Books by Walter Feinberg

In the USA, minorities such as blacks, Latinos and gays demand a school curriculum that recognizes their identity. Others insist education should instil a common American identity. The author indicates the underlying issues and shows how schools can promote both national and cultural identities.

The unique mission of a public education is to reproduce a civic public. For the most part this will not happen in a vacuum and requires specific institutions, the most prominent of which are the public schools. Publicly supported schools have other functions as well. They socialize, train, produce a workforce, and, hopefully, promote individual growth and autonomy. Walter Feinberg argues that while all of these functions may be carried on by private or religious schools as well, public schools should have the additional responsibility of reproducing a civic public for a diverse pluralistic society. As Feinberg demonstrates, the problem is that in the context of neoliberal ideology, where all the other educational functions are reduced to economic ones within a market context ruled by competitionnation to nation, state to state, community to community, school to school, teacher to teacher, student to studentthe public function becomes less and less central and more and more difficult to carry out. What Is a Public Education and Why We Need It suggests ways to change this by bringing the idea of a true public education back into focus.

A case for teaching classes on world religion and the Bible in public schools

When it comes to religious education, many assume that only members of a religious community have an interest in the religious content of curricula. Drawing on examples from Christian, Jewish and Muslim schools across the US, this book challenges that perception by demonstrating that what happens within schools has an impact on the wider public.

Do schools socialize students to become productive workers? Does schooling reproduce social class and pass on ethnic and gender biases? Can a teacher avoid passing on social and cultural values? What besides subjects do students really learn in schools? This book tackles these questions using case studies, dialogs, and open-ended questions.