A New School Year: Democracy & Schools
Deborah Meier returns to Bridging Differences today following the blog's summer hiatus. Later this week, Michael Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute will reply to her
thoughts. The two will blog together for several weeks this fall.
thoughts. The two will blog together for several weeks this fall.
Dear Mike,
For 50 years September meant the beginning of a new school year for me and the chance to put into action new ideas and insights that had been quietly gathering force. I miss the excitement of starting "anew" as we tried to translate our ideas into miniature worlds for our children and ourselves. I still believe that if we don't take advantage of the intellectual insights that reside in those closest to the action we will never get this right. Right for what? For bringing the elusive but powerful concept—democracy—down to earth where we can play with its trade-offs, complexities, and values. Schools for a democracy need to be sites of learning of the highest order, "labs" for trying our ideas out.
Since I am no longer working in a specific school, and part of that school's lively debates, blogging has become my substitute! Maybe this blog can help us get a better handle on where we agree and where we part company by focusing at first on a discussion about the connection between democracy and schooling. Let's aim for an imperfect and interesting discourse, which may disappoint some of my best friends who love (like me) to argue polemically in a style we learned in one or another sect.
Polemics are useful sometimes—for example, Diane Ravitch and I spent time many years ago