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Columns::January 28, 2002
State budget proposal includes pay raises, other UGA priorities
Former White House chief of staff to speak at annual conference
Computational Center director wins chemistry award
UGA celebrates the life, legacy of Martin Luther King
Beyond description
Student ‘ambassadors’ visit area high schools
Signed, sealed, and delivered
Vet medicine professor puts the bite on infectious animal diseases
Newsmakers
Administrative Changes
Home Suite Home
Campus News
A dollar could have bought a lot more
By Carl D. Glickman
President George W. Bush in his televised address to Congress and the nation announced the commencement of the bombings of Afghanistan to root out the al Qaida network and overthrow the Taliban government. He concluded his address by asking each American student to donate one dollar to help children of Afghanistan. President Bush made clear through this humanitarian and diplomatic gesture that the United States war was against the terrorists and not the vulnerable people of the country. His leadership was steady during this tumultuous time, but President Bush unknowingly missed an unparalleled educational opportunity for students, teachers, parents and local communities to connect school learning with participatory democracy. Now that monumental events, tragedies, and emotions have subsided, it is time to reflect upon what we mean by an American education and how we narrow the huge disconnect between education, public purpose, citizenship, and democracy.
The hope of universal, high-quality education for all Americans was to improve democracy for all by the rule of free citizens. Citizenship and democracy were based on the belief that humans can best govern themselves.
The average adult American today does not attend a single public, civic or community meeting a year. The decline in citizen engagement in community, neighborhood or government affairs has dropped by more than 40 percent since the 1950s and the decline increases with each generation. In many areas in America, the only place where citizens voluntarily see people different from their own group of friends, families, church/mosque/temple members, business acquaintances, or hobbyists is at the mall. Outside of our current national crisis, keeping informed about local, state, or national affairs has continued to drop, and the simple act of voting in national elections is consistently an activity of less than the majority of Americans. Please keep in mind that voting is the most minimal form of citizenship, demanding nothing more than showing up and hopefully pulling a lever or connecting the lines.
Yet, volunteerism among the young in America has significantly risen, and has definitely accelerated in generous and heartfelt ways since Sept. 11. Charitable contributions are high, and paid memberships in non-profit, public-focused organizations are at an all time high. Volunteerism by American youth has been exceptional. But, as admirable and wonderful as volunteerism is, it is not democratic engagement. Volunteerism is a unilaterally controlled service; the volunteer gives and the recipient receives. It is not a reciprocal relation of equals learning to solve issues together.
A story told by a prominent national leader about a meeting with student volunteers at one of our most prestigious universities is illustrative of the difference between democratic engagement versus volunteerism. These top students spend one-half day per week providing help to children and families in a destitute neighborhood. They recite the satisfactions and frustrations of three years of volunteering in this neighborhood.
They were asked if after graduation they would consider running for public office or serving as citizen members on neighborhood committees, commissions or boards which could make policies for improving the conditions that they, as volunteers, are so much aware of. Of the 40 students, only two said they would have any interest in such public, visible, and potentially contentious work. Most said that they expected to continue to volunteer wherever they might eventually live or work, but to serve in any public group with the potential power to correct such shortcomings of a neighborhood was distasteful and not in their plans.
America is on the cusp of a failed experiment--not a failure for corporations, individuals, or national wealth and not a failure of military or world power, but a failure to improve education of all citizens so that “we the people” means just that, all of us. All of us have a stake in engaging with each other in building a better neighborhood, community, state, nation and world. Reversing the decline and tilting towards democratic vitality can only happen through quality free public education provided for all our students: an education that prepares all students with the choices of democratic citizenry.
In the past two years, I have spent time examining outstanding public schools and classrooms that reflect the diversity of ethnic populations, economic status and geography throughout the United States. These schools have had at least 10 years of documented student success, outperforming students in comparable schools on such student indicators as graduation rates, achievement test scores, employment placements, post-secondary accomplishments, intact families, longer and healthier lives, and active citizenship and leadership to their communities. What I was struck by on each visit, whether in a rural primary school in the South, an intermediate suburban school in the West, or a high school in the urban North, was the explicit commitment of each school to democratic values. It was clear that curriculum, assessments, promotion and graduation requirements reflected the b
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elief that academic learning goals and contributions to larger communities are integral to each other.
George W. Bush, instead of asking each student to donate a dollar, might have challenged American students, teachers, faculty, parents and communities to use school learning to figure out concrete ways to improve the lives of Afghan children. He might have asked them to become better-informed, wise, caring and participatory democratic citizens by learning about the history, geography, life style, habitat and physical conditions of Afghanistan, its people and its children.
This is a task much harder than sending a dollar, but the benefits and understanding gained by students about the impact of their education on the larger world would have been awesome in imagination and contributions. This is the challenge for all of us--to define the central purpose of public education in a democratic society. It is time that we all ask ourselves: what do we mean by an American education?
Carl Glickman is University Professor Emeritus of Education at UGA and president of the Institute for Schools, Education, and Democracy, Inc.
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To encourage discussion on issues affecting the university and higher education in general, the Forum section appears periodically in Columns. Faculty, staff, administrators and researchers associated with the university are invited to submit essays and respond to previous essays.
A committee appointed by University Council and Staff Council reviews submissions to determine which are of greatest interest to the university community. Faculty members of the Forum review committee for 2001-2002 are Jonathan Evans (English), Mary Frasier (education) and J. Scott Shaw (physics and astronomy). The staff representative is Melanie Andrews (legal affairs).
Opinions expressed on these pages do not necessarily reflect the views of the UGA administration or the review committee. Articles will be edited to conform with the Associated Press stylebook.
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