Educating for Democracy: Preparing Undergraduates for Responsible Political Engagement

by Silvia Foti Creating citizens engaged in maintaining democracy entails intentionally increasing the people’s knowledge of the democratic process, their skills, and their motivation. This falls under the purview of America’s colleges and universities, according to the authors ( Anne Colby, Elizabeth Beaumont, Thomas Ehrlich, Josh Corngold) of Educating for Democracy, yet for a variety of reasons, is a mission that is failing. Written with a sense of urgency of how important it is for the academy to educate its students on democracy, the authors suggest that America is headed for troubling times and that if citizens are not more engaged in the democratic […]