How Does the American Public School Philosophy Address the Concept of Democracy and the Individual - Research Paper Example

Democracy and democratic ideas are some of the fundamental principles on which America as a nation is founded, the American people are guaranteed of their rights, and the constitution is an archetype of democratic ideals. As a result, contemporary American education is tasked with the responsibility of inculcating the democratic values in children who will be the main implementers of democracy in posterity (Loflin, 2008). Therefore, all children, notwithstanding their economic status or future career aspirations need to acquire the skills necessary to facilitate American democracy; however, these requirements can only be met if the children are taught early enough on the importance and values of democracy. In this case, before undertaking to explore the role that American schools play in educating children in about democracy, it is crucial to attempt explaining the relationship between the two concepts of education and democracy. Thus, from a contemporary point of view, democracy can be considered to be that which results from and is reflective of modern day societies political and market economy, it personified by activities such as choosing political representatives and an autonomous judicially (Loflin, 2008). In these premises, school provides education to the minority future political figures, the majority to fit into their future role as consumers and producers in the society, and ultimately the decision makers in the society. Hence, such an education, will ideally involve educating them by practical activities so that they can experience democracy in their own personalized setting such as participating in their student centered committees and organizations, in their schools. This paper is an introspection of the role played by public schools in perpetuating the concept of democracy and individual through pedagogy by discussing the rationale; examining the objectives of teaching democracy in schools, the methods and implementation as well as the challenges that are encountered in the endeavor. The culture of democracy should be taught to schoolchildren for a number of reasons; prominent among them is the need to create self-awareness to them, which is instrumental in helping them take responsibility for their lives and the country’s destiny. This is because when children understand democracy, they will appreciate its importance and can easily apply it in their lives as students. This is concerning activities such as voting for prefects and student leaders as well as in simple things like solving a dispute on where to eat lunch among friends or which bus to take home (Rosenthal and Burroughs, 2003.). While these might seem like minor considerations, they set ground for bigger issue that the students will have to make in their adult lives, and it helps socialize them into democratically sensitive individuals. Although it is hailed and praised for facilitating legitimate governance, democracy can only be as strong as those who practice it. As a result, in America, students should be taught about democracy in order to ensure they are able to make judgments for themselves on what is democratic and what is not democratic. The process of democracy in America is often fraught with conflict and can often be messy, thus, teaching schoolchildren democracy is crucial since it helps them to appreciate the potential for conflict that result even with democracies, in order to develop democratically acceptable ways of dealing with these conflicts. In addition, youths might mistakenly assume that what happens in congress, and in national politics, is the epitome of democracy due to its lofty position. Nonetheless, the truth is that democracy is frequently abused and overstepped by politicians in their search for political mileage. Therefore, education about democracy provides learners with wisdom enabling them to contemplate the political climate and happenings critically so that they do not get mislead by these populist shenanigans. Electronic and print media has failed miserably in their attempt to convey to the general public, students included, their propensity to attack political institutions and paint them as murkily as possible rarely reflects the merits of democracy in objectively (Rosenthal and Burroughs, 2003). This is because, due to the nature of their business they often respond to negative information and hence have a propensity for reporting what is or might appear scandalous. Hence, education on democracy is useful in disabusing the youth of such notions, which can easily be formed bearing in mind that most information they get is from these same media. One of the retrospective and justifications for teaching democracy is the belief, especially by religious groups, that any child has the potential to grow into leadership (“Schools and democracy”, 1982). Consequently, every child should be as prepared as the other should, and this can only be achieved if the democratic leadership is taught uniformly to all the students presumably in schools (Greenberg, 2000). However, the citizenship class is certainly not enough to cover all the aspects needful for children, and hence to inculcate democracy in the curriculum will ensure it is taught alongside other subjects, which the students are likely to take seriously. This is taking into account that, unless one studies law, all their education on democracy will most likely be through experience; thus, it is vital that children are provided with some formal education on democracy in a school context. One of the major objectives of teaching democracy in schools is to help students develop a sense of understanding for the many differences in values that exist because of the differences occasioned by the cosmopolitan nature of the society (Rosenthal and Burroughs, 2003). In this case, students learn that there exists differences and conflict in democracy, which should not be regretted but appreciated, since all communities in America have a right to their cultural values, and these cannot be compromised for any reason. It also aims to familiarize students with insight of the different methods of conflict resolution in times of crisis or disagreement, which result from different opinions, values and priorities in society, these methods, which are practiced under democracy to break impasses, include voting negotiation arbitration and compromise among others. With this knowledge, students have the power of democracy at their disposal and hence can use it to deal with real life situations at present or in the future when they are influential members of their different communities (Rosenthal and Burroughs, 2003). Moreover, this will ensure that student’s develop an awareness that differences among people and deliberation, compromise, and voting exist not only in contemporary political life but they exist also in ones personal, family, school and work life, as well and in historical events, such as the framing of the US Constitution. Furthermore, in order to demystify the concept of democracy to the learners who may have been socialized to imagining that democracy is only relevant in political life and scenes. Many people are under the misconception that the exercise of