The Christian Science Monitor: Public education, democracy, and the future of America
UC faculty cited as expert in national media coverage of public education system
Sarah Stitzlein, professor of education Photo: Jay Yocis
Approximately 87% of Americans are educated in the public school system. The smaller percentage attend private school or are home schooled, according to an article in The Christian Science Monitor that poses the question of whether public education as we knew it, pre-pandemic, can survive as an intuition that teaches democracy.
This was, after all, the original intent of public schools, says the article; noting that lessons in civics and history have been diluted to accommodate other subjects and societal shifts.
A recent report states: “Fraught though the terrain is, America urgently needs a shared, national conversation about what is most important to teach in American history and civics, how to teach it, and above all, why?
UC education expert Sarah Stitzlein, a professor in the College of Education, Criminal Justice, Human Services, says public education is a reflection of society:
“It’s a place where people from different backgrounds – and I mean everything from race and gender to religion and economics and general ideologies and different values – where people are all coming together in a shared space ... to see and value what it means to be an American,” says Stitzlein, who is also co-editor of the journal Democracy & Education.
Featured image at top courtsey of Unsplash.
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