Education and the American Dream: Historical Perspectives on Democracy and Education
HSED-UE 610 and LIBAR – UE 552
Fall, 2014 – Silver 408
Joan Malczewski
East Building, Room 608
jm186@nyu.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday 12 - 1, and by appointment
This course will examine the role of education in American society. Specifically, the course will
consider different conceptions of democracy, community, and the relationship between public
schooling and the promotion of democratic ideals. Students will explore some of the central
goals and purposes of American public education over the past two centuries, and the
historiographical debates about those goals and purposes. In the second half of the course, the
course will focus on the relationship between schooling and civic education, and between
schooling and specific communities. Students will be asked to consider whether the goals of
schooling might promote or contradict the goals of particular groups who seek to benefit from
public education, and how education does or does not promote democratic ideals.
COURSE MATERIALS
Required reading for this course consists of a set of articles that can be found on NYUClasses or
on the web, and the following texts, which are available at the NYU Bookstore:
Required
Robert Dahl, On Democracy (New Haven, Yale University Press: 1998).
William Reese, America’s Public Schools, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2005)
Jennifer Hochschild and Nathan Scovronick: The American Dream and the Public
Schools (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
Suggested
Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America, available on-line, but you may want to
own a copy, which is available in limited numbers at the NYU Bookstore. Ed.
Arthur Goldhammer, (New York: Library of America, 2004).
Course Requirements:
 Written Responses and Informed Participation in Class Readings and Discussion:
Students are expected to read thoroughly the assigned readings for the week and come to
class prepared to discuss the ideas and the authors’ perspectives. Every member of the
class is expected to play an active role in discussions and group exercises, both as an
informed participant and an engaged listener. To facilitate this participation, students
should submit a weekly response to the readings. This response will be due on Monday
each week, and will cover all of the readings for that week. This response can be either a
written essay that discussed a particular aspect of the readings, or a set of questions that
would be used to critically review the readings. Your response should not focus on just
one reading, but rather assimilate and critically consider the body of work for that week.
This might include a comparison between authors’ perspectives assigned that week, or
with authors from other weeks. In addition, as noted on the syllabus, there will be three
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comprehensive essays due during the semester. On the weeks that these are due, students
do not also have to write a weekly response paper. The class participation grade will be
negatively affected by late papers and unexcused absences. Students who are absent four
or more times for any reason cannot pass the course. (30%)
 Comprehensive Essays: Students will be expected to submit three essays during the
semester, 3 – 5 pages each. Questions will be posted on NYU Classes throughout the
semester. These questions will explore important themes presented in the readings and
class discussions and will help students to respond critically to these ideas. The papers
should cite the works assigned in class and use the Chicago Manual of Style format for
citations. (Due October 6, November 3, and December 8 -- 30% of grade)
 Final Project: Students will be expected to explore one issue in depth that considers the
relationship between education and democracy in contemporary culture. According to
Robert Dahl, a democratic political society is dependent upon citizens having access to
alternative sources of information – and a free press is an important source.1 Students
should be regularly reading the news and should explore articles that relate to the course.
One of these articles should be used as the basis for your final paper and should be
submitted as part of the final project. In this paper, students will be asked to provide
historical context for the issue, describe the goals of particular constituencies, and
develop their own response to the issue. Students will be expected to utilize the readings
from the course, both primary and secondary, and format citations using the Chicago
Manual of Style. The essay should include a well-developed thesis statement, a set of
arguments, and a clear conclusion. Each paper should explore the following questions:
how the goals of public education might be the same or at odds with the goals of a
particular community; how the readings illuminate what people believed about teaching
and learning at a particular time in American history; an analysis of competing ideals;
how different authors treated the same topic; and, your own analysis of the topic based on
this information. I encourage you to e-mail me a paper proposal by November 20 so that
we can discuss any questions or concerns. (Due December 16 - 40% of grade)
GRADING
You should note carefully the dates that written assignments are due – you will lose points off of
the grade on your written assignment if it is submitted late. Please also note that papers will not
be accepted via e-mail. All papers must be submitted either in class or in my mailbox on the 6th
Floor of the East Building.
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES:
Students with physical or learning disabilities are required to register with the Moses Center for
Students with Disabilities, 726 Broadway, 2nd Floor, (212-998-4980) and are required to present
a letter from the Center to the instructor at the start of the semester in order to be considered for
appropriate accommodation.
1
Robert Dahl, On Democracy, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 97.
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ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:
Academic integrity is the guiding principle for all that you do; from taking exams, making oral
presentations to writing term papers. It requires that you recognize and acknowledge information
derived from others, and take credit only for ideas and work that are yours. You violate the
principle of academic integrity when you:
 Cheat on an exam;
 Submit the same work for two different courses without prior permission from your
professors;
 Receive help on a take-home examination that calls for independent work;
 Plagiarize.
