Over the past six years this country has seen the Constitution discarded, the military privatized, the church married to the state, women’s reproductive rights repealed, gangster-style cronyism, disgusting incompetence, and propaganda campaigns of Orwellian proportions.
None of these abuses would have been possible if our country had educated children towards becoming the types of adults capable of recognizing and acting against threats to life, liberty, and happiness.
If we continue to force children to memorize the dates of wars without asking why we have perpetual war; if we continue to force children to memorize mathematical precepts without understanding how and why we use math; if we continue to force children to learn to read while ignoring literacy, we should not expect anything different than what we have had for many years: a bewildered herd.
If, however, we want something much different for our children, for our communities, and indeed for the world, then we must take a radically different approach to how we educate future citizens.
If we want democracy, we must educate for democracy.
Democracy is a form of associated living that fosters the growth of the individual through her participation in social affairs. Free, reflective, critical inquiry and the welfare of others undergird interaction, communion, and community building. Unlike authoritarian modes of government, democracy requires its members to participate in the political, social, cultural, and economic institutions affecting their development and, unlike authoritarian countries, democracies believe in the capacity of ordinary individuals to direct the affairs of their communities, especially their schools.
The trajectory our schools now follow does not bode well for democracy. The No Child Left Behind Act produces a hyper-productive, blindly obedient, worksheet completing citizenry, one capable of voting for American Idols, but one unable to recognize larger threats to humanity. In place of NCLB, Americans must develop education for democratic participation, a type of education that helps children mature into intelligent, critical, engaged, reflective, and compassionate members of their schools and communities.
Active participation in institutions prevents authoritarianism and allows for individual and community re-creation and growth. Privatizing or standardizing institutions does quite the opposite.
NCLB removes teachers, students, parents, and local communities from active involvement in what will be learned, how it will be learned, and how to measure growth and development. Therefore the legislation is not only undemocratic, it prevents democratic reinvention and growth, as NCLB forces all communities to conform to a pre-determined and static version of what is true, beautiful, and good.
Democracy cannot be static.
As individuals engage with, reflect on, and critique the communities they inhabit, democracy itself evolves. A political system that ossifies cannot take into account new realities or exigencies. Therefore, democracy requires complaint and challenge, as it is through complaint and challenge that democracies evolve with social, political, and environmental realities.
Arguably, had we educated towards complaint and challenge, Iraqis would not still be enduring our freedom, the Supreme Court would not be slowly stripping women of their reproductive rights, the Constitution would still mean something.
Believing that democracy (or what it means to be “educated”) has for all times been defined violates democratic principals. If our country does not invite and allow individuals to participate in its remaking, and if our country does not create and protect spaces for developing a citizenry capable of such participation, then our country is authoritarian, plutocratic, oligarchic, theocratic, totalitarian, or fascist.
Where and how should children develop a consciousness that favors democracy over any of the above?
In schools governed by corporate America?
Over the past six months we have extensively documented NCLB’s attack on life, liberty, and happiness. After reading our research and listening to our arguments, nearly 30,000 people have signed our petition calling on Congress to replace NCLB with a democratic education, an education more responsive to the needs of local communities. In determining those diverse needs, we call on Congress to do the unthinkable: listen to the teachers in each of those communities, as democracy requires us to do.
Dr. Philip Kovacs is Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and Chair of the Educator Roundtable, a project dedicated to freeing public schools from corporate encroachment.
If you have been to a public school, and if you have had a teacher that has shaped your life for the better, we ask that you support that school and teacher by signing our petition calling on Congress to replace NCLB with legislation more conducive to democratic participation and growth.
If you’d like to learn more about what such legislation might look like, we invite you to visit us at www.educatorroundtable.org.
From a talk by Noam Chomsky in 1994 at Loyola University etittled Democracy and Education
The goal of education, to shift over to Bertrand Russell, is “to give a sense of the value of things other than domination, to help create wise citizens of a free community, to encourage a combination of citizenship with liberty, individual creativeness, which means that we regard a child as a gardener regards a young tree, as something with an intrinsic nature which will develop into an admirable form given proper soil and air and light.” In fact, much as they disagreed on many other things, as they did, Dewey and Russell were perhaps the two leading thinkers of the twentieth century in the West, in my opinion. They did agree on what Russell called this humanistic conception, with its roots in the Enlightenment, the idea that education is not to be viewed as something like filling a vessel with water, but rather assisting a flower to grow in its own way. It’s an eighteenth-century view which they revived, in other words providing the circumstances in which the normal creative patterns will flourish.
