The normative ideals of democracy, trust and respect are under threat from the forces of populism and extremism. I argue for a recalibration of some basic ideas in the moral and social domains in which each person sees her/himself as one among others. I defend 0093The Principle of Personal Worth0094 which asserts that persons are more valuable…

The paradigm for formulating educational policy adopted by Bischoff and Shores, which appears to be the prevailing one, appears to offer no role to the citizen, rendering the paradigm suspect. The authors' honest admission of the limitations of social science knowledge undercuts the argument for the usefulness of research in this area.

There exists a plethora of writings about citizenship, or "civic virtue," in a democracy. Articles, books, reports, and commentaries proliferate, and the theme is continually stressed in the multiple activities of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). In this article, the author believes that a summary of the…

Since the seventeenth century, there have been two narratives about modernity in general and America in particular. The author uses the term "narrative" to include (a) facts, (b) arguments, and most important, (c) a larger vision of how one sees the world and chooses to engage the world. The first and originalist narrative is the Lockean Liberty…

In this essay, a high school senior reflects on her educational experience as a journey beginning with her difficult decision to stay at Francis W. Parker School for high school and ending with her current search for a college where she can continue to explore the nature of education. Her narrative focuses on her experience in an elective course…

This article directs to the Dialogues of Leadership Education section of "Scholar-Practitioner Quarterly," Volume 4, Issue 4, wherein the contributing authors examined the question of priorities of leadership education for a democratic society. In this article, the author extends that earlier dialogue, and draws into specific relief the language…

Jeremy Waldron, a professor of social and political theory at University of Oxford and also a professor of law at New York University, contends that laws against hate speech deserve further consideration, even if he doubts they "will ever pass constitutional muster in America." He contends that "The Harm in Hate Speech," as his…

This "crucible moment" in which democratic capitalism finds itself does not call for more government mandates to dictate progressive activism in higher education. Rather, this crucible moment calls higher education on its own initiative to focus on the moral foundation that both democracy and capitalism require. The foundation of democratic…

The primary priority for an educational leader in a democracy is decency. The author understands decency as showing compassion, respect, love, and caring for one another. That may sound soft and fuzzy, but she believes it is one of the harder things to do as a leader. It is fundamental to everything written about democracy--the need for dialogue;…

This article presents the author's response to "Tocqueville on Democracy and Inclusive Education: A More Ardent and Enduring Love of Equality than of Liberty" written by Steven Connolley and Rune Sarromaa Hausstatter. The author agrees with Connolley and Hausstatter that people need to stop and question the assumptions and values associated with…

This article presents the author's response to Connolley and Hausstatter's article "Tocqueville on Democracy and Inclusive Education: A More Ardent and Enduring Love of Equality than of Liberty." The perspectives of diversity treated in their article are both diversity among "people's abilities," and diversity of "opinions." According to Connolley…

This article presents the authors' response to the commentaries on their article. In reply to Julie Allan they contend that it is not so much the exposure to democratic ideas that they are against as much as the argument that democratic practices ought to be a central element in schooling. Moreover, they do not argue that introducing democratic…

This article presents the author's response to "Tocqueville on Democracy and Inclusive Education: A More Ardent and Enduring Love of Equality than of Liberty" written by Steven Connolley and Rune Sarromaa Hausstatter. Connolley and Hausstatter frame their critique of inclusive education and its relationship to democracy, liberty and equality using…

This is a critical response to the papers by Shusterman, Sartwell, and Stroud. I claim that Shusterman has missed the inter-human moral aesthetics of Confucianism, that Sartwell has misunderstood Taoism's idea of "receptivity," confusing it with anarchist "passivity," and Stroud has not overcome the "Gita's" injunction to sacrifice the self,…

This essay explores the ways in which the ancient Greek concept of parrhesia, defined as "frank speech and telling the truth as one sees it," can help facilitate the development of both intellectual courage and democracy as a way of life. It theorizes dimensions of parrhesia for the purpose of better educating a civic self-image rooted…