Question

The development of a public education system is based on the idea that democracy requires an educated population trained in rational discussion and decision making. The authors state that knowledge of how the political system works is the most important requirement for citizenship in a democracy. In what ways does public education promote democratic citizenship? What challenges confront the public education system? Do these challenges affect democratic citizenship? Why or why not?

Answer 1

The priority of public education should be to educate young people to be responsible democratic citizens . To instill the values of coperation , fairness and justice into the students is the purpose of education in a democratic society.Education empowers students to be critically thinking democratic citizens.Public education gives voice to students to take action on issues they care about in a democracy. Teaching students to be good democratic citizens means to instill in the hearts of students the benefit of liberal democracy and to develop in students the skill of proper  reasoning sothat they can take sound decisions in elections.

Public education is education provided to students at public expenses in US. The challenges faced by public education are size of classroom which cannot accomodate more than 30 children, poverty is another important challenge as students below poverty level cannot perform at their   full academic potential, family factors like domestic violence, divorce, single parents ,affect the attendance level of children,teachers are not techno savvy and so they are not capable of bringing technology and education together to sustain the interest of the students,Cyberbulling is another important issue in public education, parents involvement are less ,Student health iss not sound and most students are obese due to poor eating habits and so this contributes to lower student achievement.

Yes challenges to public education do affect democratic citizenship .

Education is very important to mould the attitudes and behaviour of students and also to empower them to defend their democratic rights and responsibilities. Challenges of public education do not allow students to be educated and this will affect democratic citizenship.