What is democratic education?

hy does education matter in a democratic society and in particular, why does higher education matter?What should a democratic education be like, and who should decide how future citizens will be educated?These questions suggest that education is a political matter as much as it is about teaching and curriculum.Plato understood this when he placed education at the center of his construction of the ideal Republic.Thomas Jefferson also understood this from the earliest days of the democratic revolution in America.In 1779, Jefferson submitted a bill to the Virginia legislature that, had it passed, would have provided a system of education from primary school through university at public expense.His "Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge" included a selection system through which young men (yes, only young men) of ability could rise through the system to university education regardless of family background and means. 1 He offered three interconnected rationales.First, ignorance enslaved the mind, and only education could liberate people from the powers of tyrants and the superstitions of priests.Second, publicly supported education would break down the artificial, inherited aristocracy that was characteristic of Europe and would replace it with an egalitarian society.Finally, Jefferson also well knew the inherent risks when the people rule.The rule of the people can so easily degenerate into the tyranny of the many.It has been said that in a democracy, one depends on the wisdom of strangers.It is, therefore, in our mutual interest to support the education, including higher education, of citizens in a democracy, since our fate depends on them.This was a new and radical idea, because it rested on a new and radical conception of citizenship.How should we educate citizens for democracy?How we answer this question depends, in part, on what we think about democracy.Too often we identify democracy with such institutions as voting, representative