Democracy in Education

We as a country broadcast the idea that our system works the best. But only roughly 50% of voters vote in any election. Less in most local elections. We say that our government is a democracy, a rule of the people, by the people, for the people. But who votes? And who influences the votes? What are we voting for? Who are we voting for? Are we given choices, or are we given variations on a theme?

The real question is, why do we have this situation? And what can be done to fix it?

While there are many reforms that could work, where we need to start is in our schools.

As students, we’re told all the stuff that we don’t need to know, like who signed the Declaration of Independence, where the White House is located, and how many senators there are.

So what do we need to know? Here are some ideas:

Newspaper stories are written by people; they are not “the truth” – we forget this fact; we need to know who the writer is, what they’ve written before, and what their angle is (BTW – everyone has an angle.) At best, we are taught to be critical of newspapers and not believe everything we read. But which newspapers do we believe? And why?

How do bills really get passed?

How does political change happen?

What can average citizens do to affect change?

How do think tanks work?

How and why do politicians decide to support the things they support?

What role does the media play in shaping policy? In advancing or preventing change?

If these questions and issues were part of the public school curriculum, perhaps we’d create citizens who not only knew what a democracy was, but also knew how to participate in one and desired to make it work. But maybe this is precisely the problem. Maybe there really are forces at play in our society – people and institutions – who really don’t want the people of this country to be engaged in the political process at this level. After all, if we really did have a democracy – a government of and for the demos, the people – things might be different. A small percentage of extremely wealthy special interest groups would not dominate and control policy and how decisions were made.

The great challenge for schools is not just to politicize education and to make education a relevant, even crucial part of how our society operates, but to make sure that students are educated to be able to make tough decisions within the infrastructure of the political process. In other words, we can’t just graduate a bunch of stupid political radicals. We have to make sure that there is a broad-based education that will ensure that students participating in the political process can understand and analyze the issues and then participate in ways to meaningfully and effectively enact these changes and analyses.