Words&Dirt

Today, I picked two quotes from the same book.  Just couldn’t resist!

“A century ago, John Dewey explained the connection between democracy and education.  He wrote:

A democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience.  The extension in space of the number of individuals who participate in an interest so that each has to refer his own action to that of others, and to consider the actions of others to give point and direction to his own, is equivalent to the breaking down of those barriers of class, race, and national territory which kept men from perceiving the full import of their activity.  These more numerous and more varied points of contact denote a greater diversity of stimuli to which an individual has to respond; they consequently put a premium on variation in his action.  They secure a liberation of powers which remain suppressed as long as the incitations to action are partial, as they must be in a group which in its exclusiveness shuts out many interests.

What Dewey taught us, which we have spent the past century trying to incorporate into our way of life, is that democracy is more than the institutional arrangements for governing and voting.  It requires that decisions be made with the involvement and participation of those who are affected by them.  Democracy functions most effectively when people from different backgrounds interact, communicate their interests, and participate in shaping the purposes by which they live.  Perhaps Abraham Lincoln put it best when he described American democracy as that ‘government of the people, by the people, for the people.’

More than any other institution in American life, the public schools have broken down the barriers of class, race, religion, gender, ethnicity, language, and disability status that separate people.  They have not eliminated those divisions, but they have enabled people from different walks of life to learn from one another, to study together, play together, plan together, and recognize their common humanity.  More than any other institution in our society, the public schools enable the rising generation to exchange ideas, to debate, to disagree, and to take into account the views of others in making decisions.”

––Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools, by Diane Ravitch, loc. 6471

“Genuine school reform must be built on hope, not fear; on encouragement, not threats; on inspiration, not compulsion; on trust, not carrots and sticks; on belief in the dignity of the human person, not a slavish devotion to data; on support and mutual respect, not a regime of punishment and blame.  To be lasting, school reform must rely on collaboration and teamwork among students, parents, teachers, principals, administrators, and local communities.

Despite its faults, the American system of democratically controlled schools has been the mainstay of our communities and the foundation for our nation’s success.  We must work together to improve our public schools.  We must extend the promise of equal educational opportunity to all the children of our nation.  Protecting our public schools against privatization and saving them for future generations of American children is the civil rights issue of our time.”

––Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools, by Diane Ravitch, loc. 6522