How can education protect and strengthen democracy?
In an era when democracy is at critical risk, is it reasonable to expect the education system―already buckling under the ordeal of a global pandemic―to solve the converging problems of inequality, climate change, and erosion of trust in government and science? Will more civics instruction help? In Can Schools Save Democracy? Michael J. Feuer offers a new approach to addressing these questions with a strategy for improving the process and substance of civic education.
Although schooling alone cannot save democracy, it must play a part. Feuer introduces a framework for educator preparation that emphasizes collective action, experiential learning, and partnerships between schools and their complex constituencies. His proposed reform aims to equip teachers with an appreciation of the paradoxes of pluralism―in particular, the tensions between individual choice and
social outcomes. And he offers practical suggestions for how to bring those concepts to life so that students in and out of the classroom acquire the skills, knowledge, and dispositions for enlightened democratic leadership.
Adopting a definition of public education that celebrates the engagement between schools and their environments, Feuer argues for reinforced partnerships within the education system and between educators and their diverse constituents. He anticipates new collaborations between education faculty and their colleagues in the behavioral, social, and physical sciences and humanities; stronger links between schools and their complex outside environments; and improved mechanisms for global cooperation. Can Schools Save Democracy? includes lively examples of how theoretical principles can inform familiar problems and offers a hopeful path for progress toward a stronger democracy.
In a time of fierce differences over the fundamental values of our democracy, Michael Feuer brings to the argument a clear understanding of the politics, psychology, and economics of education and their relationship to concepts of the “common good.” This book builds on the author’s deep knowledge and experience to propose a new and hopeful roadmap for civic learning. It is rich in ideas and insights that make it a must-read for educators, policy makers, and everyone who cares about the future of our democracy.
―Richard C. Atkinson, President Emeritus, University of California
In a democracy, the education of the young is the one true hope for its preservation. Thomas Jefferson knew that John Dewey knew that, and Michael Feuer reminds us once again. Hopefully, we listen to this important message.
―Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin
At a time when one national political party has decided that the path to permanent political power goes through local school board elections, Feuer provides both scholars and practitioners with a timely and reasoned way forward on how schools can once again be called upon to save democracy by revitalizing civic education at a critical and pivotal moment in our history.
―Carl A. Cohn, Claremont Graduate University
This is a deeply knowledgeable, deeply wise, deeply felt brief for civics education in public schools. Michael Feuer’s optimism that schools can make a meaningful dent in our stubborn, stuck national political culture is inspiring, and it ought to be a spur to action.
―Nicholas Lemann, Columbia Journalism School
Michael Feuer is Dean of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development and Professor of Education Policy at The George Washington University, and President of the National Academy of Education. Before coming to GW in 2010, Feuer held several positions at the National Research Council of the National Academies: he was the founding director of the Board on Testing and Assessment and most recently served as the executive director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Prior to joining the NRC he was a senior analyst and project director at the US Congress Office of Technology Assessment. Feuer received his BA in English from Queens College (CUNY), an MA in public management from the Wharton School, and a PhD in public policy analysis from the University of Pennsylvania. He was on the faculty at Drexel University from 1981-1986, and has taught courses in education policy and research at Penn and Georgetown. Feuer consults regularly to educational institutions and government in the US, Israel, Europe, and the Middle East. He has published in education, economics, philosophy, and policy journals and has had reviews, essays, and poems in newspapers and magazines in Washington, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and New York. Feuer is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Educational Research Association, and co-chair of the Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education (CASJE). In 2014 President Obama appointed Feuer to the National Board of Education Sciences. Feuer lives in Washington, DC, with his wife, Regine.
profound, and passionate, this new book is also a vindication of love. Although it tells a story full of sorrow, The Child Who Never Spoke is a not a sad book but a profound and joyous testament to the love between a mother and daughter.”-Dana Gioia, California poet laureate and author of Can Poetry Matter?
