . . ." Gutmann, Democratic Education, 53.
67. Macedo even suggests that civic education in public schools is mainly tacit: "It is not simply, or perhaps even principally, the substantive curriculum of these schools that is crucial. Common schools have a 'hidden curriculum'. . . ." Yet he later warns: "The vice of a too-heavy reliance on indirect modes of civic education is that we might be led to exploit false consciousness." See Stephen Macedo, Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Society (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000), 232 and 279.
68. Cremin, Public Education, 27-53.
69. In each nation those who report that they are consulted about decisions on their job are more likely than others to score high on the scale of subjective political competence. . . . Unlike many of the relationships between family and school participation and political competence, the relationships between competence on the job and subjective political competence remain strong even within matched educational groups. . . . Whether job participation leads to democratic political orientations, or vice versa, is difficult to tell; but the evidence is strong that these two develop closely together and mutually support each other.
70. Almond and Verba, The Civic Culture, 365-66; cf. 355.
71. Ibid., 363.
72. "Not only does the more highly educated individual learn politically relevant skills within the school, but he also is more likely to enter into other nonpolitical relationships that have the effect of further heightening his political competence." Ibid., 304.
73. Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba, eds., The Civic Culture Revisited: An Analytic Study (Boston: Little, Brown, 1980), 29.
74. "That activity in school government or school clubs is such a strong predictor of later political activity fits nicely with our emphasis on the role of civic skills as a resource for politics. . . . Indeed, the fact that actual participatory experiences appear to be the most important school effect is a significant finding for understanding civic education." Verba, Schlozman, and Brady, Voice and Equality, 376 and 425.
75. Putnam, Bowling Alone, 339-40 and 405.
76. Jennings and Niemi, Generations and Politics, 230.
77. Ibid., 231.
78. "While schools are in one sense supposed to perform a leveling function, they are also expected to make distinctions, and to encourage and facilitate varying interests, skills, and predispositions. Our results speak very much to the latter expectation. Educational institutions may indeed accomplish a leveling, but it is abundantly clear that when students leave secondary school they have become politically stratified in many respects and that this stratification by no means diminishes over time." Ibid., 270.
79. "There are two theoretically and empirically distinct mechanisms linking education to democratic citizenship. The first runs through the cognitive outcomes of education; the other, through the impact of education on the positional life circumstances of individuals." Norman H. Nie, Jane Junn, and Kenneth Stehlik-Barry, Education and Democratic Citizenship in America (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 39.
80. "Verbal proficiency was found to be the only significant intervening variable linking education to democratic enlightenment." Ibid., 161.
81. "Although many other studies have confirmed the relationship between education and political tolerance, few authors have added anything of consequence to the cognitive explanation Stouffer proposed." Sullivan et al., Political Tolerance and American Democracy, 117.
82. " 'Student-centered' techniques of teaching and stress on discussion in contrast to lecture or recitation have been strongly advocated as effective means of engaging the student's personal participation in the learning process, and encouraging him to reach valid judgments on his own on important issues. Studies of the comparative effectiveness of such methods do not generally support such a conviction." Philip E. Jacob, Changing Values in College: An Exploratory Study of the Impact of College Teaching (New York: Harper & Row, 1957), 8.
83. See Clyde Z. Nunn, Harry J. Crockett, Jr., and J. Alien Williams, Jr., Tolerance for Nonconformity (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1978), 65 and 75; and Sullivan et al., Political Tolerance and American Democracy, 115 and 117. See also McClosky and Brill, Dimensions of Tolerance, 371: "The more one knows and understands about public affairs (as measured by our scales of political information and sophistication), the higher the probability that one will respond favorably to the various libertarian rights. . . ."
84. See Clyde Z. Nunn, Harry J. Crockett, Jr., and J. Alien Williams, Jr., Tolerance for Nonconformity (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1978), 65 and 75; and Sullivan et al., Political Tolerance and American Democracy, 115 and 117. See also McClosky and Brill, Dimensions of Tolerance, 371: "The more one knows and understands about public affairs (as measured by our scales of political information and sophistication), the higher the probability that one will respond favorably to the various libertarian rights. . . ."
