Review of What kind of citizen? Educating our children for the common good

What is it about?

With a moving invitation to think about schools in ways that move beyond battles over standards and external evaluation, Joel Westheimer reminds us that decisions about how to educate our students are also decisions about the type of society that we want, and therefore, political in origin. After all, as Kliebard said (1986), debates about school are also debates about opposing visions that different stakeholders hold about the world. Whatever we do in schools, we are educating citizens. The issue, as the title of the book asks, is: what kind of citizen?

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Why is it important?

What kind of citizen do we promote if we pursue behaviors among children such as silence, order, and obedience to authority? What kind of citizen do we encourage when we seek uncritical memorization of already-given knowledge? What kind of citizen do we foster if we avoid social problems and public controversies in classrooms? These are only a handful of points that Westheimer raises to question the democratic purpose of traditional schools, and the answers that outline his questions are far from being “critical”, “participatory” or “democratic”. It is not surprising, then, that the author asks somewhat sarcastically if a classroom of a democratic country like the US is so different from a classroom of any autocratic state. Yet–the author challenges us–if we want to educate democratic citizens, should not we teach children to think critically and to govern collectively? There is little objection to this reasoning. Unfortunately, this is not the prevailing logic that underlies the education policies adopted in the US (and in many other countries) in recent decades.