Teaching Against

Idiocy
Contemplating the root of the word “idiocy”
leads Mr. Parker to explore the challenge that
democratic societies face of developing public-
minded citizens. The schools, he argues, are the
most likely institutions to succeed in that task.

I
BY WALTER C. PARKER

DIOCY IS the scourge of our time and place. Idiocy was a problem for
the ancient Greeks, too, for they coined the term. “Idiocy” in its original
sense is not what it means to us today — stupid or mentally deficient. The
recent meaning is deservedly and entirely out of usage by educators, but
the original meaning needs to be revived as a conceptual tool for clari-
fying a pivotal social problem and for understanding the central goal of
education.
Idiocy shares with idiom and idiosyncratic the root idios, which means
private, separate, self-centered — selfish. “Idiotic” was in the Greek context a
term of reproach. When a person’s behavior became idiotic — concerned my-
opically with private things and unmindful of common things — then the per-
son was believed to be like a rudderless ship, without consequence save for the
danger it posed to others. This meaning of idiocy achieves its force when con-
trasted with politēs (citizen) or public. Here we have a powerful opposition: the
private individual versus the public citizen.
Schools in societies that are trying in various ways to be democracies, such
as the United States, Mexico, and Canada, are obliged to develop public citi-
zens. I argue here that schools are well positioned for the task, and I suggest
how they can improve their efforts and achieve greater success.

DODGING PUBERTY
An idiot is one whose self-centeredness undermines his or her citizen iden-
tity, causing it to wither or never to take root in the first place. Private gain is
the goal, and the community had better not get in the way. An idiot is suicidal
in a certain way, definitely self-defeating, for the idiot does not know that pri -
WALTER C. PARKER is a professor of education and an adjunct professor of political sci-
ence at the University of Washington, Seattle. His most recent book is Teaching Democ-
racy: Unity and Diversity in Public Life (Teachers College Press, 2003), from which the
arguments in this article have been drawn.

344 PHI DELTA KAPPAN

vacy and individual autonomy are entirely dependent on
the community. As Aristotle wrote, “Individuals are so many
parts all equally depending on the whole which alone can
bring self-sufficiency.” 1 Idiots do not take part in public
life; they do not have a public life. In this sense, idiots are
immature in the most fundamental way. Their lives are out
of balance, disoriented, untethered, and unrealized. Trag-
ically, idiots have not yet met the challenge of “puberty,”
which is the transition to public life.
The former mayor of Missoula, Montana, Daniel Kem-
mis, writes of the idiocy/citizenship opposition, though he
uses a different term, in his delightful meditation on demo-
cratic politics, The Good City and the Good Life:

People who customarily refer to themselves as tax-

payers are not even remotely related to democratic
citizens. Yet this is precisely the word that now reg-
ularly holds the place which in a true democracy
would be occupied by “citizens.” Taxpayers bear a
dual relationship to government, neither half of which
has anything at all to do with democracy. Taxpayers
pay tribute to the government, and they receive serv-
ices from it. So does every subject of a totalitarian
regime. What taxpayers do not do, and what peo-
ple who call themselves taxpayers have long since
stopped even imagining themselves doing, is gov-
erning. In a democracy, by the very meaning of the
word, the people govern.2

Alexis de Tocqueville, writing 150 years before Mayor

Kemmis, also described idiocy. All democratic peoples
face a “dangerous passage” in their history, he wrote, when
they “are carried away and lose all self-restraint at the sight
of the new possessions they are about to obtain.”3 De Toc-
queville’s principal concern was that getting “carried away”
causes citizens to lose the very freedom they are wanting
so much to enjoy. “These people think they are following
the principle of self-interest,” he continues, “but the idea
they entertain of that principle is a very crude one; and the
more they look after what they call their own business, they
neglect their chief business, which is to remain their own
masters.”
Just how do people remain their own masters? By main-
taining the kind of community that secures their liberty.
De Tocqueville’s singular contribution to our understand-
ing of idiocy and citizenship is the notion that idiots are
idiotic precisely because they are indifferent to the con-
ditions and contexts of their own freedom. They fail to
grasp the interdependence of liberty and community, pri-
vacy and puberty.
Similarly, Jane Addams argued in 1909 that, if a woman
was planning to “keep on with her old business of caring

