As we embrace the start of another new year, some of us may be filled with excitement as we anticipate the adventures that await us in 2017. Others among us may feel a sense of trepidation as we prepare to chart unknown territory. Whatever it is that we may be experiencing, a new year always offers a clean slate and an opportunity for a fresh start.
This year, we enter a new era with the inauguration of the 45th president of the United States. Whether or not we voted for Donald Trump it is important that, as citizens, we recognize and appreciate our right to participate in the democratic process.
What does it mean to be a citizen in a democracy and what role does public education play in this process? It is important to emphasize that democracy is much more than exercising the right to vote or performing our civic duty. In its broadest definition, democracy is an ideal to which we must aspire. I believe that, as educators, we have an ethical obligation to teach students what it means to be citizens in a democratic society.
So what does this look like and how do we teach students to develop democratic dispositions? In order to learn about democracy, all members of a school community must have ongoing opportunities to participate and contribute. Democracy begins with an openhearted presence as we recognize that each member of the community has a voice and needs to be heard. In classrooms and schools, it is imperative that we create safe spaces for an open exchange of ideas, encourage dissenting voices, help each other to wrestle with the complexity of issues, understand multiple perspectives, and engage in healthy discourse to make informed decisions.
Teaching students to be productive and responsible citizens requires that we intentionally design experiences to help them understand our collective responsibility to each other as we practice service. Service begins in small ways and grows to become a lifelong habit. It can start with something as simple as the daily routine of a morning meeting. When our youngest students gather at the start of the day and greet each other by name, we are instilling an important habit, one that will serve them well throughout their lives. As individual classrooms develop community contracts to establish a set of expectations intended to guide each individual, students experience how serving the greater good of the entire class benefits all members.
Service happens when we make an effort to deliberately include others. It happens when we listen to one another’s ideas with our hearts as well as with our minds. It happens when we ask how we can care for ourselves and others. How can we contribute to a better classroom, a better school, a better community? When we reach out to serve another, we manifest a healthy, more peaceful world.
Idealistically, I share John Dewey’s unwavering belief in a “democratic faith.” Democracy is indeed our hope. It is our hope for promising the best chance for children young and old to spread their wings. It is our hope for ensuring equity and for guaranteeing that all students are provided with equal opportunities. It allows for, and encourages, multiple voices to participate in difficult discussions. It raises social consciousness and fights for issues of justice and freedom. It creates a sense of personal and collective responsibility within the community and well beyond. It is our abiding faith in our democracy’s foundational principles that will continue to sustain us as individuals and as a nation now and in the future.
As we are stewards of our homes, our communities and our beautiful blue Earth, so too must we be stewards of our democracy. Be here now. Be present. Participate.
Dr. Kathie Foster is acting superintendent of Robbinsville Schools.
from the schools,
