Public schooling in the 19th century cultivated in students a shared sense of identity as citizens with a common culture. However, posits David Labaree, U.S. schools are less effective than they used to be at serving this purpose, making their value to the nation-state open to questioning. Labaree considers three common functions that public…

Why school? The 48th Annual PDK Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools included questions about the purpose of schooling, standards, homework, school funding, and parents' relationships with their schools. The 2016 poll, which was conducted by Langer Research Associates, was based on a telephone poll of 1,221 adults during April…

The extent to which people abhor or admire patriotism in the schools depends on how it is taught. If educators teach it narrowly as jingoistic, uncritical self-praise of the nation, then such instruction is wrong. It would be indoctrination rather than education. If, however, they teach civic education and define patriotism as a respectful…

Over three decades of teaching, the author has come to a deep understanding of the commitment she made in swearing her loyalty to a governing system dedicated to the virtues of democracy and equality for all--both those within the diverse society and those across a global mosaic of cultures. Every day in the classroom, teachers and students alike…

Thousands of U.S. citizens live abroad in communities whose mission is to support the nation's military and diplomatic corps. Many members of these overseas communities are deployed for many months at a time in support of U.S. military missions, and many of those so deployed will be parents of students in American overseas schools. Under these…

Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance may be the core civic ritual in the United States and the most common--core because it extracts a personal promise of some sort and most common because it is widely required in schools and concludes the naturalization ceremony for new citizens. While many people have recited and memorized the pledge, few have…

Focuses on the wider meaning of the growth of alternative schooling in our society. Suggests that the survival of society depends on the widespread existence of decisionmaking powers, that such power is learned by making decisions, and that alternatives are needed in order that decisions may be made. (Author/DN)

The choice that a voucher proposition offers is between weakening the public schools still further by encouraging flight from them and strengthening the public schools by recalling them to their historic purpose of promoting the ideals of the democratic civic community. (Author)

Recent developments in the provision of education in the U.S. mean that the old definitions of "public schooling" no longer hold. In this article, Mr. Hess offers his suggestions for a broadened definition that will help public education regain its status as a shared ideal. He offers five questions to guide the efforts to bring more precision to…

Recent criticism of "secular humanism" in American education suggests the need for educators to more effectively address the complex question of the teaching of values in the schools. The task of American educators in public schools is to teach civic, not religious, values. (JBM)