How to Promote Democracy in Schools
Dear friends and Harry,
I'm a product of private progressive education. I learned a lot there, including about democracy. But...
We had an annual "founder's day" ceremony where each year someone told about our glorious history as a school to help working men's children grow up to build a cooperative society. But there wasn't one workingman's child in the assembly, even among those with scholarships.
Still, the idea stuck with me. The aspiration had been good, even if over time it became a school for well-intentioned wealthy, largely secular, second generation Jewish children.
I wanted schools like mine for all children, paid for by public monies, designed to create a generation of democratic, sophisticated, and powerful citizens. Then I had my own three children and determined that they would go to neighborhood public schools. Imagine my surprise upon coming to NYC in 1966 to discover that on the West Side of Manhattan, a district of well-intentioned liberals, public schools had been largely abandoned by the local white kids. My children's schools put white kids into segregated classes under one disguise or another. What were we teaching the young about society?
I began to explore the ways in which we educate different kids differently sometimes even within the same classroom. I joined with others to put into practice the education I had received, for all children, ideally together.
I was told--by both black and white colleagues--that what I was describing wouldn't work with all children. For poor and black children it was even disrespectful to teach progressive educational ideas. That was okay for privileged children.
Why? Because the other children didn't come to school with all the know-how that such schooling required, they were used to "no excuses" discipline, etc.
This was the common-sense wisdom of educators and many parents, of different backgrounds. And while I agreed that one shouldn't mandate a change of mind, I also believed the view of children is just plain wrong, and seriously damages their intellectual and social potential.
I have serious evidence that it's wrong, including my own experience. I'd like all publicly funded schools to be like mine, and yet....
Still, I think some of its strengths can be mandated. For example, why shouldn't we mandate that public schools in a democracy further democratic habits of mind and heart -- that we're accountable for demonstrating that our work furthers democracy? We can't ask schools by themselves to undo the impact of poverty and racism. But we should not be allowed to add to that impact. With that as our premise, what might we seek to mandate in return for taxpayer dollars? That's my question, Harry.
Dear Deb and colleagues,
Deb, I agree with your elements of a democratic education and also your view that democratic education should be the norm. We need democracy How to Promote Democracy in Schools - Bridging Differences - Education Week: