Teaching in and for Democracy

Education in a democracy is geared toward and powered by a particularly precious and fragile ideal, which can be simply stated: every human being is of infinite and incalculable value; each a unique intellectual, emotional, physical, spiritual, moral, and creative force; each person is born free and equal in dignity and rights; each endowed with reason and conscience; each deserving, then, a community and a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood, recognition, and respect. This core value must express itself explicitly and implicitly in education as in every other aspect of associative living. The democratic injunction has big implications for curriculum and teaching as well--for what is taught and how. Democratic teaching, or teaching for social justice, encourages students to develop the capacity to name the world for themselves, to identify the obstacles to their full humanity, and to act courageously on whatever the known demands. This is not an add-on to "regular teaching" or some esoteric far-out practice, but rather the central everyday effort of teaching in a democracy. This kind of education is always about opening doors and opening minds as students forge their own pathways into a wider, shared world. The author urges educators, students, and citizens to press for an education worthy of a democracy and stresses that all children and youth in a democracy, regardless of economic circumstance, deserve full access to richly resourced classrooms led by caring, thoughtful, fully qualified, and generously compensated teachers.