While it is easy for educators to intone that education is necessary for a democracy, Mr. Garrison reminds us that democracy is equally necessary for any education worthy of the name. THE DISCUSSION of democracy and education seldom progresses beyond the common declaration that education is necessary for democracy, a declaration that historically has formed the basis for our nation's fundamental commitment to public schooling. Carl Glickman summarizes the rationale underlying this declaration: essential value of the public school in a democracy, from the beginning, was to ensure an educated citizenry capable of participating in discussion, debates, and decisions to further the wellness of the larger community and protect the individual right to 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' An educated citizenry and a democracy were one and the same; the lack of one would imperil the other.1 My purpose here is to attempt to deepen this discussion. Educators need to recognize and communicate that the connection between schooling and democracy is more than simply the duty to educate students about democratic processes - - even if we model those processes in our schools and classrooms. In our professional capacity, it is not the civics lesson that is most important here. If education is essential to democracy, we educators also need to recognize and understand how and why the democratic values of freedom and self-governance are essential ingredients of learning and how the absence of values in classroom practice undermines the very process of education. In other words, what is being missed in the discussion of democracy and education is not how education is necessary for democracy, but how democracy is necessary for education. One result of only half-recognizing this relationship between democracy and education is that democratic values are not used in practice the foundation for creating a rich and rewarding learning environment and a progressive and evolving curriculum. Without understanding the critical importance of values for learning, common practice remains grounded in the traditional approach to education. This approach views education as an instrument rather than a value in its own right.2 The most serious consequence of the instrumental approach to education, of course, is the effect it has on our students. In failing to recognize the necessity of democracy for education, the mission of our public schools has become ever more focused on narrowly conceived results. The institution of public schooling is now in fact threatening to undermine its own primary objective -- that of education. Moreover, it fails to understand why. Even many of our best students seem to learn simply for the sake of grades and credits and are seldom engaged in the joy of learning for its own sake. Though they may acquire considerable knowledge and skills, the lasting effect of such an education robs many students of their desire to learn, effectively undermining their future education. Despite a century of stunning progress in the advancement of teaching and learning, the principal arguments driving the politics of education have not changed since the progressive movement gained a foothold in the public schools over 100 years ago.3 In referring to recent legislation on school reform, Linda Darling-Hammond observes that these efforts are the most recent expressions of a model of school reform put into place at the turn of the 20th century -- a model grounded in the view of schools bureaucracies run by carefully specified procedures that yield standard products (students). Darling-Hammond goes on to clarify her point: This model fits with a behavioristic view of learning the management of stimulus and response, easily controlled from outside the classroom by identifying exactly what is to be learned and breaking it up into small, sequential bits. However, we now know that, far from being blank slates waiting to accumulate pieces of information, learners actively construct their knowledge in very different ways depending on what they already know or understand to be true, what they have experienced, and how they perceive and interpret new information. …
Read full abstract
Dec 17, 2022
Bernhard Ganter 
Open Access
