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Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy. By Stephen Macedo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000. 343p. $45.00.
Stephen Macedo's book is an episodic historical analysis of the role of civic education in the United States. It has three broad themes: "Public Schooling and American Citizenship," "Liberal Civic Education and Religious Fundamentalism," and "School Reform and Civic Education." It is motivated by the author's conviction that much of the thinking surrounding diversity and difference is misconceived. According to Macedo, "diversity is not always of value, and it should not, any more than other ideals, be accepted uncritically" (p. 3).
Macedo suggests that celebrating diversity should be secondary to a civic liberalism that advocates the legitimacy of reasonable efforts to inculcate shared political virtues but leaves deeper philosophical moral questions to private communities. He supports a public philosophy of liberalism that embraces civic ideals that are broad in their protection of freedoms but not too deep. A main purpose of this book is "to argue that we should not allow liberalism's most alluring features-broad freedoms, limited government, and the great pageant of diversity-to obscure other dimensions of a healthy, free, self-governing society" (p. 275).
In the first section, the author explains the purpose of the common school philosophy in the context of American democracy. That purpose is to acknowledge the diversity of students while homogenizing them into respectful American citizens. He highlights the significant contributions of education reformer John Dewey to...