Schooling Citizens: How Education Can Save Our Democracy

Jonathan Zimmerman’s essays remind us that schools and universities can help save our democracy by teaching future citizens how to communicate across their differences

Democracy requires informed citizens, as well as schools and universities prepared to equip them for participation in the governing of our republic. But we are falling short of this ideal: every month brings a new report about plummeting school attendance, poor reading scores, and rising rates of depression and attention-deficit disorder among young people. At our colleges, students sleepwalk through class and rely on artificial intelligence to complete their assignments. And in the broader public sphere, the widespread embrace of conspiracy theory and misinformation shows that many Americans lack the knowledge and skills that democracy demands. Why has American education failed to produce well-informed citizens, capable of critical thinking, prepared to participate in our democracy?

Schooling Citizens presents a collection of essays from the past several decades by distinguished historian of education Jonathan Zimmerman, addressing divisive issues from the influence of religion in public schools to the politically charged battles between the Trump administration and the universities. These essays are framed by a new preface and introductions to the book’s two sections concerning K–12 education and higher education. Throughout, Zimmerman contends there is hope that education can help save our democracy by embracing and not avoiding the differences in our classrooms, and above all by resisting every effort—by citizens, politicians, or educators—to restrict what we say or think. Zimmerman argues that we have enough agreement on the essentials of education to move beyond our disagreements if we hold true to our founding ideal of free and open exchange. Schooling Citizens makes the case that our schools and universities can help save democracy, if we can summon the will—and the courage—to seize the opportunity.