Abstract

The article discusses the importance of schools as a force for cultural change in which teachers consider themselves as agents of renewal (or reconstruction) and learn to relate their work to the systematic analysis of contemporary cultural movements. It examines the extent to which schools in general and teachers in particular should adopt a reconstructionist philosophy, and concludes that in a democracy, the school tends to become a sort of repository for ideals in which adults no longer wholeheartedly believe --but are reluctant to jettison. it is often, in the words of a great sociologist of education, a "museum of virtue" , especially when the norms of the family are not aligned with those of the school.