Course Description:
This course engages some ongoing political debates about public life, citizenship, and education in a democracy like ours. The debates over these features of democratic life are of crucial importance to us as students and citizens since questions of who we are, what we should learn, and how we should act are at stake. The debates are also important — and troubling –because many recent commentators have said that we are undergoing a crisis in these features of democratic life. They say: the public has retreated into private pursuits, citizens are more and more passive, and youth are learning less and less about everything, including politics. This course asks, in effect: are these commentators right? What should we think and do about citizenship, education, and public life?

Besides (or amidst) these important debates, the course also investigates certain key concepts of democratic politics. Besides citizenship, education, and the public, these concepts include public work, power, interest, freedom, duty, cooperation, and service. These concepts are crucial components of any theory of politics; and they animate the practice of politics, as well. Indeed, theory and practice go together. We may say that any particular theory of politics — especially democratic politics –can and should be evaluated in terms of what it says theoretically about citizen education and by what it does practically to educate citizens.

In order to address these debates and concepts in a theoretical way, our course will consider some important books and articles. The books include John Dewey's The Public and its Problems, as well as his collection On Education. They also include Myles Horton and Paolo Freire's We Make the Road by Walking and Eric Gorham's National Service, Citizenship, and Political Education. Some articles — about political education, service-learning, and citizenship schools –complement these books at various points. In their different ways, these books and articles help us to think what we are doing when we act as citizens, educators, and servicelearners.

In order to engage the practical dimensions of the debates and concepts, our course also has a practicum attached to it. (See fuller description in the handout for Pol 3090). Students will put their citizenship, education and public life into practice by serving as Public Achievement "Coaches" for middle and high school students (at St. Bernard's School in St. Paul) who will be researching, debating, and working on issues and problems regarding democracy and community life in and around their school.

The fundamental premise of the course is that we learn theoretically about citizenship and education in large part by being engaged practically as citizens and educators. Or to put it differently: to learn what must be learned about democratic education just is to be engaged in the practice of educating democrats.

Given the mix and the demands of the various theoretical and practical activities that make up the seminar, an additional 2 credit practicum, course in the political science department (Pol 3090) has been attached to supplement Pol 5610 (of 4 credits, bringing the total to 6 credits). The practicum, course will continue through Winter quarter 1999 (for another additional 2 credits). It is hoped that students will continue with the practicum. through winter, in order for us collectively to live up to our obligations to St. Bernard's School.

The required practicum. component will be satisfied by coaching at St. Bernard's during class time on Thursdays, to be followed by an hour-long debriefing and problem-solving session. The model of coaching that we will follow has been developed by Public Achievement (sponsored by the Center for Democracy and
Citizenship at the University). Some of the students at St. Bernard's have previously been involved in Public Achievement with previous coaches. Thus our course will build upon that experience.

There will be 4 additional activities that will bring us together with other coaches, teachers, parents, and community activists from other schools and youth sites. These are [a] a Public Achievement Kickoff [b] a Public Workshop [c] another
Public Workshop [d] a Public Achievement Celebration.

In terms of writing, students will keep an ongoing notebook that records reflections on course readings, coaching experiences, and more generally on the relationship between citizenship, education, and public life. The notebook will be submitted for
commentary and evaluation at midterm and during final exam week.

As a final entry in the notebook, students will evaluate the coaching practicum. in terms of what you thought worked (or did not work) , and what could be done to improve our practical experiment in citizen education.

Finally, there will be a take-home final examination (of about 8 typed pages). The exam will principally cover the course readings. Like the notebook, however, the final examination will allow and call for integration of the theoretical literature on
citizen education and the practical educational experiences involved in the course.

Grades:
Letter grades for the course will be assigned on the basis of the final examination (50%), the notebook (30%), and seminar discussion and participation (20%).

Required Books:
The following books are available for purchase at the Smith Bookstore on the West Bank.

John Dewey The Public and its Problems
John Dewey On Education
Myles Horton and Paolo Freire We Make the Road by Walking
Eric Gorham National Service, Citizenship, and Political Education

Also for purchase:
Center for Democracy and Citizenship Building Worlds, Transforming Lives,.
Making History: A Guide to Public Achievement