Education and Democratic Citizenship: Capabilities and Quality Education

Public education is crucial to the health of democracy. Recent educational initiatives in many countries, however, focus narrowly on science and technology, neglecting the arts and humanities. They also focus on internalization of information, rather than on the formation of the student's critical and imaginative capacities. This article argues that such a narrow focus is dangerous for democracy's future. Drawing on the ideas of Rabindranath Tagore, the paper proposes a three-part model for the development of young people's capabilities through education, focusing on critical thinking, world citizenship, and imaginative understanding.