What Is a Public Education and Why We Need It

Walter Feinberg is Charles D. Hardie Professor, Emeritus of philosophy of education at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

It is good to see a defense of public education. Education philosopher Feinberg distinguishes between public schools and public education. The latter is 'the process through which public values are shaped and transmitted,' those values being standards of behavior scrutinized and refined, 'compatible with core social ideals,' that 'shape civic judgement and guide individual behavior.' Public schools should do this, but other schools may do it too. (Feinberg acknowledges that schools have other purposes as well.) He examines the concepts of education and culture and the basic function of a public school to produce a public through communication, and proposes that the educator’s task is to prepare a public to reflect on the present and engage a future that is not yet fully comprehended. And he suggests some curricula, pedagogical, and financial ideas to advance public education. Feinberg is a good philosopher. His extensive opening remarks admirably explain the role of philosophy in guiding the work of education. Especially useful is his idea that philosophy is best understood as 'a street discipline,' that is, 'grounded in the concerns of everyday people.' Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through practitioners.

• Introduction: A Public Education as Critical Aspirational IdealChapter One: Education as Self-development Chapter Two: Culture, Character and EducationChapter Three: The Education of Cultural Strangers: The Idea of a Public Education Chapter Four: Public Values and the Civic GoodChapter Five: The Construction and Stabilization of Public ValuesChapter Six: From a Public Education to a Public School