Teaching Democracy: Unity and Diversity in Public Life
Walter C. Parker
(New York: Teachers College Press, 2003)
http://www.teacherscollegepress.com/

Idiot (idiotes) was a term of reproach in ancient Greece reserved for persons who paid no attention to public affairs and engaged only in self-interested or private pursuits, never mind the public interest - the civic space and the common good. This book is about the role schools can play in the contemporary struggle against idiocy, that is, the quest for a just democracy in a diverse society. It is at once a book about citizenship education and multicultural education. Democratic character development (moral education) is central to both of these because neither democratic living nor justice appears magically out of the blue. Both are hard-won cognitive, moral, and social achievements; none of us wanders into them accidentally, easily, or alone. Access to such an education is a central topic, too, because it does not now widely exist nor can it ever be assumed in a society where educational opportunity is so unequally allocated, school funding so inadequate and wildly uneven, and where economic motives for education so often overtake liberal (mind-expanding) and public (community-building) purposes.

Series Foreword James A. Banks
Introduction

Chapters:
1. From Idiocy to Citizenship
2. Democracy and Difference
3. Toward Enlightened Political Engagement
4. Promoting Justice: Two Views
5. Can We Talk? Dialogue Across Difference
6. Making Publics, Finding Problems, Imagining Solutions
7. Learning to Lead Discussions
8. Access to a Non-Idiotic Education