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IS PATRIOTISM good for democracy? Or does a commitment to patriotism threaten democracy? Educators do not agree on this issue.
Chester Finn (former assistant secretary of education in the Reagan Administration) argues that, since September 11, “American education has generally made a mess of a teaching opportunity” by focusing on “tolerance and multiculturalism, not civics and patriotism.”1
In an essay titled “Patriotism Revisited,” he worries that “it’s become a
JOSEPH KAHNE holds the Kathryn P. Hannah chair and is director of the Doctoral
Program in Educational Leadership and research director of the Institute for Civic
Leadership at Mills College, Oakland, Calif.
He can be reached at jkahne@mills.edu.
ELLEN MIDDAUGH is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. She can be reached at ellenm@berkeley.edu.
They wish to thank the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Annenberg Foundation, and the W. R. Hearst Foundation for their support of this research and the broader
Educating for Democracy Project. They also wish to thank Joel Westheimer, John
Rogers, Walter Parker, Tamar Dorfman, and
David Kahne for their very helpful feedback.
The conclusions are the authors’ own.
Is Patriotism Good for Democracy?
A Study of High School Seniors’
Patriotic Commitments
From their 2005 survey of 2,366 California high school seniors, Mr. Kahne and Ms. Middaugh conclude that, if educators wish to foster a strong and committed sense of democratic patriotism in their students, they have some serious work to do.
By Joseph Kahne and Ellen Middaugh
Patriotism and Education
600 PHI DELTA KAPPAN compulsion to pull down America rather than celebrate and defend it.”2 This view aligns with William
Damon’s perspective that “too many students today learn all about what is wrong with our society without gaining any knowledge of our society’s great moral successes. To establish a sound cognitive and affective foundation for
Chester Finn (former assistant secretary of education in the Reagan Administration) argues that, since September 11, “American education has generally made a mess of a teaching opportunity” by focusing on “tolerance and multiculturalism, not civics and patriotism.”1
In an essay titled “Patriotism Revisited,” he worries that “it’s become a
JOSEPH KAHNE holds the Kathryn P. Hannah chair and is director of the Doctoral
Program in Educational Leadership and research director of the Institute for Civic
Leadership at Mills College, Oakland, Calif.
He can be reached at jkahne@mills.edu.
ELLEN MIDDAUGH is a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. She can be reached at ellenm@berkeley.edu.
They wish to thank the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Annenberg Foundation, and the W. R. Hearst Foundation for their support of this research and the broader
Educating for Democracy Project. They also wish to thank Joel Westheimer, John
Rogers, Walter Parker, Tamar Dorfman, and
David Kahne for their very helpful feedback.
The conclusions are the authors’ own.
Is Patriotism Good for Democracy?
A Study of High School Seniors’
Patriotic Commitments
From their 2005 survey of 2,366 California high school seniors, Mr. Kahne and Ms. Middaugh conclude that, if educators wish to foster a strong and committed sense of democratic patriotism in their students, they have some serious work to do.
By Joseph Kahne and Ellen Middaugh
Patriotism and Education
600 PHI DELTA KAPPAN compulsion to pull down America rather than celebrate and defend it.”2 This view aligns with William
Damon’s perspective that “too many students today learn all about what is wrong with our society without gaining any knowledge of our society’s great moral successes. To establish a sound cognitive and affective foundation for