An Aristocracy of Everyone The Politics of Education and the Future of America

In a book that fundamentally alters the terms of the current debate over education in America, Barber argues that rather than pursuing a debate defined by controversy over who should be taught, what should be taught, and how it should be paid for, Americans must address education for what itis: the well-spring of democracy in the United States. With such an education young Americans will gain nothing less than an apprenticeship in liberty--one grounded in a renewed commitment to community service--an idea that Barber put into practice at Rutgers University, and one which PresidentClinton has enbraced as the key to a revitalized America. This approach will provide Americans the literacy to live in a civil society and the competence to participate in democratic communities, while promoting an educational excellence that will maintain America's economic, technical, andpolitical preeminence in a rapidly changing world. An Aristocracy of Everyone shows that education offers the only path toward rebuilding and reinvigorating the United States, and that this is a path we must begin to follow now.