Title: Habits of mind
First published: 1995
Description: Public schools have become a battleground for an increasingly heated debate about what should be taught and how. While everyone wants to prepare students to become better citizens, the very different opinions about what this means are deeply rooted in larger questions of national identity, culture, and values. The controversy over teaching values in school has fueled intense debate among policy makers and citizens on the Right and Left, as both sides struggle to articulate their vision and control the future direction of education in America.

In Habits of Mind, Melinda Fine explores the politics and practice of programs that foster moral thinking and civic responsibility, highlighting the acclaimed and controversial Facing History and Ourselves (FHAO) curriculum which uses study of the Holocaust to help students reflect on contemporary issues of racism, violence, intolerance, and prejudice. Combining thoughtful analyses of theoretical and policy debates with lively portraits of adolescents grappling with their differences in one multiracial middle school, Fine provides a discerning look at the issues at stake in educating for democracy. Habits of Mind offers valuable insights into ways that we might begin to understand and deal with our differences. Perhaps even more important, it argues convincingly that democratic principles demand we confront our differences and foster in students the capacity for informed moral choice.
Subjects: Case studies, Moral education, Race relations, Study and teaching, Educational sociology, Politics and education, Education, Umschulungswerkstätten für Siedler und Auswanderer, Werterziehung, Deutschland, Schule, Deutschland Grenzschutzkommando Mitte Schule, Political aspects, Education, curricula
Places: United States, Cambridge, Massachusetts
LC classification: LC311 .F47 1995