ABSTRACT
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich made the point that the economy was being divided into well-educated elites who feel a dwindling connection to their less well-educated fellow citizens. For parents and community members, the tension between citizenship and consumerism in educational decisions is a critical one and has been so since the establishment of schools on this continent. Considering the tension between citizenship and consumerism brings us back to the foundational question of the purpose of education in the first place. The noted philosopher Alfred North Whitehead described it this way: “Education is the acquisition of the art of the utilization of knowledge.”
