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seen the Constitution discarded, the military privatized, the church married to the state, women's reproductive rights repealed, gangster-style cronyism, gross incompetence, and propaganda campaigns of Orwellian proportions.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 we want something much different for our children, for our communities, and indeed for the world, then we must take a more progressive 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 his or her participation in social affairs. Free, reflective, critical inquiry and the welfare of others undergird growth, interaction, 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.
Active participation in institutions prevents authoritarianism and allows for individual and community re-creation and growth. Standardizing institutions, such as schools, does quite the opposite.
The trajectory our schools now follow does not bode well for democracy.
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) might produce a hyper-productive, blindly obedient, worksheet completing citizenry capable of voting for American idols, but it will never engender a citizery capable of recognizing and acting against threats to humanity. They will be too busy working harder, faster, and longer for less pay.
Ultimately, 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 learning and development. Therefore the legislation prevents democratic reinvention and growth, as NCLB forces all communities to conform to a pre-determined and static version of what is true, beautiful, good, and profitable.
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 complainers and challengers, as it is through complaint and challenge that individuals and communities challenge and change social, political, and environmental realities.
If we don't require our children to develop and raise their voices in schools, why should we expect them to become adults with intelligent, raised and active voices?
Believing that democracy (or what it means to be “educated”) has for all times been defined violates core democratic principles. Can children, or a country for that matter, evolve if forced to think the same way about the same things at the same time?
If our country does not invite and allow individuals to participate in its redefinition, and if our country does not create and protect spaces for developing a citizenry capable of such participation, then our country is corporatist, plutocratic, oligarchic, theocratic, totalitarian, fundamentalist, or fascist.
Where and how should children develop a consciousness that favors democracy over any of the above?
After reading our research and listening to our arguments, nearly 30,000 people have signed our petition calling on Congress to replace NCLB with more democratic approaches to education, approaches to education that help children mature into caring, intelligent, critical, engaged, and reflective members of their families, schools and communities.
Unlike NCLB, which ultimately outsources schooling, democratic education responds to the needs of local communities first, allowing those communities to use federal dollars how they see fit. In determining our diverse needs, we call on Congress to listen to the parents and educators (rather than corporate funded think tanks) in each of our communities, and to support multiple paths of learning.
If you believe in public education, and if you believe that such an education should help children develop into adults capable of realizing and maintaining a participatory democratic social order, we ask that you sign our petition calling on Congress to dismantle NCLB. In its place we call on Congress to support local communities as they fashion school systems more conducive to human development and democratic participation.
If you would like to learn more about what such legislation might look like, we invite you to contact us…
Finally, if you feel that public education exists so that a healthy democracy might obtain and maintain, we ask that you contribute to our project. The Bush administration spent almost $14 million dollars on disinformation campaigns trying to convince Americans that NCLB would improve schools. We must launch a national truth campaign showing the country that NCLB is a false (and dangerous) bill of goods.
Such a campaign costs money, and we do not have the luxury of using tax dollars to amplify our message.