compromise, voting and such like activities only takes place in the political arena. Conversely, these are part and parcel of the everyday life including but not limited to contemporary social life such as ones family, school or work scenarios, and under no circumstances should the ideals embodied by democracy be disregarded. Therefore, US public school system is supposed to prepare students for a future of participatory democracy, this is to mean that the learners will not be bystanders in the political happenings of their country, but will actively participate by casting votes and questioning and criticizing their leaders as well as educating their fellow citizenry. It will also help students to realize the need for change in society since, as part of education on democracy, they learn about controversial and problematic issues in the country (Kahne and Westheimer, 2003). It is in this light that schools in America with the cooperation of both the states and federal governments have identified and applied several methods of providing democracy education to school curriculum. Different schools have adopted different ways of inculcating democracy in their school system. For instance, Chaucer elementary school in Ohio is governed in fully democratic way and teachers and students all take part in running the affairs of the school, and this is best demonstrated in several democratic schools that have sprung up within America. The root ideology behind democratic schools is that children should be accorded, as much right as adults and in times of voting for instance should be given an equal vote as the teachers (Greenberg, 2000). In Democratic schools children, notwithstanding their ages, race and gender are entitled to participate in every design that affect the school, and there is no exception to this every issue they have a stake in every aspect of the school governance including the hiring and firing of staff. In these cases, their teachers do not have any residual authority and possess no veto power over the decision of the children. Conventionally, in such a setting the rules are made on a weekly basis in meetings where all the stakeholders attend, issues are discussed and the rules are agreed n by everyone. Therefore, teachers inform and educate students so that they can be able to make informed decisions where, as opposed to making all the decision in a group, they should delegate duties to a few members who make reports to the whole group. While rules are broken like every 0ther setting, the culprits often admit liability and submit to the consequences since they were part of the body that instituted these rules. The government has also instituted several initiatives to encourage and facilitate the education of democracy in schools, one of these include lessons on democracy in schools curriculum. These lessons relate to fundamentals of representative democracy, which are often included in civil education classes are designed and developed by the government and are often been applied in high-level schools (Rosenthal, 2009). In addition, regular schools, as opposed to democratic ones put in considerable effort at ensuring their learners are familiar with the ideals of democracy, furthermore, even in this cases, although students do not take an active part in the governance, their opinions are respected and taken into account. Whenever students are required to select leaders, they use a democratic process and student representatives are elected democratically. In addition, their views can be presented through petitions, which can be collected and presented to the administration that takes appropriate actions. The process of inculcating democracy into the public school system has not been easy since bringing democracy into the education system is a long-term process and, unfortunately, implementation of this cannot be done in a uniformed basis. Even, in the face of the many valiant efforts made to restructure the education system to fit into democratic parameters, successful instances have been rare, and several of them have not been sustained for exceptionally long. Moreover, those advocating for popular democracy claim that the main reason why it is challenging to integrate democracy into the school system is the increasing inequalities in the economic, political and social spheres. This has resulted in many of the citizens being cynical since to them this is just paper democracy which can be taught and to some extent exercised within confines of a school environment, but cannot be accommodated in the unequal playing field that of natural politics. Ultimately, it is beyond doubt that the American public school philosophy is geared towards integrating concepts of democracy into their students. However, there is still a lot to be done to promote democracy in schools, which cannot begin to occur until more time and effort are invested in the endeavor. Democracy cannot run on an auto- pilot, and neither can it exists in space, but can only be run through peoples ideologies, as a reflection of their actions (Kahne and Westheimer, 2003). Therefore, teachers and most importantly political leaders are obligated to lead by example, so that students can see in practice the democratic ideals and theories they learn in class, otherwise, drawing a connection between real life democracy and education might remain just an idea on paper that cannot be emulated. Thus, for the American school philosophy about democracy and individual to be successful, educators must work side by side with the government and the other stakeholders such as students’ parents and teachers. Moreover, they should work on developing civil commitments for students, as well as workable and practical education policies. It is only through this way that the public schools in America hope to achieve any reasonable level of democracy both in the curriculum and in a practical way, on and off school politics will be achieved. References “Schools and democracy”. (1982, May 07). The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1038404137?accountid=1331 Greenberg, D. (2000). “What Children Get in Democratic Schools?” EducationFutures.org. Retrieved from http://www.educationfutures.org/Respect.htm http://learningalternatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/a-history-of-democratic-education-in-american-public-schools.pdf Kahne, J. and Westheimer, J. (2003). “Teaching Democracy: What Schools Need to Do” Phi Delta Kappa International. Retrieved from www.democraticdialogue.com/DDpdfs/TeachingDemocracyPDK.pdf Loflin, J. H. (2008). “A History of Democratic Education in American Public Schools”. Retrieved from http://learningalternatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/a-history-of-democratic-education-in-american-public-schools.pdf Rosenthal, A. (2009). “Fundamentals of representative democracy: Lesson Plans for High School Civics, Government and U.S. History Classes”. Retrieved from http://www.ncsl.org/documents/public/trust/LessonPlans_HS.pdf Rosenthal, A. and Burroughs, G. (2003) “Appreciating Democracy: A Lesson Plan for High School Teachers of Civics, Government, and U.S. History.” Eagleton Institute of Politics of Rutgers University. Retrieved from http://www.leg.wa.gov/BackToSchool/Documents/AppreciatingDemocracyLesson_CompleteDocument.pdf Read More