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AGAINST CIVIC SCHOOLING

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2004

James Bernard Murphy
James Bernard Murphy
Affiliation:
Government, Darthmouth College
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Extract

A fierce debate about civic education in American public schools has erupted in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Many liberals and conservatives, though they disagree strongly about which civic virtues to teach, share the assumption that such education is an appropriate responsibility for public schools. They are wrong. Civic education aimed at civic virtue is at best ineffective; worse, it is often subversive of the moral purpose of schooling. Moreover, the attempt to impose these partisan conceptions of civic virtue on America's students violates the civic trust that underpins vibrant public schools.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Philosophy and Policy , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , January 2004 , pp. 221 - 265
Copyright
© 2004 Social Philosophy and Policy Foundation

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Footnotes

For comments on an earlier draft of this essay, I am indebted to Mark Stein, Lucas Swaine, Shelley Burtt, Stanley Fish, Mary Beth Klee, Ellen Frankel Paul, and the other contributors to this volume. I also wish to thank my indefatigable research assistants and copyeditors, Karen Liot and Emily Mintz. I began this inquiry in response to questions about the relation of academic to moral excellence from the late Patty Farnsworth, to whom I dedicate this essay.