School Choice Is Not Always Democratic
Deborah Meier continues her conversation with Harry Boyte. To read their full exchange, please visit here.
Dear Harry and friends,
As you noted a week ago, Harry, this is getting interesting. I enjoyed the responses of Mike Miller, long time community organizer, to our conversation and want to address both your comments and his. Mike's comments are on the website of the Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg College.
I'd also like readers to take a look at a gathering on Martha's Vineyard that should concern us all called "CampPhilos."
What's our alternative?
I'm struggling to picture the alternative form of organizing you are suggesting, Harry. Miller's comments helped a bit. But, as he notes, he has no successful examples to show us. Yes, I took the path I did (creating small self-governing public schools serving primarily low-income minority kids) because I wanted something to "show" others—and myself. They do have language, their families do care, they can, etc. I wanted to show that relationships based on democratic principles are the vital ground floor for building a better society. I wasn't totally naïve (Mike Miller). I wasn't truly "amazed" at the lack of attention and support as our ideas took on more and more reach. But we kept being told "but what's the alternative"? And by people I respect. So we kept upping the ante. And yes, the Boston project was actually initiated within the teachers union of Boston and it was—as Miller suggests—a way of giving us a legal status and a power base, in the contract. But we got out-foxed. Management undermined the agreement and the leadership of the Boston AFT chapter found it increasingly hard to defend.
My old mentor, the late Lillian Weber, was not enamored of our decision to create separate small School Choice Is Not Always Democratic - Bridging Differences - Education Week: