On Small School Networks & Democracy
Dear Robert,
Happy New Year!
I've been trying to imagine a "system" that could work for the kind of liberty within the context of democracy that we both seek. What kind of compromise is possible that meets each of our minimum requirements—and promotes democracy and liberty? What would a public system that puts "citizenship first," but supports many ways to get there, look like? What's the "key" to our differences, and how does it play out?
We agreed on democracy and liberty as the primary public ends we treasure, although no doubt we hold other expectations of good schooling. Given the title of your institution (Democracy Prep), maybe we agree on this. But what would constitute evidence of a successful education on behalf of democracy and liberty is where there is disagreement. Sometimes quite deep disagreement.
It even includes our definitions of democracy and liberty. "Government of, for, and by the people" seems pretty straightforward. But who constitutes "the people"? At the time that our Constitution was signed and sealed most of our founding fathers favored exclusions. And we still, de facto and de jure, exclude many residents' right to vote. Some we don't even argue about—such as the rationale for some minimum age restriction for voting.
But what "of, for, and by" might mean remains elusive, hard to define. Certainly schools don't
