Creative Integration and Pragmatist Optimism: Dispositions for "the Task Before Us"

How can and will educators in any setting work with young people of all ages to enable them to develop the ability to interrogate—without denigrating—the claims of candidates, the newsmaking of media, the needs of their neighbors, and the fears of their family members? The answer I offer and defend here involves two dispositions—creative integration and pragmatist optimism—that I view as critical to the pursuit of vibrant and viable political democracy. These dispositions are, I argue, necessary to and evidence of the very possibility of a polity worthy of the "democratic" label.