Pedagogy specialist Paulo Freire indicated that all education is political. In the US the government has decided that students need to memorize trivia instead of learning how to think critically.
An educated and critical aware citizen will question the government. The folks in power have never wanted to be questioned, so they have made sure that the US “citizens” are simply not capable of questioning anything.
The concept of No Child Left Behind cynically reflects that no lemming should be allowed not to jump into the sea.
The education of the young must be to think and not rote learning to a test.Notice also that public education is being beaten into the ground be government. Tony
WORDS
Teach thus to the young or to any who would wish that life with others be of benefit to self and others.
Reason: Is there reason in what is brought in words or deed to others of whatever clime or persuasion? To reason is one of the tenants of thinking and aids in putting word to deed .
Logic: In a world of words, spoken and written, where is truth, that it may be seen if logic and reason enter not? For truth is and to hear words and words read will not of itself intelligence breed .
Civility: War is a loss of civility and is the most vile of human endeavors . history is a great tool for the knowing of what civility and war can accomplish.When looking at old civilizations do you see what is left standing or what used to be? Which is civility and which is war ?
Dissent : In the course of humanity’s desire to taste the true meaning of freedom it has been shown and proven that reason , logic and civility cannot exist without the right of dissent .Ah ! The human heart and mind , as different as the sands by the sea . To know this is to go far .
Debate : Two ears and one mouth and yet they must be equal in debate and the arbiters must be reason, logic, civility and dissent and for all this to be, the mind must be engaged so that the words used may better self and others.
Math and science give you a living but these word will give you life .
Tony 4/4/06
Our democracy, our nation and the world may be changed by unconventional developments and discoveries in the field of human psychology and related sciences.
These new developments get to the heart of the state of human affairs. Learn more about this at:
“Unconventional Human Intelligence Support: Navy SEAL’s report”
PopulistAmerica.com
January 7, 2007
http://www.populistamerica.com/unconventional_human_intelligence_support
Chomsky has a book titled, “Democracy and Education” for those interested.
As for No Child Left Behind:
Congress has urged that the education community must have research evidence to be able to act on or propose any reforms in education. A study on work with low-performing schools revealed that sanctions were not very effective ways to make change happen. Interventions that did the opposite of imposing sanctions, such as supporting capacity building and motivating educators were more helpful. Further, teaching only to the test can invalidate the meaning of the results so that giving substantial rewards or punishments based on test results alone would not seem to be justified–but that is what the No Child Left Behind Act does.
Another study of early improvement attempts found that mandating changes from above diminished the commitment of professionals to do the work–NCLB mandates from above.
A third study of accountability showed that comparing the same grade from year to year was so volatile that any score changes were useless. Changes in scores for students tested at a given grade from one year to the next can be quite unreliable. This means that schools recognized for making academic improvements and other schools noted as needing improvement can easily get labeled on the basis of random fluctuations.
The fact is that much of what Congress mandated or otherwise covered in the No Child Left Behind Act has no research base.
Our education system pushes consumerism over critical thinking so that we maintain our Orwellian apathy and pawnism….ensuring that the HAVES remain in charge and keep getting away with their vast array of criminal activity…..
otherwise….people capable of critical thinking would feel compelled to nourish Jefferson’s tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants
What constitutes democracy? And how do we define education? I suspect that most Americans believe that democracy means majority rule, and education is what happens in schools. Think again.
I once had the opportunity to ask several pre-service teachers for their definition of knowledge. Every one equated knowlege with information. Think again.
Education is firmly in control by the State. It should be no surprise that the State uses this power to propagate it’s needs. Education will never be truly reformed until the State loses power over it. Education must be controlled by the people.
Knowledge is about information and analysis of it through a reasoning process.
Wisdom, however, is much more than knowledge or reason.
We need more wisdom and less information in our schools.
I am a teacher. The other day I started a debate in my class with the question, “Do you believe that the more money one has, the happier he/she becomes?” (Bill Gates must be smiling in his sleep)
It was a fun debate. I challenged their addiction to consumerism. They were pissed off about it. A few of them saw the light. Some went away calling me a hippy.
With so much of our democratic institutions in a state of decline, or worse complete collapse, and with the military-industrial complex gorging the monetary and spiritual capital needed to educate future citizens, it is certainly an appropriate time to discuss the importance of education for a healthy democracy.
