Pass the Elmer's Please

by Chris Mercogliano

“Education is the Glue of Democracy,” reads a billboard towering over I-90 on the outskirts of Boston.

“It is a sticky business these days, isn’t it?” my smart alecky mind first responded. Then came a more serious thought: “Wait a minute; shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t the right of every student to determine his or her own path be the glue that holds together our common vision of education?”

I, for one, think it should be. Every day of my thirty years as a teacher has confirmed that children learn better and faster when they have a voice in the educational process. And that they behave with greater wisdom and maturity when they are involved in making the rules and in resolving the inevitable conflicts that stem from their belonging to a group.

But let’s back up a moment and take that billboard at its word. Let’s assume that a democratic society does indeed rely on education to ensure that its adult members will be able to handle responsibly the power that has been vested in them. Here is where my bile always begins to rise, because what do we usually observe when we peek in the door of a typical classroom? Isn’t it ordered rows of children day in and day out simply doing as they’re told? When they raise their hands, it’s not to join in debate over issues of real import or to exercise their democratic right to participate in their own governance. Rather, it is to call out answers to predigested questions – before anyone else does, as on a TV quiz show. Or to ask permission to attend to a bodily function.

Where in this picture do we see students preparing to be the informed, discerning, engaged, compassionate citizens upon whom Thomas Jefferson declared that any true democracy depends? Where indeed.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to many, there is a growing international coalition of schools loosely united under the banner of “Democratic Education.” No two “member” schools are alike. Their approaches to education vary widely. But what all share in common is a belief in the critical importance of empowering young people to practice real democracy now and not have to wait until they are voting age adults to do so. In each of these democratic school you will find students actively participating in setting school policy. In each you will find students taking responsibility for their own education, and beyond that, for the well being of each other. You will find all of this because in each of these schools democracy is indeed the glue that bonds students and teachers together into a community in which everyone’s rights and needs are given equal due.

In July 2003, over 500 people from democratic schools in thirty different countries met in Troy, New York, to explore and celebrate the connections between democracy and education. The twelfth annual International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC) will be held in December, 2004 in Madras, India, where it is nearly certain that the Dalai Lama will lead the opening ceremony. If you, too, think democracy is the Elmer’s of education, consider traveling to India to help build democratic education into a worldwide movement.



The Directory of Democratic Education		Everywhere All the Time



How to Grow a School		In Defense of Childhood



Making It Up as We Go Along		Teaching the Restless