ABSTRACT
This chapter is the first of four to examine the cultural theses about cosmopolitanism and its double gestures in American pedagogy at the beginning ofthe 20th century. This chapter explores the assembly ofnotions of agency, time, and science as they connect to the narratives of collective belonging and home with regard to an American exceptionalism-that is, the telling of the nation as an epic account of a unique human experiment in the progressive development of the highest ideals of cosmopolitan human values and progress.! Pedagogical projects, I argue, are cultural theses about the child as the future cosmopolitan citizen that embody this sublime of American exceptionalism.
