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Join Civic Spirit for an interactive seminar exploring faith and civic virtue through the work of Alexis de Tocqueville.
Democracy in America (1835, 1840), which Alexis de Tocqueville wrote to teach modern democrats the “art of being free,” is perhaps the best treatise on American civic education that we have; Tocqueville asserted in this work that America cannot remain free without widespread religious belief. In our session, we shall explore what he meant by this startling assertion, discuss whether it is still true today, and consider how we, as civic educators, should treat the subject of religion in our classrooms.
Presenter:
Professor Sandy Kessler now teaches political theory and American political thought at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City after spending most of his career at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. He is the author of Tocqueville’s Civil Religion: American Christianity and the Prospects for Freedom (1994) and the editor of Tocqueville’s Democracy in America (2000) abridged for classroom use. He is currently working on a book to be called Classic American Perspectives on Civic Education.
Civic Spirit educates, inspires, and empowers schools across faith traditions to enhance civic belonging, knowledge, and responsibility in their student and faculty communities. Learn more at www.civicspirit.org
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Get the Educator Toolkit to access resources for planning and communicating your participation in Civic Learning Week. The toolkit includes planning resources, sample social media posts, graphic assets, and more.