Item 3: Reformers must clearly articulate their goals and ideals
I originally included this in the model because in order for a movement to be successful, it must grow beyond its original core. During this process, some people may get involved with the movement who do not understand the goals and methods that the movement has chosen. Indeed, they may be opposed to the methods but believe that the movement presents an opportunity to achieve a shared goal. Leaders like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. attracted supporters who were not necessarily committed to nonviolence in their pursuit of justice. When this happen the movement can begin to suffer from infighting or a muddled image. So I believed that it was important for a movement to state and then constantly reiterate its core beliefs, not just about its goals but about the process that it intended to follow.
I think this is even more important in the case of democratic reform school. For one thing, there is a constant turnover of members of the movement. Each year a new group of students enters the school, and even during the year there can be transfers. There is probably at least some turnover in staff as well. And an entire corps of student leaders, who have had years to shape and adopt the school’s goals, moves on to other activities. A school constantly renews itself, so it must constantly renew its commitment to its purpose.
Furthermore, if democratic education reformers are correct, then a school based on democratic education principles will be successful in the ways that the larger population conceives success for a school. A high school, for example, would develop a reputation for safety, for the engagement of its students, and for the academic and personal successes of those students after they graduate. Many parents and students are going to want to be a part of such a school regardless of their interest in democratic theory or a long term project to reform democratic society. But if people try to join the community solely to benefit from its results without buying into the culture and ideals that make those results possible, that effort could prove self-defeating.
Depending on the structure of the school, there may be some possibility of addressing this situation during the admissions process. If there are more students who want to be part of the school than the school can fit, the school could use an interview process to talk to prospective students and their families about the schools’ overall mission and how they envision themselves being part of that community. This may not always be possible, depending on how the school is structured and what larger admissions requirements might be imposed by local laws or district mandates. And at some point, the school is going to want to reach out to people who are not already committed to its overall methods, because that is the only way to change people’s minds and grow the number of people who support you. So this communication and reinforcement needs to be a constant part of the school’s activity.
Now, many schools today have a mission statement or a declaration of core values or something similar. But to meet this requirement of the model a democratic reform school has to go farther. It needs to make sure that the values are stated in a clear and meaningful way, not as a bland collection of buzzwords or statements that are so vague and abstract that no one would disagree with them because anyone can impose their own meaning on them. It needs to make sure that the school’s daily activities and culture reflect and model those values. It needs to explicitly mention and reinforce the values on a consistent basic. And it needs to build in major events that celebrate and reinforce the values.
So far I have been vague about what those values should be. On one hand this entire series is my effort to articulate a set of values, but I don’t think that they would necessarily work as a school mission statement. And each school community needs to put together its own mission, so I do not want to suggest that I aim to create a handy list ready to be cut and pasted. But here are some of the principles that I think are really important.
The school should be committed to the idea that true understanding requires seeing the possibilities for the future contained in the subject at hand and how to realize them.
The school should strive to help every member of the community understand and engage with the world as it is today through study, reflection, and action.
The school should strive to help every member of the community develop all of his or her interests, not just those of traditional academic subject matter.
The school should strive to help every member of the community become a more informed citizen, which includes understanding the positions and perspectives of other member of the community.
These are lofty goals, and there are going to be times when students do not want to hear about high-minded principles of democratic activism and they just want to know what the teacher wants them to do for the next assignment and how many points is it going to be worth toward the final grade. There are going to be times when teachers don’t want to think about how their lesson plan connects with current problems of wage inequality and just want to figure out how to get the concept of buying stocks on margin across to the students. But that’s where the idea of a school as a community comes into play. The members of the community are going to have to pick each other up when they are down and continually reinforce the principles of the school. Otherwise it will cease to be a force for reform.