By exploring the beliefs, goals, and practices of education in American life, this course examines the relationship between schooling, democracy, and American society. Drawing on classic and contemporary thought from the intellectual traditions of educational anthropology, history, philosophy, and sociology, it introduces students to some of the important texts and ways of thinking about education in the U.S. Seminar topics include the role of schools and education in American society; the development and organization of schools; philosophical and pedagogical theories of how people learn and the purposes of education; how schools reproduce (or can interrupt) larger social inequalities; historical and contemporary issues surrounding race and ethnicity in schools; and the role of families and communities in the education of young people.