Since Thomas Jefferson, much hope has been placed in public education as the vehicle with which to insure an enlightened electorate in the new democracy. Today, however, the schools in the United States and the teachers that toil within their walls bear much of the blame for our society's problems. We will explore the mainstream issues of education, particularly during the past century, in terms of its effectiveness as a placeholder or change agent for our society. One central activity will involve the students identifying the three most important problems we face in the U.S. today. We will then trace their genesis and focus on meaningful reforms to public education as a means of pursuing long-term solutions that will preserve democracy.

The great philosophers since the time of Plato and Aristotle have pondered the nature of truth. Our founding fathers were guided by the enlightenment notions of reason, equality, progress, secularism, economics and politics, and populist government, all undoubtedly connected to the creation of a localized public education system. We will trace the history of those ideals as they appear in our founding documents.

While rapid innovations in technology have placed the sum total of human knowledge at students' fingertips, their ability to sift through information for truth may be declining. We will also explore the nature of study, thought, and truth and attempt to wade through the spectrum of daily information through discussion and debate of current issues with particular emphasis on education.

The arts have been recognized as central to education since Plato and Socrates argued for their importance, and they remain vital to our society for a variety of intellectual and spiritual reasons. We value expressions of our existence through the fine and performing arts, and we revere great artists and the artifacts that define their work. We will examine research that weighs the significance of the arts in education with the purpose of developing advocacy tools that may help preserve future audiences and for the purpose of reinforcing the importance of the arts in an enlightened and progressive society.