85. See Clyde Z. Nunn, Harry J. Crockett, Jr., and J. Alien Williams, Jr., Tolerance for Nonconformity (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1978), 65 and 75; and Sullivan et al., Political Tolerance and American Democracy, 115 and 117. See also McClosky and Brill, Dimensions of Tolerance, 371: "The more one knows and understands about public affairs (as measured by our scales of political information and sophistication), the higher the probability that one will respond favorably to the various libertarian rights. . . ."
86. "An individual's verbal skills before college entrance have two distinct effects on future civic and political activity: not only does verbal aptitude have a direct path to participation and engagement, but it also maintains an indirect path by leading students to major in the social sciences, where they are further stimulated to become politically active and engaged citizens." Norman H. Nie and D. Sunshine Hillygus, "Education and Democratic Citizenship," in Ravitch and Vitteritti, eds., Making Good Citizens, 50. But Nie and Hillygus were not able to determine whether taking more social science courses caused greater political engagement in students or merely reflected it.
87. Sullivan et al., Political Tolerance and American Democracy, 251.
88. Richard Brody (1978): "Over the past quarter-century, the proportion of the population continuing on to post-secondary education has doubled. In light of this development and the manifest relationship between education and participation, the steady decline in turnout since the 1960s is all the more remarkable." Cited in Nie et al., Education and Democratic Citizenship in America, 99.
89. "why, given dramatically increasing educational opportunities, higher average levels of educational attainment, and the strong relation between education and political knowledge at the individual level, have aggregate political knowledge levels remained relatively stable over the past half-century?" Michael X. Delli Carpini and Scott Keeter, What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996), 199.
90. Langten and Jennings, "Political Socialization and the High School Civics Curriculum in the United States," 852-67. They examined the effects of these courses on political knowledge, political interest, spectator interest in politics, political discourse, political efficacy, political cynicism, civic tolerance, and participative orientation.
91. For the whole sample, civics courses had the strongest relationship on political knowledge. For black students, civics courses had a significant effect on political knowledge: "The civics curriculum is an important source of political knowledge for Negroes. . . . " Ibid., 865, 858, and 860.
92. M. Kent Jennings, Kenneth P. Langton, and Richard G. Niemi, "Effects of the High School Civics Curriculum" in Jennings and Niemi, The Political Character of Adolescence, 191. "[I]n the very short run the curriculum exerts what little effect it has on those under current exposure" (192).
93. Beck and Jennings, "Pathways to Participation," 101-2. "[T]hose who engage in extracurricular activities are more likely to become politically active later on. . . ." (105).
94. "It is fair to say that insofar as there is consensus on anything in political science, and insofar as political scientists are at all concerned about formal education and its role in political socialization, there has been a consensus that a formal civics curriculum or its equivalent is all but irrelevant to citizens' knowledge of or engagement with politics. . . ." Elizabeth Frazer, "Review of Niemi and Junn Civic Education," in Government and Opposition 35 (2000): 122. See the discussion of the scholarly consensus in Niemi and Junn, Civic Education, 13-20. They comment: "[T]he presumption that academic knowledge is gained entirely or even primarily in the classroom may be a truism for some subjects but not for civics" (61).
95. "It is fair to say that insofar as there is consensus on anything in political science, and insofar as political scientists are at all concerned about formal education and its role in political socialization, there has been a consensus that a formal civics curriculum or its equivalent is all but irrelevant to citizens' knowledge of or engagement with politics. . . ." Elizabeth Frazer, "Review of Niemi and Junn Civic Education," in Government and Opposition 35 (2000): 122. See the discussion of the scholarly consensus in Niemi and Junn, Civic Education, 13-20. They comment: "[T]he presumption that academic knowledge is gained entirely or even primarily in the classroom may be a truism for some subjects but not for civics" (61).
