SEPTEMBER 2003 9 JOEL WESTHEIMER is an associate professor of the social foundations of education and directs Democratic Dialogue: Inquiry into Democracy, Education, and Society at the University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ont. (joelw@uottawa.ca). JOSEPH KAHNE is the Kathryn P. Hannam Professor of American Studies, a professor of education, and co-director of the Institute for Civic Leadership, Mills College, Oakland, Calif. (jkahne@mills.edu). BY JOEL WESTHEIMER AND JOSEPH KAHNE F OR MORE THAN two centuries, democracy in the United States has been predicated on citizens’ informed engagement in civic and political life. For much of that time, public schools have been seen as essential to support the development of such citizens. “I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves,” Thomas Jefferson wrote in his famous 1820 letter to William Jarvis, “and if we think [the people] not en- lightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome dis- cretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.” 1 Belief in the fundamental importance of civic education for democ- racy has been long-standing. But if educators can agree that schools have a role to play in educating democratic citizens, they can’t seem to agree on what that means. Indeed, what has most strongly characterized recent discussions of democ-  Democracy and Civic Engagement Reconnecting Education To Democracy: Democratic Dialogues Mr. Westheimer and Mr. Kahne, guest editors of this special section, note the lack of consensus regarding the means and goals of civic education in the U.S. While there is an increasing tendency to view democratic citizenship in terms of service and patriotism, the authors in this section argue that there are many more dimensions of civic engagement for which schools should be preparing students.