Jeffersonian Directions in Curricular Renovation

In a contemporary update to Jefferson’s spirit of curricular innovation and experimentation, the final chapter contends that the best way for the public schools to meet the evolving needs of American youth would be for them to implement a Jeffersonian-inspired reconstruction of educational purpose. The author maintains that the schools should “re-found” their fundamental civic purposes to better align themselves with that which is most revolutionary about the American Revolution. To achieve these ends, the final section of the book offers a K-12 Curricular Redesign. It highlights the need to restore the humanities to their place of privilege within the curriculum. It does so by reorganizing the curriculum to meet the evolving needs of American youth: the need to recover their civic selfhood, the need to become ecologically literate, and the need to be able to distinguish between truth and falsity in the age dominated by social media.