96. Niemi and Junn, Civic Education, 81.
97. Ibid., 123-24.
98. Ibid., 140.
99. See Jay P. Greene, "Review of Civic Education," Social Science Quarterly 81, no. 2 (2000): 696-97. Greene performed a reanalysis of the Niemi and Junn data set and found that the variable of how recently the civics course was taken collapsed into whether a student is enrolled in a civics class at the time that the civics test is taken: "If knowledge fades so rapidly that the only benefit of a civics class occurs while one is in it, then schools may not be able to do much to improve civics knowledge in the longer run." Greene found defects in other independent variables as well.
100. "As expected, the overall explanatory power of the model for both political attitudes is relatively small compared with the model predicting overall political knowledge." Niemi and Junn, Civic Education, 140.
101. See Herbert H. Hyman and Charles R. Wright, Education's Lasting Influence on Values (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1979), 65.
102. Not only do civics courses not have much effect but neither do history or social studies courses. See Jennings, Langten, and Niemi, "Effects of the High School Civics Curriculum," 191; and M. Kent Jennings, Lee H. Ehman, and Richard G. Niemi, "Social Studies Teachers and their Pupils," 226-27; both chapters in Jennings and Niemi, The Political Character of Adolescence.
103. Not only do civics courses not have much effect but neither do history or social studies courses. See Jennings, Langten, and Niemi, "Effects of the High School Civics Curriculum," 191; and M. Kent Jennings, Lee H. Ehman, and Richard G. Niemi, "Social Studies Teachers and their Pupils," 226-27; both chapters in Jennings and Niemi, The Political Character of Adolescence.
104. Gutmann, Democratic Education, 106.
105. A group of political scientists and educators designed a. new civics curriculum to teach tolerance and have experimentally tested its effects on students; they claim that this new curriculum causes students (on average) to express more tolerant attitudes. For the curriculum, see Patricia Avery et al., Tolerance for Diversity of Beliefs: A Secondary Curriculum Unit (Boulder, CO: Social Science Education Consortium, 1993). For the studies claiming that this curriculum made students more tolerant, see Patricia Avery et al., "Exploring Political Tolerance with Adolescents," Theory and Research in Social Education 20, no. 4 (1992): 386-420; and Karen Bird et al., "Not Just Lip-Synching Anymore: Education and Tolerance Revisited," Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 16, nos. 3-4 (1994): 373-86.
106. A group of political scientists and educators designed a. new civics curriculum to teach tolerance and have experimentally tested its effects on students; they claim that this new curriculum causes students (on average) to express more tolerant attitudes. For the curriculum, see Patricia Avery et al., Tolerance for Diversity of Beliefs: A Secondary Curriculum Unit (Boulder, CO: Social Science Education Consortium, 1993). For the studies claiming that this curriculum made students more tolerant, see Patricia Avery et al., "Exploring Political Tolerance with Adolescents," Theory and Research in Social Education 20, no. 4 (1992): 386-420; and Karen Bird et al., "Not Just Lip-Synching Anymore: Education and Tolerance Revisited," Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 16, nos. 3-4 (1994): 373-86.
107. A group of political scientists and educators designed a. new civics curriculum to teach tolerance and have experimentally tested its effects on students; they claim that this new curriculum causes students (on average) to express more tolerant attitudes. For the curriculum, see Patricia Avery et al., Tolerance for Diversity of Beliefs: A Secondary Curriculum Unit (Boulder, CO: Social Science Education Consortium, 1993). For the studies claiming that this curriculum made students more tolerant, see Patricia Avery et al., "Exploring Political Tolerance with Adolescents," Theory and Research in Social Education 20, no. 4 (1992): 386-420; and Karen Bird et al., "Not Just Lip-Synching Anymore: Education and Tolerance Revisited," Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 16, nos. 3-4 (1994): 373-86.
108. Gutmann, Democratic Education, 107.
109. Plato, Republic, trans. Robin Waterfield (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 540A.
110. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, in Complete Works of Aristotle, ed. Jonathan Barnes (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 1095a3 and 1103a15.