I agree with the author that “democracy evolves” and that we should not become attached to certain forms, thereby dogmatically ruling out novelty and creativity. It is important here to keep in mind Dewey’s usage of “the very idea of democracy”. This not being any fixed, formalized, or culture-bound entity, but rather an ideal (never to be fully achieved) that serves to critique our present practices as well as offer hope and motivation for future amelioration.
Likewise, we should reread Dewey on the importance of education, and his very novel approach to the subject, both theoretical and practical. The Deweyean emphasis on experimental learning, rather than any standardized curriculum, would be a helpful antedote for the ills of NCLB assembly line style teaching.
One other comment I would like to add to the discussion is that I think we Americans can learn a lot from the Classical Chinese tradition. Especially the Confucian emphasis on learning. If we understood the profound importance that li (ritual behavior) plays in harmonizing and integrating society, I think we would be in a better position to begin addressing what a “democratic education” would require. We need to overcome our cultural arrogance that assumes the East is primarily made up of despotic and conformist cultures, which many claim to be the direct result of Confucian teachings, and open our eyes to the profoundly creative and efficacious teachings of the Confucian sages and worthies. This is not a naive appeal for America to become Confucian, but rather a clearheaded insight that Western style liberal democracy is in need of a strong communitarian cure. In thinking how to educate and equip future citizens with the social, moral, and spiritual skills needed to approach the “communicating community” that Dewey envisioned, the Confucian tradition can certainly offer some productive models.
Well, I didn’t read the whole piece, but I disagree with what I saw, namely, the same arrogant statements with which liberals have contributed to the present disaster.
American education is a disaster. Period.
A graduate of a good private school and an Ivy university is not familiar with Solidarity.
A graduate of the same private school and a very good private university, and a freshly minted financial analyst knows about the Depression only that “people were hungry.”
Nobody is familiar with the concept “Social-Democracy” etc.
But our brilliant liberals continue their garbage “we teach how to think, not facts” which together with conservative “history is dead” resulted in total disaster.
In Mr. Kovacs’s view, facts aren’t important, but I am old-fashioned, so I’ll mentioned a couple of facts:
There have been some people traditionally trained (memorizing facts, poetry etc.), who I’ll try to convince Mr. Kovacs were able to think (not true Mr. Kovacs?)
, let’s say Einstein or Dostoyevsky.
Secondly, in spite of what “brainwashers” want us to believe this dichotomy (knowledge on shelves, empty thinking heads) doesn’t work.
Oh, there is a proof - an illiterate society, with total contempt for knowledge, the devastation of the non-profit sector where highly educated, competent and earnest professionals have been replaced by (to borrow the vocabulary) by apparatchiks or willing executioners.
It’s not the first society which declared that knowledge doesn’t matter - the result is always the same.
Frankly, I think it’s premature to judge whether traditional methods combining knowledge and thinking (they are not separate) or American methods (no knowledge, “thinking” only) are better. Only future generations will be able to decide whether Newton and Kant or Dale Carnegie are greater.
RE: eurobelle.
I’m not exactly sure how you decided that I support discarding fact, or how you read that piece and concluded that I believe “knowledge doesn’t matter.”
I’ll grant that facts are important, but I want to know which ones are being used towards what ends by whom and how?
And I want all people asking those questions so that we can avoid the very problems you claim “liberals” have “brainwashed” into existence…
Your opening comment says it all “I didn’t read the whole piece, but…”
I’d say that is the fundamental problem with our society: “Well, I didn’t look at all the facts, but here is what I think…”
An hour ago, a friend, a historian, now teaching in one the New York public schools was complaining about the fact (again) that teachers are punished for … giving content (don’t ask me about details).
I will never forget my surprise when I heard American scholars proclaiming proudly that they, brilliant American scholars, teach how to think, not facts.
Every one of them insisted that the result was the thinking American population, unlike, for example, that of the Soviet block (which, of course, never existed).
Poor American scholars didn’t know that there was nothing wrong with thinking of most of the people in the “block,” and what they were lacking (surprise, surprise) was access to certain knowledge. Of course, a person who can think and is not lead by Hoover or Reagan, for example, would analyze the facts (again), such as exceptional mathematical thinking abilities of many in those countries, and would search for different answer. As far as I know, most American scholars still keep repeating slogans about miraculous American thinking without facts.
History.
