| By its very nature, teaching is concerned with the development of the mind but also the development of the heart, of moral traits necessary in the forming of good character. Through a conceptual, historical and contemporary analysis of the role and definition of civic education, this study explores how the transmission of characteristics of citizenship has permeated the historical role of schooling in both France and the United States.; This study focuses on three periods of parallel ideological development where the linkage between moral development and citizenship is the impetus behind a national concern for civic education. These periods frame the two countries' post-revolutionary eras, common school movements and today's contemporary period of the 1980's and 1990's. The common denominator of these periods is the manner by which schools slowly joined other institutions as moral educators, echoing concerns of national import and assuming roles of national character builders and unifiers.; Civic education in both countries is bound by specific national, historical and social contexts. During the post-revolutionary era, both countries defined themselves as republics, promoting the general welfare over the expansion of individual interests. American schools during the common school movement called for social conformity and responsible citizenship to temper the rise of materialism and individual pursuit; in France, school rallied around the idea of national unity to counter external aggression and internal political turmoil. However, during the periods of the 1960's and 1970's, both countries saw a disintegration of a national moral consensus and a validation of individual rights and civic education appeared to have lost its sense of purpose. Today, in a general acceptance that there exists a correlation between the two countries' national moral crisis and a school moral crisis, the return to a civically virtuous citizenry has once again become part of a principled dialogue about citizenship.; Ultimately, when the question of civic education is posed, the answer leads to a description of what type of society France and the United States want to produce. Both countries' search for a civic code is basically a quest for a definition of citizenship, which satisfies not only an historical legacy but also a contemporary dialogue, a conciliation between private moralities and common principles within two pluralistic societies. |