111. Ibid., 1103b4, 1103b21, 1180a32.
112. Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1:1, 5, 57.
113. True, Aristotle does recommend public or common schooling over private schooling (Politics, 1337a3; Nicomachean Ethics, 1180a14), but there is no evidence that he thinks these schools should aim at civic education; in fact, he prefers a liberal education for leisure over a civic education (Politics, 1338a21-32).
114. True, Aristotle does recommend public or common schooling over private schooling (Politics, 1337a3; Nicomachean Ethics, 1180a14), but there is no evidence that he thinks these schools should aim at civic education; in fact, he prefers a liberal education for leisure over a civic education (Politics, 1338a21-32).
115. True, Aristotle does recommend public or common schooling over private schooling (Politics, 1337a3; Nicomachean Ethics, 1180a14), but there is no evidence that he thinks these schools should aim at civic education; in fact, he prefers a liberal education for leisure over a civic education (Politics, 1338a21-32).
116. See, for example, Gutmann, Democratic Education, 106-7; and Macedo, Democracy and Distrust, 235.
117. See, for example, Gutmann, Democratic Education, 106-7; and Macedo, Democracy and Distrust, 235.
118. Kant, On Pedagogy (Pädagogik) 9:449. Cf. Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (Grundle-gung) 4:423; and The Metaphysics of Morals (Metaphysik der Sitten) 6:392, 444-45. All Kant citations are by volume and page number from the standard Prussian Academy edition of Kants gesammelte Schriften (Berlin: Georg Reimer, later Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1902-). All translations of Kant are mine.
119. Kant, On Pedagogy (Pädagogik) 9:449. Cf. Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (Grundle-gung) 4:423; and The Metaphysics of Morals (Metaphysik der Sitten) 6:392, 444-45. All Kant citations are by volume and page number from the standard Prussian Academy edition of Kants gesammelte Schriften (Berlin: Georg Reimer, later Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1902-). All translations of Kant are mine.
120. Kant, On Pedagogy (Pädagogik) 9:449. Cf. Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (Grundle-gung) 4:423; and The Metaphysics of Morals (Metaphysik der Sitten) 6:392, 444-45. All Kant citations are by volume and page number from the standard Prussian Academy edition of Kants gesammelte Schriften (Berlin: Georg Reimer, later Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1902-). All translations of Kant are mine.
121. Kant, On Pedagogy (Pädagogik) 9:449. Cf. Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals (Grundle-gung) 4:423; and The Metaphysics of Morals (Metaphysik der Sitten) 6:392, 444-45. All Kant citations are by volume and page number from the standard Prussian Academy edition of Kants gesammelte Schriften (Berlin: Georg Reimer, later Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1902-). All translations of Kant are mine.
122. "Der Mensch soll nicht bloss au allerlei Zwecken geschickt sein, sondern auch die Gesinnung bekommen, dass er nur lauter gute Zwecke erwähle." On Pedagogy (Pädagogik) 9:450.
123. Ibid., 9:469-70.
124. See Christopher Eisgruber, "How Do Liberal Democracies Teach Values?" in Nomos, 74.
125. "Mandating civic minimalism would entail constitutionally prohibiting citizens from requiring any more of schools than teaching the 3 R's, or some other clearly specified minimum." Gutmann, "Civic Minimalism, Cosmopolitanism, and Patriotism: Where Does Democratic Education Stand in Relation to Each?" in Nomos, 35.
126. Ibid., 34.
127. Ibid., 37. "In addition to a high level of numeracy and literacy, [it would also need to include] teaching civic values such as racial nondiscrimination and religious toleration . . ." (42).
128. It helps children "learn how to live a good life in a nonmoral sense by teaching them knowledge and appreciation of (among other things) literature, science, history, and sports." See Gutmann, Democratic Education, 51.
129. "The logical skills taught by science and mathematics, the interpretive skills taught by literature, the understanding of different ways of life taught by both history and literature, and even the sportsmanship taught by physical education can contribute to the moral education of citizens." Ibid., 51.
