Schools don’t need to teach democracy
April 11, 2021
Stephen Gessner criticizes the failure of schools to teach about democracy in his op-ed “Our schools fail to teach democracy,” Opinion, April 7]. But I believe he misses the point.
The need is not for schools to teach “about” democracy, critical thinking and decision making. Students need to grow up practicing democracy, to be “in” democracy.
Obviously, the best way to prepare students to participate in a democracy is not to be subjected to 12 years of authoritarianism in schools.
In our current system, students get rewarded for doing what the teacher and the system tells them to do rather that initiating their own directions of learning, based on their interests. They do not grow up making decisions democratically about their education or their school.
It is important to note that the education revolution has just happened, thanks to remote learning. At one point, we went from less than 5% of students learning alternatively to more than 90%! Now, 50 million American families know they have choices.
Where will this lead? We don’t know, but we should make sure that it leads to a learner-centered, democratic experience for all children. This actually is practiced by more than 250 schools around the world and, for example, over 30 public democratic schools in Israel.
Jerry Mintz, Roslyn
Editor’s note: The writer is director of Alternative Education Resource Organization, based in Roslyn Heights.
