Could Amy Gutmann’s Philosophy of Education Help Repair our Republic?

​Amy Gutmann published Democratic Education while a professor at Princeton. As Provost at Princeton and later as President at the University of Pennsylvania, she elaborated on her philosophy of education and worked to put it into practice. Gutmann emphasized the importance of publicly supported education that “develops the capacity to deliberate among all children as future free and equal citizens” and “schooling whose aim is to teach the skills and virtues of democratic deliberation within a social context where educational authority is shared among parents, citizens, and professional educators.” We will contrast her educational philosophy with several others in order to assess its potential to repair our democracy and will study its implications at all educational levels for both the control and the distribution of such an education.  

Reading: Amy Gutmann, Democratic Education, ISBN 978-0691009162.

Bruce Hauptli is an emeritus professor of philosophy at Florida International University where he taught for 39 years. During that time he served as chairperson of the Philosophy Department for eight years, chairperson of the faculty senate for six years, and in the central administration for two years. He has taught seven different courses for MSC.