Plagiarism, one of the gravest forms of academic dishonesty in university life, whether intended
or not, is academic fraud. In a community of scholars, whose members are teaching, learning and
discovering knowledge, plagiarism cannot be tolerated. It is the failure to assign properly
authorship to a paper, a document, an oral presentation, a musical score and/or other materials,
which are not your original work. You plagiarize when, without proper attribution, you do any of
the following:
 Copy verbatim from a book, an article or other media;
 Download documents from the Internet;
 Purchase documents;
 Report from other's oral work;
 Paraphrase or restate someone else's facts, analysis and/or conclusions;
 Copy directly from a classmate or allow a classmate to copy from you.
Consult your professors for help with problems related to fulfilling course assignments,
including questions related to attribution of sources.
Please note that when a professor suspects cheating, plagiarism, and/or other forms of academic
dishonesty, appropriate disciplinary action may be taken following the department procedure or
through referral to the Committee on Student Discipline.
COURSE SCHEDULE
I. Education in a Democracy
September 3: Introduction
September 8 - 10: The Relationship between Education and Democracy
Robert Dahl: On Democracy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), Chapters
3 – 8 and 12 required, remaining chapters suggested
Benjamin Barber, “The Compromised Republic,” in American Social and
Political Thought, A Reader, ed. Andreas Hess (New York: New York
University Press, 2003), 141-148.
Sheldon Wolin, “Democracy without the Citizen,” in American Social and
Political Thought, A Reader, ed. Andreas Hess (New York: New York
University Press, 2003), 149-152.
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John Rawls, “Political Liberalism,” in American Social and Political Thought, A
Reader, ed. Andreas Hess (New York: New York University Press, 2003),
171-178.
II. Education as a “Fourth Branch of Government”
September 15 - 17:
Alexis de Toqueville (ed. Arthur Goldhammer): Democracy in America: Volume
I, Part II, Chapters 4, 6, 7; Volume 2, Part II, Chapters 1 – 6; Volume 2, Part
IV, Chapter 1 – 4.
What are Schools For? The Development of a Public System of Schooling
William Reese, America’s Public Schools: From the Common School to “No
Child Left Behind” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005),
Chapter 1
Massachusetts Old Deluder Satan Law of 1647 in The School in the United
States: A Documentary History ed. James W. Fraser (Boston: McGraw Hill,
2001), 8.
Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia, 1743” in The School in the
United States: A Documentary History ed. James W. Fraser (Boston: McGraw
Hill, 2001), 24 – 27.
Benjamin Rush, “Thought Upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic” in
The School in the United States: A Documentary History ed. James W. Fraser
(Boston: McGraw Hill, 2001), 27 – 31.
Horace Mann, “Twelfth Annual Report” in The Republic and the School: Horace
Mann on the Education of Free Men, ed. Lawrence A. Cremin (New York:
Teachers College Press, 1957)
III. Relationships Between Community and Schooling
September 22: The Transformation of Community in the Gilded Age
Elizabeth Cobbs-Hoffman and Jon Gjerde, ed., “Industrialization, Workers and
the New Immigration,” in Major Problems in American History, Volume
II: Since 1865 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002), 66 – 96.
Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, Chapters 3, 15, 18
Suggested: You might also look at other chapters posted on NYUClasses
Jane Addams, “The Subjective Necessity of Social Settlements” in Twenty Years
at Hull House (New York: 1912), Chapter 6.
September 24: Expansion and evolution in public education
Herbert Kliebard, The Struggle for the American Curriculum, 3rd ed., (New York:
Routledge, 2004), Chapter 1.
William Reese, America’s Public Schools: From the Common School to “No
Child Left Behind” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005),
Chapter 2 and 3
“Report of the Committee on Secondary School Studies,” Commissioned by the
National Education Association (Washington: Government Printing
Office, 1893)
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“The Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education,” Report commissioned by the
National Education Association, 1918.
September 29 – October 1: The role of the public
John Dewey, The Public and its Problems, (Columbus: Ohio University Press,
1954, original copyright 1924), Chapters 4 and 5
Walter Lippman, The Phantom Public, 9th ed. (New Brunswick: Transaction
Publishers, 2009, original copyright 1927), Chapters I - VII, Chapter XIII,
XVI
IV. Diversity, Communities and Democracy in Education
October 6 - 8: African Americans and Education – Post-bellum Schooling and
Beyond
Malczewski, Joan, The Struggle to Build a New Educational State: Foundations,
Schools and the American South, Chapters 1 and 2
Du Bois, W.E.B., The Souls of Black Folk (Chicago: 1903) and “The Talented
Tenth,” in The Negro Problem (New York: 1903)
Washington, Booker T., Up From Slavery: An Autobiography (New York: 1902).
The Niagara Movement Declaration of Principles
First Essay Due October 6: Question posted on NYU Classes
October 13: No Class – University Holiday
October 15: Women and Education
David Tyack and Elisabeth Hansot, Learning Together: A History of Coeducation
in American Public Schools (New Haven: Yale University Press 1990)**
Chapters 2, 4, 5, 8
Nancy Cott, “Equal Rights and Economic Roles: The Conflict over the Equal
Rights Amendment in the 1920’s,” in Women’s America: Refocusing the
Past ed. Linda Kerber, Jane Sherron De Hart, and Cornelia Hughes
Dayton (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 441-451.