I received my pre-university education in two different countries, both fixated on history, and every year since 5th grade I had several hours of history until graduation. Yes, there was information, there were names, dates, etc., and there was talk about causes and consequences, analysis of societies, discussion of brutality of war (with Tolstoy, Callot, Goya etc.). Personally, I love history, and one of my degrees is in history, and in other areas I always ended focusing on historical, evolutionary aspect of disciplines. So I don’t remember suffering in school while hearing and repeating facts. I can assure you, I don’t have trouble thinking.
I also memorized a number of poems in a number of languages. I will assure you I can think in spite of it.
I don’t understand how Math
Forgive me for stopping reading your post after
“If we continue to force children to memorize the dates of wars without asking”
It is my understanding that American children are just plain ignorant, and memorization of facts isn’t a problem, ignorance is, and as a result poor thinking abilities of empty heads.
Unlike people in some Eastern block countries, people in this country do have access to knowledge, but someone told them not to bother.
Yes, American schools are controlled by corporate America.
I was told that there business centers in the New York poorest public schools, and kids who can’t read and write proudly impersonate CEOs. Yes, corporate America doesn’t want children to memorize anything about Spartacus, Solidarity, Social-Democracy etc. They want them play and participate until …the prison.
The missing part (dog is to blame):
I don’t understand how math can be taught by memorizing precepts (not my experience), but I do have a problem with your utilitarian approach. I enjoyed pure math in school.
“Education is firmly in control by the State. It should be no surprise that the State uses this power to propagate it’s needs. Education will never be truly reformed until the State loses power over it. Education must be controlled by the people.”
Mouse,
?????
Nice slogan, no sense. Are you talking about DEMOCRATIC state?
Can I suggest you look up the word “democracy.”
“The education of the young must be to think and not rote learning to a test”
mustbefree,
Nobody promotes rote learning to a test.
But without learning/information THINKING IS NOT POSSIBLE.
Only sloganeering.
In reading the above commentary, I am disappointed that there has been no acknowledgement of the spiritual aspects of democracy. To me, the practice of democracy is as much an exercise of the human spirit as in the practice of religion. I am sure we all prefer the rule of genuine democracy over the rule of religion.
Hope is the life blood of democracy, a vision of a more just and compassionate society. Fairness is a spiritual act. The strength of democracy comes from the transformational power of spirituality for radical social change. Unfortunately the American corporate consumer culture is the destroyer of spirituality and it undermines the spiritual nature of democracy..
It is time we recognize that the increasing turmoil we face in the world today is a clash between the forces of materialism and the forces of spirituality. One of the most powerful forces of spirituality is a hunger for justice. So when you teach democracy, it is a hollow exercise unless you elucidate the spiritual dynamics of democracy, such as solidarity for the poor, the just need for civil disobedience through non-violent activism, the great historical accomplishments of citizen movements in the past such as the womens’ right to vote, the right to social security, movements against child labor, civic movements for peace and civil rights, and populist movements for economic justice.
Democracy is about majority rule by an educated and well informed citizenry, thus democracy is dependant upon a civic press that monitors the health of our democracy. Democracy is about the common good, the dignity and human worth of every citizen. It is about We the People and the higher angels of our nature. Again, it is about spirituality.
Until we acknowledge the spiritual dynamics of democracy in our schools and universities, we will fail in teaching the powerful dynamics for radical social change through genuine participatory democracy.
In that I said there was no acknowledgement of the spiritual aspects of democracy in the above commentary, I stand corrected, my apologies to RadicalConfucian’s thoughtful commentary.
Well, I am all for spiritualization of the what I see as barbaric culture, but I am pretty sure, that my own spiritual tradition (Judaism) with its
-Jubilee
-sabbaticals
-justice, justice shall I …
-don’t do to another …
-compassion (again jubillee and sabbaticals, widows and orphans)
- general stress on spirituality and community, etc.
has a lot to offer
I am also pretty sure that its sister religions, toward which I understandably have ambivalent attitude, similarly have valuable aspects.
It’s is just worth going beyond the Camel–killing (grab, grab, grab) distorted version, which in my humble opinion has nothing to do with Christianity
“that Western style liberal democracy is in need of a strong communitarian cure.”
I agree with that, but why it has to Confucius?
To refresh my memory, I glance at WIKI piece and what appealed to me was familiar “don’t do to other” and there was plenty with which I would have a problem.
Why Confucius?
