Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/education-for-democracy/5023418/
“We hold these truths to be self evident…”
These words continue to move the world. The political system of democracy that is built upon them is radical, recent, rare. It is our children’s inheritance. We must not think we can give it to them casually.
We must embed it so deeply in their souls that no one can take it away.
Albert Shanker Institute, Education for Democracy
Long ago, in another era, when I was in undergraduate school studying to become a teacher, John Dewey’s Democracy and Education was a basic introductory text. It had a powerful influence on me, particularly as a sheltered white suburban woman attending college in the 1960s as the Civil Rights, Black Power, and Anti-war movements burst on the scene. Over time I came to understand that there is no such thing as a ‘neutral’ education. Education is always on behalf of some goals, perspectives, and allegiances. When the first edition of the Anti-Bias Curriculum book was published by NAEYC (Derman-Sparks & ABC Task Force, 1989), I put it at the center of my work. Despite, or perhaps because of the controversy this book generated, it went on to become one of the top two bestsellers among NAEYC publications, with ...