Chapter 9: Teaching Students How to Live in a Democracy

In the United States, universal, state-supported and locally governed public schooling was created to ensure the American people would be responsible citizens of a democracy, instill moral and ethical values in American children and youth, and provide citizens the knowledge they need for national economic development and prosperity. The processes of schooling include five major components. First, the diverse students must be united into a common culture and society. This includes being able to work with each other to achieve common goals. Second, students must learn how to engage in constructive political discourse and collective decision making. The instructional method that inherently teaches the competencies and values to do so is constructive controversy. Third, among diverse groups in a society there are conflicts of interests that can divide and separate. These conflicts must be managed integratively, so that the parties involved seek agreements that maximize joint gain and the benefits of all. Fourth, schools are responsible for ensuring that students develop a clear personal identity and a superordinate identity that unites all citizens into members of the same society. Finally, the school is responsible for inculcating the values and moral orientations required of citizens of a democracy.