Dear Deb and Colleagues
We are, as you say, 鈥渂oth alarmed about...schools where teachers are replaced by machines who know all the right answers and where equations and algorithms are viewed as an improvement over human judgment big and small.鈥� Your description is like a manifesto for democracy schools.
If we鈥檙e going to build a 鈥渇reedom movement against the rise of the smart machines,鈥� as one of the authors from the recent Scientific American article, 鈥淲ill Democracy Survive Big Data and Artificial Intelligence?鈥�, puts it, we need ways to enlarge educators鈥� views of children鈥檚 potential.
Here I鈥檇 add to your argument about children learning to be 鈥済overnors of their government.鈥� A government focus tends to reinforce what I鈥檝e called the 鈥淢anichean mindset,鈥� the idea that civic action involves a zero-sum and good versus evil struggle for power. We need students to learn a nonviolent relational approach going beyond demonizing opponents, and also to learn 鈥渃ivic repair鈥� and 鈥減ublic creation.鈥� In my experience such learning also unlocks hidden talent and energy while changing educators鈥� views.
In our exchange with David Randall, he stressed government-centered civics. NAS leans conservative but for all its differences with what they see as leftist tendencies in education, they share with progressives the focus on government.
The French philosopher Pierre Rosanvallon, in his recent book, The Society of Equals, observes that 鈥渄emocracy鈥� now emphasizes government and deemphasizes society. 鈥淒emocracy is manifesting its vitality as a regime even as it withers as a social form,鈥� on both sides of the Atlantic. 鈥淧olitical citizenship has progressed,鈥� he argues 鈥渨hile social citizenship has regressed.
In contrast, reflecting on his travels across America in the 1830s, the French observer Alexis de Tocqueville compared nations in which the citizenry relied on government with the self-organizing efforts of citizens in society. 鈥淚n democratic peoples, associations must take the place of the powerful particular persons,鈥� he wrote in Democracy in America. 鈥淚n democratic countries the science of association is the mother science; the progress of all the others depends on the progress of that one.鈥� Tocqueville located the 鈥渟cience of association鈥� in grassroots citizen politics different than partisan, government centered politics.
I鈥檓 in favor of young people learning about government. But this knowledge best grows in projects like the playground I described, which children at St. Bernard鈥檚 elementary school involved in the youth civic education initiative Public Achievement built over several years.
They negotiated zoning changes. They interacted with local officials. They learned about government. But their motivation came from their own work in making change. They created a public thing of importance.
I have been transcribing interviews from educators in Public Achievement. Again and again, they are surprised, even astonished, at young people鈥檚 talents. As Elizabeth Bott, a Public Achievement team coach at Maxfield, a low income, largely African American school in St. Paul, put it, 鈥淧ublic Achievement made me see kids as so much more than I thought. It gives kids a chance to blow up low expectations, by showing what they can do.鈥�
Jamie Minor, an African American teacher at Anderson School in Minneapolis, described the way her views of children changed. When she first heard about Public Achievement, she was skeptical. 鈥淚t took me about a year to realize how narrow my thought process had gotten by being in education,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 had learned to automatically go to the negative.鈥�
As children began to work on projects like getting a bathroom fixed she saw 鈥渟park in kids that couldn鈥檛 care less about being in school most days. Public Achievement was the one part of the day when they had control. They were so excited to be in charge of their environment. They had hope.鈥� She also saw a new sense of consequentiality and confidence. 鈥淭hey realized their work matters and adults care. The confidence these kids developed is irreplaceable.鈥�
In Colorado, Elaina Verveer, a coordinator of Public Achievement, observed that the general response from many who hear young people鈥檚 ideas is, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think this is possible. We鈥檙e talking about people who aren鈥檛 even voting age, who lack life experience.鈥� Young people鈥檚 public work changed perceptions. 鈥淯nlike people have had a lot of life experience, young people are tenacious. They don鈥檛 give up easily.鈥�
At St Bernard鈥檚, Jeff Mauer saw that children who didn鈥檛 fit the norms sometimes shattered expectations. These were 鈥渒ids who were seen as troublemakers in the classrooms. They found leadership in Public Achievement.鈥�
Public Achievement taught relational public skills. 鈥淭hey had never before had a chance to speak out about something they felt strongly about or to have people listen to them. Public Achievement gave them a chance for pride and recognition.鈥�
These experiences remind me of the biblical passage, 鈥渢he last shall be first.鈥� Alain Locke, philosopher of the Harlem Renaissance and a founder of the American Association for Adult Education put it differently. 鈥淚t is not always the dominant stock or upper classes who are carriers of culture. Societies have just as frequently received infiltrations of culture from the bottom.鈥�
In Public Achievement, 鈥渢hose from the bottom鈥� often have the keenest insights into the problems in schools -- the hyper-individualist norms, the regimented learning, the loss of relational interactions. They also have the strongest incentives to change these norms.
They need 鈥渃itizen teachers鈥� to help unlock their civic potential.
Harry