Teacher Judgment vs. Family Authority
Deborah Meier continues her conversation with Harry Boyte. To read their full exchange, please visit here.
Dear Harry and friends,
I'm leaving my house for the airport at 3:30 am flying from Albany to California. So, quick thoughts on your story about your father-in-law's hospital experience.
I hate hospitals. I hope I can go to some less prestigious small hospital where I know they won't mistake me for someone else and ... cut off the wrong leg, etc. And I want a place where those I love can keep an eye out for me and whose views are taken seriously if I'm not in a position to explain myself forcefully.
I think institutions should be "more like" families—but just the good ones. A dilemma right there.
I conducted a workshop on pre-kindergartens at the Progressive Education Network conference in Brooklyn yesterday. I was arguing that pre-kindergartens should be more like families and less like institutions; teachers should mimic the family as a learning place more than parents should mimic school classrooms. I think schools can't avoid institutional characteristics and many are potentially dangerous for young and old alike especially for those who can least explain or defend themselves, and do not have what we were calling effective "agency."
Dilemma two. How can we go about describing public institutions in ways that are sufficiently minimal but also in keeping with advancing democracy? For young children I think it essential that the school and the family be connected loosely, as equals. But what "equals" means is not always clear to me! How do we decide when we can't all agree on everything? Who is the "we"? Isn't making compromises not part of democratic life?
I'm least inclined to compromise about my 4-year-old. We're one of the few nations that permits Teacher Judgment vs. Family Authority - Bridging Differences - Education Week:
