Abrams 1

Democratic Schools

Robert Abrams

Illinois State University

Democratic 1

Democratic Schools

“Joining a fraternity means nothing. But when you have worked for it, sweated for it, cursed it, and loved it, you have something”. Alfred Kovner (1929), a member of Pi Lambda Phi Fraternity, wrote this motto, which hangs on a plaque in the foyer of my fraternity house in Champaign, Illinois. Whereas a school is not a fraternity, it is a collection of people all working toward a similar goal. Hopefully, that goal is creating a democratic system within the school. The motto, written over seventy years ago, captures the essence of how a democracy can be attained. Through hard work and sweat, turmoil and eventual elation, people can buy into the idea of the democracy and support it.

“Democracy involves tensions and contradictions… [Democratic participation] opens the way for antidemocratic ideals such as continuing demands for censorship of materials, the use of public tax vouchers for private school tuition, and the maintenance of historical inequities in school life” (Apple & Beane, 1995, p. 8). This is what Kovner was speaking of. As educators, we should strive to provide students with the best education available to them. Each student should have an equal opportunity to learn. At the same time, educators must fight against people attempting to censor ideas and take their children out of the public school and bring them into private schools. It is a constant struggle between educating the children and dealing with the tensions that their parents, and other constituents, can make.

Aside from the tensions that parents can make, some of the structures set up within the schools and communities detract from the democratic ideas of equal opportunity and equal representation. “All young people are also considered to have the rights of access to all programs in the school and to the outcomes the school values…Every effort is made to eliminate tracking, biased testing, and other arrangements that so often deny such access on grounds of race, gender, and socioeconomic class” (Apple & Beane, 1995, p. 11). Many schools have to deal with the non-equal distribution of materials within the school and wealth within the community. The classes that are set up and maintained directly conflict with the idea of equal opportunity.

A democratic school should “create a structure in which people…could think aloud together and jointly make decisions” (Meier & Schwarz, p. 29). It is this joint decision making that allows people to feel ownership within a system and support it. Yet, even today, the ideas of racism and inequality that democracy has grown to fight against still rear their heads in schools. In the July 1, 2001 issue of the Chicago Tribune, an article by Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah describes Haines Elementary, a school in Chicago’s Chinatown, that is fighting classism and racism between the two largest groups attending the school, African-Americans and Chinese-Americans.

On one side live the children from the bleak Harold Ickes public housing

complex, most of them black. On the other are Chinese-American children who generally live in cleaner, safer areas…. When Principal Gandy Heaston came on board in 1990, what she found inside the school send chills up her spine: Haines was segregated. Chinese children…studied upstairs in the bi-lingual program, which offered advanced courses. Almost all of the pupils in the regular program were black. The two sides rarely interacted—and when they did, it often led to a fight. (Ahmed-Ullah, 2001)

But, now at Haines, the democratic ideal is growing. The students are involved in a dialogue the helps to openly acknowledge the racism. There is an integration of students in regular education and bilingual education. (Ahmed-Ullah, 2001). The people involved at Haines are dedicated to creating the equal learning environment. That is the ideal of democracy.

The authors involved in Democratic Schools maintained that there should be an “open flow of ideas” (Apple & Beane, 1995, p. 6) and a system that “…seemed to define [qualities of] our ideal citizen were empathy and skepticism” (Meier & Schwarz, p. 29). These same concepts are being utilized in a very modern day context in Chicago, Illinois. The people at Haines Elementary are working, sweating, loving, and even cursing this process, but it allows the members of that system to have ownership in their newly democratic school.

Based on the seven conditions that Apple and Beane describe in Democratic Schools, I would have to describe the school in which I work as democratic. The school creates an atmosphere where ideas can be exchanged. Teacher and administrators can directly interact, as well as students and teachers, and students and administrators. A structure exists where students can directly interact with the Principal.

The Principal Student Advisory Board [PSAB] provides a direct avenue of communication with a cross section of the student body. This cross section attempts to cover any socioeconomic gaps that may occur between different student groups. It is a good example of representative democracy. The representative (members of the PSAB) are in direct contact with the student body to voice their concerns in such ranging topics of a phone in the student center to the ratification of a new attendance policy.

The ideal of “faith in the individual and collective capacity of people to create possibilities for resolving problems” (Apple & Beane, 1995, p. 7) is accomplished through peer mediation groups, the student council, and faculty meetings. Through these different formats, various people can have the input to voice their opinions equally and get their ideas heard. Critical reflection (p.7) is a key component of this process to insure that the ideas presented represent the people equally and fairly. We, as constituents, must constantly analyze ideas put before us to see if we are represented by them.

The school climate committee looks after welfare and the common good (p.7). This committee was designed to promote positive acknowledgement of faculty, staff, and students while maintaining a watchful eye of the safe learning environment. When the safe learning environment is maintained, the “dignity and rights of individuals and minorities” (Apple & Beane, 1995 p.7) are looked after. Although most of the faculty is from a European-American
(Caucasian) background, we do have a resource officer available that can offer a perspective on some minority issues. While this may seem to set some of the minorities in a separate group, anyone may visit the resource officer for guidance, advice, or just a chance to talk.

The “…’idealized’ set of values that we must live and that must guide our life as people” (Apple & Beane, 1995 p.7) is set up in each classroom. Each teacher provided a positive example of proper etiquette and behavior that would be expected in ‘normal’ society. This is one area that might be expanded though. Many teachers still have the classroom model with the teacher as the ‘benevolent dictator’, mine included. We should modify the system to incorporate the students’ wants and needs and value their input. The students should feel part of the system in which they exist. If they feel that connection, then a sense of value may set in for their own education because they were an active part of its development.

One other factor that might detract from the democratic ideal is the tracking that exists. We have Honors level, Regular level and Below level tracks. While the upper tracks may allow those upper level students to move through material at a more accelerated pace, the below level track serve as a detriment to the students. When you remove the comparably “higher” ability level students from a class, whatever ability levels remain within the class lack the benefit of having the higher ability level students present. This can be seen somewhat in the regular track but the detriment is most easily observed in the low track. Some teachers have compared teaching at this level to herding cattle more than teaching. Democracy should try to give everyone an equal opportunity; tracking sets an inequality. Schools should attempt to show students what they can achieve, not what they do not have. This modification to student placement can help achieve Apple and Beane’s goal seven.

The “…promote[ion] and extend[tion of] the democratic way of life” (Apple & Beane, 1995 p.7) can be more fully realized when the valued input and equal representation of the students is recognized within each class. As an entity, the school in which I work does promote the democratic ideal of equal representation while promoting contradiction to inspire discussion and eventual compromise, but the individual classroom can still be modified to create this change from the inside out.

Creating a democracy is not an easy task to accomplish. One must value the input of the constituents while encouraging contradiction. It is a precarious balance. Multiple perspectives must be recognized in order to ensure the equal representation of all of the people involved. In its creation, fights may occur, and dissention may run rampant, “…But when you have worked for it, sweated for it, cursed it, and loved it, you have something” (Kovner, 1929). That ‘something’ will lead to more informed and educated citizens created by our democratic schools.

Works Cited

Ahmed-Ullah, N. A. Chinatown grade school strives to expel racism. (2001, July 1). Chicago Tribune, pp. 4-1, 4-5.

Apple, M. W., & Beane, J. A. (Eds.) (1995). Democratic Schools. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.