Why Should We Teach Democracy?

Civic engagement and learning about Democracy seems to be taking more of a back seat lately and this low prioritisation breaks down young people’s education and motivation to participate in a democratic society. Democracy is an important subject because democracy as a system needs participation and many voices to function properly. If we forget about teaching Democracy people will increasingly begin to feel that their voices cannot be heard and this will give more power to large corporations and individual political leaders. When issues are affecting our lives we need to learn that we do not have to be passive and that we can engage in change.

While reflecting on why teaching Democracy is so important I came across a valuable article, “Teaching Democracy: What School Need to Do.” I will do a bit of summarizing here because I feel that this article is very valuable. At the very beginning of their article Kahne and Westheimer make an interesting though provoking point. They ask:

Which of the following headlines never appeared in a daily newspaper?

a) “Capital City Students Show No Gain in Reading, Math – [Premier] Threatens Takeover”

b) “Middletown Schools to be Taken Over by [Province] for Failure to Develop Democratic Citizens”

 

The answer is B and the scary part is how easy this can be answered. Society generally says that we value democracy and a democratic society, yet our schools have generally moved away from preparing our students to be active democratic citizens.

The American studies that Kahne and Westheimer highlight show that civic engagement numbers are declining. For 25% fewer citizens go to the polls today to vote then did in 1960, largely declining with the young people, and political participation is at a 40 year low. Yet when the Coca-Cola Company announced it was changing the recipe, its Atlanta head quarters received 40,000 letters of protest and fielded 5,000 phone calls per day for months. They propose then that the problem is that young citizens in particular are disengaged from politics and need to be taught to make democracy work, to engage civically, socially, and politically (pg 299).

Kahne and Westheimer propose that teachers need to go beyond teaching service and character to programs that teach democracy: They suggest, “Commitment, Capacity, and Connection”:

Commitment

1. “Show students that society needs improving by examining social problems and controversial issues” -help students understand why they should bother

2. “Provide positive experiences in civic participation” -positive experiences in civic participation strengthen student’s commitments, it's not just a field trip.

Capacity

1. “Engage students in Real-World problems” –students own participation becomes more plausible and appropriate

2. “Teach skills and provide knowledge through workshops and simulations” – builds skills and strategies

Connection

1. “Communities of Support” –requires the creation of a social milieu

2. “Connections to compelling role models” –to help develop a vision for a life filled with civic commitments

Kahne and Westheimer explain why we need to be teaching Democracy best, they argue;

“Young people need to be taught to make democracy work, to engage civically, socially, and politically. At the same time that lobbyists are spending hundreds of millions of dollars, many ordinary citizens are passive and apathetic when it comes to major issues that affect their lives. If policies regarding the environment, taxes, military spending, and health care — to name just a few — are to reflect public sentiments rather than the interests of well financed lobbyists, they require the attention of ordinary citizens. Improving society requires making democracy work. And making democracy work requires that schools take this goal seriously: to educate and nurture engaged and informed democratic citizens.” (pg 299)

Now there are some great reasons to teach democracy! Now where else can we teach democracy outside of Social Studies courses?

-Sarah A

Works Cited

Kahne, Joseph and Joel Westheimer. “Teaching Democracy: What School Need to Do.” In The Social Studies Curriculum: Purposes, Problems, and Possibilities, edited by E. Wayne Ross, 297-316. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006. http://www.mills.edu/academics/faculty/educ/jkahne/pdk_teaching_democracy.pdf