130. Ibid., 53.
131. Macedo, Diversity and Distrust, 238. Macedo sees academics as a moral vacuum, but not public schools: "At their best, public schools exemplify a spirit of mutual respect, reciprocity, and mutual curiosity about cultural differences" (123).
132. Callan, Creating Citizens, 170.
133. "[W]e can conclude that 'political education'-the cultivation of the virtues, knowledge, and skills necessary for political participation-has moral primacy over the other purposes of public education in a democratic society." Gutmann, Democratic Education, 287; cf. 127 and 290.
134. Macedo, Diversity and Distrust, 122.
135. Callan, Creating Citizens, 176.
136. She wonders "why so much taxpayer money should go to schooling that gives up on the central aims of civic education. If schooling ceases to become a compelling public good, then it should be privately rather than publicly funded, at least for everyone but parents who cannot afford to educate their children." Gutmann, "Civic Education and Social Diversity," 572-73.
137. See Zagzebski, Virtues of the Mind, 175-77.
138. Dewey, Democracy and Education, 356-57; cf. 173-79.
139. See, for one example, Pangle and Pangle, "What the American Founders Have to Teach Us about Schooling for Democratic Citizenship," 21-46.
140. Jefferson, quoted in Leonard W. Levy, Jefferson and Civil Liberties: The Darker Side (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963), 157. Levy comments about this noble aspiration: "Six years later and only a few months before his death, he viewed the law school as the place from which the path of future generations would be lit by the vestal flame of political partisanship rather than by truth or unfettered inquiry."
141. On Jefferson's decades-long promotion of John Baxter's plagiarized, falsified, and republicanized edition of Hume, see Dumas Malone, Jefferson and His Time, vol. 6, The Sage of Monticello (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1981), 205-7. Arthur Bestor, "Thomas Jefferson and the Freedom of Books," in Bestor et al., Three Presidents and Their Books (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1955), 1-44: "It is embarrassing, to say the least, to find Jefferson recommending such a sorry combination of plagiarism, expurgation, and clandestine emendation" (18). For Baxter's text, see John Baxter, A New and Impartial History of England (London: H. D. Symonds, 1796-1801); Baxter never mentions his reliance on Hume.
142. On Jefferson's decades-long promotion of John Baxter's plagiarized, falsified, and republicanized edition of Hume, see Dumas Malone, Jefferson and His Time, vol. 6, The Sage of Monticello (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1981), 205-7. Arthur Bestor, "Thomas Jefferson and the Freedom of Books," in Bestor et al., Three Presidents and Their Books (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1955), 1-44: "It is embarrassing, to say the least, to find Jefferson recommending such a sorry combination of plagiarism, expurgation, and clandestine emendation" (18). For Baxter's text, see John Baxter, A New and Impartial History of England (London: H. D. Symonds, 1796-1801); Baxter never mentions his reliance on Hume.
143. On Jefferson's decades-long promotion of John Baxter's plagiarized, falsified, and republicanized edition of Hume, see Dumas Malone, Jefferson and His Time, vol. 6, The Sage of Monticello (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1981), 205-7. Arthur Bestor, "Thomas Jefferson and the Freedom of Books," in Bestor et al., Three Presidents and Their Books (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1955), 1-44: "It is embarrassing, to say the least, to find Jefferson recommending such a sorry combination of plagiarism, expurgation, and clandestine emendation" (18). For Baxter's text, see John Baxter, A New and Impartial History of England (London: H. D. Symonds, 1796-1801); Baxter never mentions his reliance on Hume.
144. See "Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, March 4, 1825," in Bestor, "Thomas Jefferson and Freedom of Books," 43-44. Among the mandatory texts were the Virginia Resolutions of 1798-1800, which uphold the states'-rights, strict-constructionist interpretation of the Constitution, according to Bestor (27).
145. See letter of Madison to Jefferson, February 8, 1825, in Bestor, "Thomas Jefferson and the Freedom of Books," 41-42.
