ABSTRACT
Little in the typical teacher-preparation program encourages teachers to think about what it means to prepare children for democratic citizenship. You can search the various teacher standards, regardless of their acronyms (NCATE, INTASC, NBPTS, PDS), and you will not find any emphasis on preparing young people for a life in democratic society. You might find references in the social studies content area standards or in the general standards to nurturing qualities that are implicit in good democratic citizens, but nothing that mentions democratic citizenship as such. Once you get into the school environment itself, things are even worse. Any deliberate discussion of schooling for democracy has been nearly completely drowned out by the rallying cry, “Get a score and get a job!” Dewey would not be pleased.
