The Moral Imperative for American Schools: "... Inflame the Civic Temper..."

In the face of clamorous demands for (a) returning the schools to the safe harbors of traditional moral and religious values or (b) piloting the schools through the uncharted shoals of moral choice by means of "critical thinking," this article argues for the revitalizing of the historic civic mission of American education. This means explicit and continuing study of the basic concepts and values underlying our democratic political community and constitutional order. The common core of study throughout school and college years should be the morality of citizenship. For this goal to be achieved, scholarly study of civic morality should be the first priority in the liberal and professional education of teachers and administrators. The moral agenda for American education, its curriculum, its common life, and its governance, thus becomes the study and practice of the obligations as well as the rights of democratic citizenship. Obligations: justice, equality, authority, participation, truth, and patriotism. Rights: freedom, diversity, privacy, due process, property, and human rights.