146. See the letters of Jefferson and of Madison in Bestor, "Thomas Jefferson and Freedom of Books," 39-44.
147. Among many histories of American civic education, see Smith, Civic Ideals; Bessie Louise Pierce, Civic Attitudes in American School Textbooks (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1930); and Ruth Miller Elson, Guardians of Tradition: American Schoolbooks of the Nineteenth Century (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1964).
148. Among many histories of American civic education, see Smith, Civic Ideals; Bessie Louise Pierce, Civic Attitudes in American School Textbooks
149. Among many histories of American civic education, see Smith, Civic Ideals; Bessie Louise Pierce, Civic Attitudes in American School Textbooks (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1930); and Ruth Miller Elson, Guardians of Tradition: American Schoolbooks of the Nineteenth Century (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1964).
150. Elhanan Winchester, A Plain Political Catechism Intended for the Use of Schools in the United States of America (Greenfield, MA: Dickman, 1796), questions 60 and 65.
151. See Elson, Guardians of Tradition, 47-48, 53.
152. See Pierce, Civic Attitudes in American School Textbooks, 229-39.
153. See Alexander Stille, "Textbook Publishers Learn: Avoid Messing with Texas," New York Times, June 29, 2002, late edition, sec. A, p. 1, col. 1.
154. See N. R. Kleinfield, "The Elderly Man and the Sea? Test Sanitizes Literary Texts," New York Times, June 2, 2002, late edition, sec. 1, p. 1, col. 1.
155. See Gilbert T. Sewall, "History Textbooks at the New Century," A Report of the American Textbook Council (New York, 2000); and Paul C. Vitz, Censorship: Evidence of Bias in our Children's Textbooks (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Books, 1986).
156. See Gilbert T. Sewall, "History Textbooks at the New Century," A Report of the American Textbook Council (New York, 2000); and Paul C. Vitz, Censorship: Evidence of Bias in our Children's Textbooks (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Books, 1986).
157. See Elson, Guardians of Tradition, 226.
158. For example, educator William Damon argues that our schools ought to use American history to teach students to love their country: "Now I am aware that when I write this, I risk being accused of trying to indoctrinate children by brainwashing them with a whitewashed picture of America. But whitewashing is not at all what I have in mind. For one thing, it is a necessary part of character education to teach about the mistakes that have been made and the problems that persist." Of course, to describe the evils in American history, such as slavery, lynching, and the killing of the natives, as "mistakes" is the very definition of "whitewashing." See Damon, "To Not Fade Away: Restoring Civil Identity Among the Young," in Ravitch and Viteritti, eds., Making Good Citizens, 139.
159. "Conservative celebratory history is permissible; so is left-progressive critical history; and if Mormons want to teach that American history is the working out of the providential hand of God, that is permissible too." Michael McConnell, "Education Disestablishment," in Nomos, 102-3.
160. McConnell, for example, like all the other advocates of civic education, describes academic education in purely amoral terms: "It may be necessary for all citizens to be literate and numerate . . . [and] to have a rudimentary understanding of United States history and civics. . . ." McConnell, "Education Disestablishment," 102.
161. Galston, "Civic Education in the Liberal State," 90.
162. Ibid., 91.
163. Galston is right that citizens embrace their civic commitments primarily through nonrational attachments but wrong to think that they need moralizing history lessons at school in order to become attached to their country. Indeed, it is precisely because the school can rely on these primary nonscholastic civic bonds that the school is free to encourage the pursuit of genuine knowledge. So Galston here again reveals his confusion of civic education with civic schooling. For a quite different critique of Galston, see Will Kymlicka, "Education for Citizenship," in J. Mark Halstead and Terence H. McLaughlin, eds., Education in Morality (London: Routledge, 1999), 96-97.
164. Callan, Creating Citizens, 216.
165. Mozert v. Hawkins County Board of Education, 827 F.2d 1058 (6th Cir. 1987). I will not attempt to discuss the many moral, religious, and legal issues raised by this case nor rehearse the many arguments that it has generated.
