Thurs. 3:30-5:30 p.m. 492 McDonough or GU Main Campus: Kennedy Institute of Ethics Conference Room, Healy Hall, 4th floor as Noted on Schedule
Is education central to citizenship? Can we only exercise obligations of citizenship if we have some minimal educational attainment? What should a civic education include? Does the current educational status quo violate norms of equal citizenship? For example, do the radical disparities in educational quality across schools, school districts, and states, and between urban, suburban, and rural parts of the country, violate political, moral, or constitutional norms of equality? Who should have control of public schools’ policies and curricula? Expert educators? Elected state officials? Local districts? Parents? Should tax dollars ever be distributed to private schools, whether religious or secular? Should homeschooling be regulated? Are college costs and admissions procedures fair, rational, and in accord with constitutional ideals? Is the tenure system in higher education justified? What is academic freedom, and what does it require? In the seminar we will examine these and related questions through close readings of arguments by philosophers, legal scholars, and others concerned with education policy both in the United States and elsewhere.
Please note that this seminar is cross-listed as a graduate Philosophy and as a Law Center course. Some classes will meet on the Main Campus, some at the Law Center. We will coordinate starting times for classes with the bus shuttle schedule.
View Workshop Schedule by Semester: Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2010
List of Events for Fall 2008