Eurobelle,
I don’t think my earlier comments imply that the only way forward for our decadent American democracy is a Confucian one. In fact, I will be the first to say that for our democracy to become healthier we will have to make use of many diverse traditions both spiritual and secular. However, one place in which we might be able to learn from the Confucian tradition (which is very diverse in it’s own right–stretching over 2,000 years and influencing not only Chinese, but Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and other cultures) is that it is a “religion” without a transcendent deity. The way in which many in traditional and present Chinese culture could find it acceptable to be both a Buddhist or Daoist as well as a Confucian, should highlight for us that religion need not be devisive, and that a healthy democracy is in need a unifying spiritual/ethical discourse. A Confucian ethic could work well to provide us with an “overlapping consensus” w/o commiting us to a “comprehensive doctrine”, to use Rawls’ language. I think a simple-minded nationalism or patriotism causes much more damage than good and leads to easily to fascism. Therefore we need something to unite us w/o denying our unique cultural identities.
I do think your question is a good one. And I myself don’t hold out much hope for the average American even becoming relatively aware of the Confucian tradition. However, intellectuals and people thinking about the importance of education for democracy would do well, in my opinion, to look to this tradition for some inspiration and models.
The golden rule which you refer to is an important part of the Confucian tradition, but just one part. In fact it is different from the Judeo-Christian version, in that it is formulated in the negative “do not do unto others, which you would not have them do unto you”, which if you think about it might be a better way of putting it. Not everything that you might like always applies equally to your neighbor (e.g. please don’t endlessly proselytize your religion to me). But the Confucian tradition also talks about ren (translated roughly as co-humanity, benevolence, or human-heartedness) which one explanation in the Analects describes as “if you want to be established, you should establish others/if you want to suceed then help others suceed.” I wonder what you found objectionable about the Confucian tradition from your WIKI survey?
Thank you for responding.
I already know that what Emperors like is not good for me. But seriously.
What I dislike?
Probably everything.
I despise idealism in the style “Let’s get along. Let’s be nice to each other (once again knowledge of history and understanding of human nature). IT DOESNT WORK,
and it is usually repeated by those who want YOU to be nice, and “edible,” not them.
I dislike it particularly in combination with the talk about bad laws and good non-laws, and reliance on good human nature. Can I spell the word BS?
It doesn’t work, it can’t work.
By the way, are you Chinese, are you a student of Confucius and know the entire tradition,
its context, and consequences? Or you are familiar with only some aspects, maybe not in the original version and want us just to follow you into some new world order?
When Howard Zinn recently asked about 100 undergraduate and graduate history students history if anyone had heard of the Mi-Lai Massacre, not a single hand was raised.
That, and the way a European Bachelor’s degree in science or mathematics often exceeds the standards of a US masters degree in the same disciplines, is all I need to know about the state of education in the USA.
And, I do know that other more-successful democracies like Germany or England produce a citezenry that is both more civically-engaged AND a more math/science/technolgy-competent. And, they also use rigorous standardized testing like so many “liberals” criticise over here.
There are many aspects:
Most pre-university students in many countries study, and don’t have to follow gimmicks go to McDonald’s at 14 to be prepared for slavery) and/or are not forced by circumstances
(safety net, which also ensures better living conditions)
Intellectual curiosity is encouraged in some other cultures, no mocked.
Many countries have more solid pre-university education, so universities don’t have this remedial air some American universities have.
There is a positive aspect to centralization of education – namely, it guarantees a certain minimal level
The imperial arrogance (we don’t have to know anything, we just brilliant as we are) is destroyed or limited somewhere else.
This “innovation” (dangerous in my opinion) of “thinking without knowledge” hasn’t totally infiltrated the world, although I am sure that brilliant American managers (with help) are working on it (aren’t slaves supposed to be ignorant?).
Confucian,
The topic is “Democracy & Education.”
I have more questions for you:
- Was China with its Confucius always a democratic state?
- Do we need Chinese emperors to be fully and truly Democratic or the Bushies will be fine?
I have been concerned for nearly a decade or more about the quality of education in this nation. Over the last few years as I have moved through my Masters and into my PhD work, I have found that at the core of sustainable democracy must be education, just as Thomas Jefferson advocated an educated populace being necessary in a democracy. Instead we have NCLB.
On my website, Stand and Deliver America, under the articles I have written is a program called Every Child Wins. It was originally designed to create a sustainable, educated society, but as the years have passed, especially the last three, I recognize it now as necessary to educate our citizens of the future in not only sustainability, but also civics and history. WE are repeating history as I write this, and not the kind of history we can be proud of. Please read the two programs I have listed on my website, and use them as the basis for changing the schools in your communities, or as Kovacs writes his warning, we will lose our freedom.
http://www.standanddeliveramerica.com