Democratic Thinking

                Being human is a paradox.  As Maturana says, we are simultaneously autonomous and connected.  Either condition by itself is not fully human.  We are caught in the play between these states that require us to shift focus or emphasis without abandoning or losing sight of the opposite state.  Democracy is a paradox on top of a paradox.  It demands we see the social through the perspective of the individual.  In some cultures, a civic view never materializes because the autonomous individual never emerges as a social actor.  In other cultures, the autonomous actor is too dominant, and the civic reality is stunted.  Currently, we are an example of the latter.  Learning to think democratically requires the conscious balancing of these dual but paradoxical arrangements.

                I think Dewey placed so much emphasis on education in democracy because he understood that learning how to think and act democratically is not natural.  We have to work at developing and perfecting our sense of balance and integration.  An education dedicated to that work would look radically different than the one we have constructed.  We have an educational system that values portable content mastery that can produce economic gain.  We do little to develop or encourage the emergence of a civic consciousness that extends beyond the individual. 

                One of the most essential abilities to radical democratic thought is being comfortable is unstructured scenarios.  Schools tend to rely on structured activities and memorization that actually reduces the development of unstructured thought.  Increasingly since the implementation of national testing programs aimed at assessing learning outcomes, students produce assignments that are limited to right and wrong answers.  Instead of experimentation, they jump to prearranged conclusions.  Democratic thinking requires working in conditions where there may be no ‘right’ answer and any answer at all may not help the process. 

                We have schools where classes have time limits, so for 40 minutes or so we’re going to produce answers to a limited number of questions in a specific subject and then move on to spend the next 40 minutes doing the same thing in a different subject.  Except for some general reading, communication and computation skills, the subjects have nothing to do with each other.  The students don’t pick the problems, and the teacher can’t really deviate from the assignment.  At the end of process, a few specifically talented students are harvested to promote a wildly unfair and unequal economic system.  It’s not surprising that we are struggling to create a political sphere that can sustain and expand a democracy.

                If schools helped us learn how to function in a radical democracy, they would promote learning that might last for days or weeks at a time as one integrated and ongoing inquiry.  Why do so many children in this school have asthma?  What do we need to know?  How many possible ways are there to approach or analyze the topic?  There won’t be one predetermined right answer.  There won’t be a test.  Every student can participate at their level of interest and mastery, learning not just from textbooks and teachers but from each other and community members.  If we valued democracy, we would start early to show students how to interact with and change their world.  We would build political agency and respect for difference and diversity as part of the inquiry.

                A democracy doesn’t need to sort its children; it needs to engage them.  By the time students leave our schools, they have become isolated and resentful instead of stimulated and connected.  Democracy is a radical and difficult thought experiment more than it is a system of government or a set of institutions.  So much of what is sick about our political culture is the direct result of an undemocratic and anti-intellectual approach to education.  A democracy requires inoculation from conspiracy theories and religious intolerance as much as children require inoculation from disease.  Unless we embrace the paradox of our being and reflect it through the paradox of democracy, we will never be strong enough to survive even the smallest infections of thought.