Democracy Essay for EDUC 311

The values of democracy teach freedom and equality for all.  Growing up in a democratic environment, many ideas were fed and taught about democracy itself, but when applied to a greater spectrum, the definition is still somewhat ambiguous.  What democracy really boils down to is an organization of people for the greater good.  Democracy can be applied to any group of people, and generally when applied its intentions are for the greater good.  When we speak of Democracy, we speak of triumph over solitude, greed, and conflict.  But, as we can see from our government, it doesn't always turn out that way.  Though democracy preaches values higher than money, it is sometimes used to justify capitalism.  According to the book Democratic Schools, there are various things that make something democratic.

                Education is also a major aspect of the world's upbringing and maintenance.  In American culture, people analyze education in an effort to make it better.  Education and schools are essentially a way to maintain a certain knowledge level and bring people together around a common progress.  Though education is theoretically a wonderful entity, and is tremendously useful, many people regard its system as broken.  People believe the education system is broken for various reasons.

                If democracy is so great, and education is not functioning the way it's supposed to, then maybe like a useful screwdriver, Democracy can tighten the nuts and bolts of Education and fix the system.  One intellectual field of research is the relation between education in schools and the democratic theory.  Bringing Democracy in the context of education can help us step by step fix education's flaws and increase potential and sophistication of the educational system.  There is an interesting relationship between democracy and education, not necessarily one that is good or bad, but one that fluctuates and covers a wide spectrum.

                Many people have a certain opinion about democracy, some think it is great, and some people think it is horrible.  The only problem with evaluating democracy in those terms is that it is too transparent.   Democracy covers a wide spectrum of values, especially in the context of education.  One of the most important values listed in the Democratic Schools book is "Faith in the individual and collective capacity of people to create possibilities for resolving problems" (Apple and Beane, p. 7).  Democracy is essentially about freedom and liberty, but also about getting together and solving the problems that are unique to the human race.  Again, there are good and bad labels associated with democracy.  One good perception some have is that there is a freedom to choose and a freedom of speech and religion.  Allowing students to have this is very important to their upbringing.  A child deprived of these freedoms cannot properly grow in a school setting.  A negative perception of democracy some have is its connection to capitalism, a system or organized economics based on greed.  This can be very unfortunate for schools, and because administration and teachers can act purely for profit, rather than the collective benefit for the students and the educational facility as a whole.  There is truly a fluctuation in the workings of democracy in schools.  Just like the government swinging between Democrat and Republican, a school can have failures and successes and can change policies and administration.  This fluctuation of schools is often positive because it promotes change, and it is related to democratic principles.  The relationship between Democracy and schools covers a wide spectrum because Democracy is simply hard to define.  Most of us grew up thinking of Democracy in terms of the government, but it is much more than that.  Giving students and faculty the opportunity to have liberty and be successful and allowing everyone involved to critically think about overcoming challenges and fixing problems is what a Democratic school is all about.

                The primary purpose of education in a democratic society is to put and keep a smile on the students face, to illicit intellectual growth in the context of student affairs, and to provide a safe environment for student life.  Putting a smile on people's faces should be everyone's goal.  People generally praise a democratic society for its equality, and equality generally makes people happy.  A school living in a democratic society should have a vision of equality for all.  A student who is happier and living equally will be more likely to learn and be more passionate about learning.  One example of this positive setting need in today's education system is the school that created its own Constitution.  The teacher speaking of his classroom undoubtedly believed his classroom to be equal: "We help groups of students hold discussions, model how to ask clarifying questions, suggest ways to phrase questions, listen to be sure that one or two students don't control a group, and offer encouragement and suggestions" (Brodhagen, p. 90).  This situation is very democratic because the teachers are providing students a place to be equal.  In a classroom setting, and especially in an equal environment, the teachers can initiate intellectual growth.  Many students think that education's primary purpose is for their own intellectual growth.  That is why it is one of the top priorities of for the school to provide.  A school's purpose should be to allow the student to grow in whatever context, whether they be in a club, doing math homework, or lifting weights.  Allowing intellectual growth will allow students to be more intelligent, it will increase a democratic society's knowledge, and will improve the world on many levels.  A school's purpose should also be providing a safe environment.  Democracy is built on individual liberties, and violence and certain disturbances come into conflict with those liberties.  Providing a very safe environment should be a democratic school's utmost priority because without a safe environment a student cannot excel and learn properly at all.  Just like any other institution, a school has a purpose.  A democratic school's purpose is to facilitate happiness, provide a safe environment, and to, with effort, bring about intellectual growth.

                We as citizens of a democratic country should be cultivating democracy more and more in the schools around us.  By utilizing democratic elections, allowing more freedom in public and private schools, and involving the community in academic affairs, we can bring about social change and improve the quality of the education system.  Mirroring the kind of democracy that goes on in the federal level, we can utilize elections to choose principals and teachers.  Often the administration is built on a hierarchy that prefers certain faculty over others.  This hierarchy is not the best structure for utilizing a school's maximum potential.  Elections are made so that the community as a whole can choose who they want to lead.  Politicians often do very little for their community, but those involved in academic affairs hold very important leadership roles.  Bringing the democratic principal of voting to a democratic school could dramatically shift the quality of administration.  Also, allowing more freedom in public and private schools is a very important practice.  A lot of students currently feel like they are imprisoned, so allowing them to take the classes they want to and giving them a more valuable freedom of speech will allow them to hone in on the skills they currently have.  Even if hesitant about implementing some of these freedoms to students, it is essential that we question the potential these freedoms truly have:

                What if students in this classroom were afforded the opportunity, like students in more affluent schools, to problem-pose, challenge, and deliberate instead of being expected to give the right answers and rule-follow as had become the expected norm?  What would be the results of the experiment?  Would the system embrace their questioning and demand for equity or would it crush, ignore, or continue to silence them?(Shultz, p. 66)

                A system that allows questioning and freedom is a functioning system, viable to bring about social change and stimulate one of education's primary purposes: intellectual growth.  Another aspect of cultivating democracy in the schools is to involve everyone in academic affairs.  This is extremely important because it will build community on the level of the school.  Often teachers feel separate from parents, students feel separate from teachers and parents can even feel separate from the students.  Allowing more involvement will help the schools in many ways.  If parents and students are allowed a say in the curriculum, students would feel more comfortable learning.  Also, a student could come home and talk about what they learned, rather than feeling like school is the only place to learn, separating it from home.  There are many ways we can bring democracy to schools

                Though there are many ways to organize people and stimulate education's ideologies, democracy is one of the more potent and interesting ones.  Democracy is about overcomes challenges, and to bring this paradigm to the schools is incredibly important.  If students are taught to solve problems in schools, they will assimilate that to the rest of the world and the positive Democratic ideals learned in schools will become valuable to real world situations.  A change in our education system is essential for student success.  John Dewey, a storehouse of educational wisdom says "The change must at least be towards more effective techniques, towards greater self-reliance, towards a more thoughtful and inquiring disposition, one more capable of persistent effort in meeting obstacles" (Dewey, pg.7).

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Dewey, "Need for a Philosophy of Education" in John Dewey on Education, ed. R Archambault, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 3-14.

Apple, M., Beane, J., (2007), Democratic Schools, Lessons in Powerful Education.

Shultz, (2007), Democratic Schools, Lessons in Powerful Education.

Brodhagen, (2007), Democratic Schools, Lessons in Powerful Education.