Democracy and Education in the World of Today: Mary Snyder

Posted At : July 3, 2008 1:00 AM
Related Categories: Philosophy

Excerpted from "Democracy and Education in the World of Today," a lecture delivered October 24, 1938 at the Society for Ethical Culture by John Dewey, appearing in Later Works, The Collected Works of John Dewey, Southern Illinois University Press (13:328). Used by permission of the Center for Dewey Studies, Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Contributed and read by Mary Snyder: "As an educator for nearly 40 years, I've been strongly influenced by John Dewey, who lived from 1859-1952. Dewey is considered the father of experiential education, or the belief that students need educational experiences which enable them to become responsible members of society." Mary Snyder has been the Dean of the College of Education at UAA for 5 years, and has taught preschool through graduate school over the past 4 decades. She recommends: lifehacker.com.

A quote from John Dewey, who advocated that schools should educate for democracy:

"...[W]e have more or less unconsciously assumed that the work of establishing a democracy was completed by the founding fathers or when the Civil War abolished slavery. We tend to think of it as something that has been established and that remains for us simply to enjoy.

We have had ... a conception of democracy as something static, as something that is like an inheritance that could be bequeathed, a kind of lump sum that we could live off and upon. ...[E]very generation has to accomplish democracy over again for itself; ... its very nature, its essence, is something that cannot be handed on from one person or one generation to another, but has to be worked out in terms of needs, problems and conditions...."

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Regarding the philosophies of John Dewey, I can agree that democracy is not "something static" but his assertions that democracy is not an "inheritance" and that "by its very nature ... cannot be handed on from . . . one generaton to another" seems to to ignore and belittle the heroic work of all those who have fought for equality.

The natural tendency of the human organism is to cede power to those most genetically predisposed to lead the group. In the days of the "cavemen" that meant that the strongest, meanest, baddest dude (it would have always been a "dude") would garner the power via his physical prowess and thereby rule the "tribe." Later that ranking would be awarded to those who harbored within them the skills necessary to exploit the resources at hand -- to capture and control the minds of their "countrymen."

And to be sure, throughout human history there has been little correlation between an individual's "humanity" and their genetic talents for "leadership." (Perhaps this says more about the masses than the elites.)

Regardless, the bottom line is this: democracy serves to wrest power from those who are genetically pre-disposed (regardless of qualification) to possess it, in favor of distributing it -- ideally equally -- amongst the citizens. This does not come without a price and believe me when I tell you, if we were paying that price today, you would be reading and hearing about it every day.

# Posted By Ken Ryan | 7/3/08 7:33 PM

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