Common Schools, Uncommon Identities: National Unity and Cultural Difference - Hardcover

In Common Schools/Uncommon Identities, Walter Feinberg holds that public schools must maintain a commitment to liberal democratic values such as equality of opportunity, freedom of association, and individual development; at the same time, he challenges the view that this obligation is incompatible with demands for cultural recognition of minorities. He argues that varied social and historical conditions create different educational obligations to members of these many groups, and the realization of democracy and its basic values in our multicultural society requires that the differences of these groups must be taken into account in the conduct of public education.