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Wagner Research Professor Joseph Viteritti, School of Ed Professor Diane Ravitch Probe Schools' Role in New Book

"This thought-provoking collection is a useful start for considering how our schools might move beyond the platitudes of multiculturalism." -- Gary Rosen, New York Times, November 18, 2001

Americans have reason to be concerned about the condition of American democracy at the start of the twenty-first century. Civic participation has declined, cynicism about government has increased, and young people have a weak grasp of the principles that underlie our constitutional system. Crucial questions must be answered: How serious is the situation? What role do schools play in shaping civic behavior? Are current education reform initiatives — such as multiculturalism and school choice — counterproductive? How can schools contribute toward reversing the trend?

Viteritti

MAKING GOOD CITIZENS: Education and Civil Society, edited by Diane Ravitch and Joseph P. Viteritti (Yale University Press 2001) brings together distinguished scholars from a variety of disciplines to probe the relation between education and a healthy democracy. Their original and provocative discussions cut across a range of important topics: the cultivation of democratic values, the formation of social capital in schools and communities, political conflict in a pluralist society, the place of religion in public life, the enduring problems of racial inequality.

The editors contribute two essays: Ravitch, "Education and Democracy," and Viteritti, "Risking Choice, Redressing Inequality." Other contributors include William Damon, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Nathan Glazer, Charles L. Glenn, Gerald Grant, Mark Holmes, Norman Nie and D. Sunshine Hillygus, Warren A. Nord, Robert D. Putnam, Jack N. Rakove, Rosemary C. Salomone, and Alan Wolfe.

Joseph P. Viteritti is a Research Professor of Public Administration at the Wagner School.  Diane Ravitch is a Research Professor at NYU's Steinhardt School of Education.  Professors Viteritti and Ravitch are co-chairs of NYU's Program on Education and Civil Society.

MAKING GOOD CITIZENS
Education and Civil Society.

Edited by Diane Ravitch
and Joseph P. Viteritti.
358 pp. New Haven:
Yale University Press.