166. Gutmann describes Mozert: "The parents' objections were directed at an English curriculum that, by state mandate, was supposed to serve the purpose of civic education, not just education in the skills of reading and writing." See Gutmann, "Civics Education and Social Diversity," 571-72.
167. "while it would be unreasonable to insist on perfect 'balance' in school readers or other parts of the curriculum, political liberals can sympathize with objectors to a reading program so heavily biased toward a particular comprehensive view that it appears designed to advance that view and denigrate alternatives." Stephen Macedo, "Liberal Civic Education and Religious Fundamentalism: The Case of God v. John Rawls?" Ethics 105, no. 3 (1995): 487.
168. Nor is the issue whether such attempts at indoctrination are effective or not. Our empirical evidence suggests that such efforts to inculcate attitudes are not usually effective, perhaps for reasons discussed by Eisgruber in his "How Do Liberal Democracies Teach Values?" 62-65. The issue is the rectitude of the intention to indoctrinate.
169. "[w]hat if (civic) education also occurs through the ways in which children are taught and interact within the public school?" Joe Coleman, "Civic Pedagogies and Liberal-Democratic Curricula," Ethics 108, no. 4 (1998): 752.
170. Ibid., 754.
171. Ibid., 755.
172. I b i d.
173. The best summary of the academic case against progressivism is E. D. Hirsch, Jr., The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them (New York: Doubleday, 1996), which Coleman references but does not discuss.
174. In addition to providing moral arguments against 'tracking' (segregating by academic ability), sexist education, racial segregation, and (narrowly) vocational education, even where these might be academically warranted, democratic education "also supports a presumption in favor of more participatory over more disciplinary methods of teaching. Participatory methods are often the best means of achieving the disciplinary purposes of primary schooling. But even when student participation threatens to produce some degree of disorder within schools, it may be defended on democratic grounds for cultivating political skills and social commitments." Gutmann, Democratic Education, 287.
175. "I define knowledge as cognitive contact with reality arising from what I call 'acts of intellectual virtue'." Zagzebski, Virtues of the Mind, xv.
176. Dewey, Democracy and Education, 356.
177. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1103a5.
178. Passmore describes a good teacher: "He hoped to develop in his pupils not only the capacity for proceeding carefully, but a caring about, passion for, accurate statement, careful reading, sound arguments." Passmore, The Philosophy of Teaching, 188.
179. For Zagzebski's list, see Virtues of the Mind, 20.
180. Aristotle, Nicomachecm Ethics, 1103a14.
181. Passmore, The Philosophy of Teaching, 197.
182. Herbert H. Hyman, Charles R. Wright, and John Shelton Reed, The Enduring Effects of Education (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1975), 80-93.
183. "Instead of a balanced approach, the emphasis in teaching about gender and race appears to be exclusively on the 'good things'-the abolition of slavery, the end of legal segregation, the enfranchisement of women, the fall of many barriers to women's participation. . . ." Niemi and Junn, Civic Education, 150-51.
184. See Bird et al., "Not Just Lip-Synching Anymore: Education and Tolerance Revisited," 374.
185. Eisgruber, "How Do Liberal Democracies Teach Values?" 77.
186. "[I]t is the cognitive outcomes of education, rather than the positional outcomes, that are responsible for the connection between education and tolerance." Nie et al., Education and Democratic Citizenship in America, 72.
187. "[T]he communist regimes in Eastern Europe, with their emphasis for the last half-century on modernization through education, unintentionally created new generations of citizens who were prone to work for the toppling of the very regimes that saw to their education." Ibid., 184.
188. See Delli Carpini and Keeter, What Americans Know about Politics and Why It Matters, 219.
189. "Certainly no one applies the word 'indoctrinate' when the schools try to teach most facts and accepted bodies of knowledge. That is regarded not as any unwarranted 'imposition' but as a duty." Hyman and Wright, Education's Lasting Influence on Values, 66.