Oct. 15 - Women and Education Continued:
Primary Document Packet –
 Catherine Beecher, “Peculiar Responsibilities of American Women,”
Chapter 1 in Treatise on Domestic Economy (Boston: 1842)
 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments, 1848,”in
Women’s America: Refocusing the Past, ed. Linda Kerber, Jane
Sherron De Hart, Cornelia Hughes Dayton (New York, Oxford
University Press: 2011), 264 – 266.
 Margaret Haley, “Why Teachers Should Organize,” in The Journal of
the Proceeding of the Forty-Third Annual Meeting Held in St. Louis,
Missouri in Connection with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition June
27-July 1 1904 (Winona, MN: Secretary's Office of the National
Education Association, 1904), 145-52.
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



“The Civil Rights Act, Title VII, 1964 in Women’s America:
Refocusing the Past, ed. Linda Kerber, Jane Sherron De Hart,
Cornelia Hughes Dayton (New York: 2011), 441-451.
Equal Rights Amendment, 1972
Title IX, Education Amendments of 1972
“Meritor Savings Bank v. Mechelle Vinson et al., 1986,” and Violence
against Women Act, 1994, 2000, 2005,” in Women’s America:
Refocusing the Past, ed. Linda Kerber, Jane Sherron De Hart, Cornelia
Hughes Dayton, 741 – 745.
October 20 -22: Americanizing” the Schools and the Quest for Inclusion
William Reese, America’s Public Schools: From the Common School to “No
Child Left Behind” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005)
Chapter 4-5
Jonathan Zimmerman, Whose America?: Culture Wars in the Public Schools
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press 2002)** , Chapter 1 – 3
Leonard Covello, The Heart is the Teacher (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1958)**,
Read through as much of the book as possible, and look specifically at
Chapters 4-9, 12,14,17,19-27
October 27 - 29: What Are New Schools For?
William Reese, America’s Public Schools: From the Common School to “No
Child Left Behind” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005),
Chapter 6
Elizabeth Cobbs-Hoffman and Jon Gjerde, eds., “The Depression, the New Deal
and Franklin D. Roosevelt,” in Major Problems in American History,
Volume II: Since 1865 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002), 215 - 244.
George Counts, Dare the Schools Build a New Social Order? (Carbondale: 1978,
original 1932), Chapter 1-3.
November 3 - 5: Local Communities versus Central Control
Jeffrey Moran, The Scopes Trial: A Brief History with Documents (Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002), Part I
Jonathan Zimmerman, Whose America?: Culture Wars in the Public Schools
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002)** , Chapter 6– 8
Jerald Podair, The Strike that Changed New York: Blacks, Whites, and the Ocean
Hill-Brownsville Crisis (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002) **–
Introduction - Chapter 3
Eyes on the Prize, produced by Henry Hampton (1987-1990: PBS), documentary
to be viewed in class
Second Essay Due November 3: Question posted on NYU Classes
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November 10 – 12: Schooling and Desegregation
William Reese, America’s Public Schools: From the Common School to “No
Child Left Behind” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005),
Chapter 7.
Jennifer Hochschild and Nathan Scovronick: The American Dream and the Public
Schools (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), Introduction, Chapter 1,
2.
“Achievement Gap,” Education Week, published August 3, 2004 and updated July
7, 2011.
Erica Frankenberg and Gary Olfield, “Federal Education Policy Should Promote
Diversity,” from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, published February 5,
2010.
November 17- 19: The Individual v. the Community: How should money be spent?:
William Reese, America’s Public Schools: From the Common School to “No
Child Left Behind” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005),
Chapter 8 – Epilogue.
Jennifer Hochschild and Nathan Scovronick: The American Dream and the Public
Schools (New York: Oxford University Press), Introduction, Chapter 3 –
7.
V. Democracy in the Schools
November 24: Democracy in the Schools: The Profession
Gerald Grant and Christine Murray: Teaching in America: The Slow Revolution
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002)**, chapter 6 - 8
November 26: No Class
December 1 -3: Democracy in the Schools: Student Rights and School Discipline
Gael Graham, “The High School Student Rights Movement,” in Young Activists:
American High School Students in the Age of Protest (DeKalb: Northern
Illinois University Press, 2006).
Richard Arum, Judging School Discipline: The Crisis of Moral Authority
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), Chapters 1 – 3, 6.
Student Press Law Report
December 8 - 10: Education in Contemporary Civil Society
Jennifer Hochschild and Nathan Scovronick, The American Dream and the Public
Schools (New York: Oxford University Press), Chapter 8.
David Labaree, How to Succeed in School Without Really Learning: The
Credentials Race in American Education (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1999), Chapters 1 – 4.
U.S. Department of Education, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Executive Summary,
February 10, 2004.
Reforming NCLB – President Obama’s Call for Reform
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Ronald Evans, “The Runaway Train of Standards Reform,” in The Social Studies
Wars: What Should We Teach the Children (New York: 2004), 149 – 174.
Third Essay Due December 8: Question posted on NYU Classes
December 16: Final Papers Due – Deposit in mailbox, East Building, 6th Floor
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