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Recommended Reading
Teaching Democracy: Unity and Diversity in Public Life
by Walter C. Parker
New York: Teachers College Press, 2002
ISBN: 0807742724A synopsis by Walter C. Parker
Idiot (idiotes) was a term of reproach in ancient Greece reserved for persons who paid no attention to public affairs and engaged only in self-interested or private pursuits, never mind the public interest-the civic space and the common good.This book is about the role schools can play in the contemporary struggle against idiocy, that is, the quest for a just democracy in a diverse society. Democratic living is not given in nature, like gold or water. It is a social construct, like a skyscraper, school playground, or new idea. Accordingly, there can be no democracy without its builders, caretakers, and change agents: democratic citizens. These citizens are constructs, too. Who nurtures and cares for them? Parents, peers, educators, corporations, media, social forces and structures-all these are responsible, but among them educators are the primary stewards of democracy. They must do what no one else in society has to do: intentionally specify the democratic ideal sufficiently to make it a distinct curriculum target, one that will justify selecting from the universe of possibilities a manageable set of subject matters, materials, instructional methods, modes of classroom interaction, and school experiences. Do they aim toward a democracy that fears diversity and tries to assimilate it? Do they envision citizens who mainly vote and pay taxes? Are they imagining a stronger democracy than this?
Stronger forms of democratic life converge on the moral conviction that the democratic project can and must be deepened and extended. Stronger forms challenge the notion that citizens need only to elect representatives occasionally and then return to "private life." Also challenged are the racism, religious intolerance, sexism, classism, and other prejudices and social conditions that restrict access to democracy and its creation. Democracy's defining attribute is popular sovereignty (i.e., self-government), but this idea needs to be fleshed out if it is to serve as a curriculum goal. For example, are ordinary citizens expected to know justice and injustice when they see them? Are cultural groups free to express their interests in the political process and use their language? Is there free and open public discussion? Is there easy access to information?
I suggest in this book that cultural pluralism and equality are best served by nurturing the kind of democratic political community that in turn protects and nurtures cultural pluralism and equality, which in turn protect and nurture democratic political community. The two sides of this coin are interdependent. Also, I propose practical tools with which educators can draw children creatively and productively into this way of life, this democratic civic culture. These practical tools rest on five assertions. First, democratic education is not a neutral project, but one that tries to predispose citizens to principled reasoning and just ways of being with one another. Second, educators need simultaneously to engage in multicultural education and citizenship education. These are not two things but two aspects of the same thing. Third, the diversity that schools contain makes extraordinarily fertile soil for democratic education. Schooling is the first sustained public experience for children, and it affords a rich opportunity to nurture public virtue-toleration and respect, for example, and the disposition and skills to dialogue across difference. Fourth, this dialogue-or what I call "deliberation" in this book-plays an essential and vital role in democratic education, moral development, and public policy. In a diverse society, deliberation is the avenue of choice to enlightened public policy.
Fifth, the access/inclusion problem that we face today is one of extending democratic education to students who typically are not afforded it. This includes most students, I believe. Some are members of historically oppressed groups, and some are members of the mainstream culture and affluent groups whose democratic education is superficial and trivial. Not only should tools of power be shared with those who now don't have them; those who do have them must be educated to use them fairly and compassionately, "with liberty and justice for all." Democratic education is for everyone, and this certainly includes those who (for now) have the most power, for they are in a position to do the most harm when they lack virtue. Just as multicultural education is not only for "others," neither is democratic citizenship education.
Several concepts carry the book: democracy, diversity, and deliberation along with idiocy (selfishness) and its opposite, citizenship (public engagement). As well, justice (fairness) and interbeing (mutuality) are central concepts, for they guide, challenge, and realize the effort to shape public life in general and schools in particular. Social position (group circumstance) and individual moral development (character education) are core concepts, too, and the relationship between these two is one of the most engaging and challenging puzzles that students of any age can confront.
My overall aim cannot be said better than did John Dewey in 1916: "Instead of reproducing current habits, better habits shall be formed, and thus the future adult society be an improvement of their own." Dewey understood how far we were from creating democratic education: "We are doubtless far from realizing the potential efficacy of education as a constructive agency of improving society, from realizing that it represents not only a development of children and youth but also of the future society of which they will be the constituents".
© December 2002 New Horizons for Learning
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