JANUARY 2005 345

for her house and rearing her children,” then it was nec- to do whatever I choose, goes the argument, with the added
essary that she expand her consciousness to include “pub- and supposedly selfless rationalization of protecting “my”
lic affairs lying quite outside her immediate household.” family from dangers real and imagined. To draw the line
The individualistic consciousness was “no longer effective”: of obligation so close to the nuclear family is idiotic be-
cause it undermines, as Addams and De Tocqueville ar-
Women who live in the country sweep their own gued, that family’s own safety along with everyone else’s.
dooryards and may either feed the refuse of the table We could continue this survey of idiocy from its indi-
to a flock of chickens or allow it innocently to de-
cay in the open air and sunshine. In a crowded city vidual and familial forms to its large-scale enactments in
quarter, however, if the street is not cleaned by the
city authorities, no amount of private sweeping will
keep the tenement free from grime; if the garbage is
not properly collected and destroyed a tenement house
How did idiocy grow from an
mother may see her children sicken and die of dis-
eases from which she alone is powerless to shield
exception in the Greek polis to
them, although her tenderness and devotion are un-
bounded.4 a commonplace in contemporary,
Addams concluded that for women to tend only to their
economically developed societies?
“own” households was “idiotic,” for to do only that would
prevent women, ironically, from doing just that at all. One
cannot maintain the familial nest without maintaining the ethnocentrism, racism, or the nationalistic variety, where-
public, shared space in which the familial nest is itself nest- in a nation secures its own needs and wants in such a way
ed. “As society grows more complicated,” she continued, that the world environment — every human’s nest — is
“it is necessary that woman shall extend her sense of re- fouled, whether by conquest or by dumping poisons into
sponsibility to many things outside of her own home if she the air and water. But let me instead conclude this section
would continue to preserve the home in its entirety.” with a puzzle: How did idiocy grow from an exception in
Leaving aside individuals, families can be idiotic, too. the Greek polis to a commonplace in contemporary, eco-
The paradigm case is the Mafia — a family that looks in- nomically developed societies? Numerous social scientists
ward intensely and solely. A thick moral code glues the in- have asked just this question. Karl Marx saw idiocy (“alien-
siders together, but in dealing with outsiders who are be- ation,” he called it) as the inevitable by-product of capi-
yond the galaxy of one’s obligations and duties, anything talism, wherein accumulating profit becomes an end in it-
goes. There is no organized cooperation across families to self and nearly everything — from labor to love — is com-
tackle shared problems (health, education, welfare), no shared modified toward that end. Robert Bellah and his colleagues
games, not even communication save the occasional “treaty.” located idiocy in a deeply pervasive culture of rugged in-
There are no bridging associations. Edward Banfield called dividualism. John Kenneth Galbraith focused on the mass
this amoral familism and articulated its ethos as “maxi- affluence of contemporary North American society, in which,
mize the material, short-run advantage of the nuclear fami- for example, beef cattle are consumed at such a rate as to
ly; assume that all others will do likewise.”5 flood the environment with their waste, while farmland is
Amoral familism is certainly not restricted to the Mafia. misdirected to their feed. As Galbraith wrote, “Few people
Social scientists who examine popular culture find no short- at the beginning of the nineteenth century needed an adman
age of it today. Perhaps the best contemporary example in to tell them what they wanted.”7
the U.S., because it is both so mundane and so pervasive,
is the SUV craze. Here, the suburban family provides for
SCHOOLS AND IDIOCY
its own safety and self-esteem during such mobile tasks as
commuting to work and running household errands, but Capitalism, individualism, and affluence are a power-
it does so at others’ expense. When criticized for putting ful brew. But what about the education sector of society?
other drivers and passengers at risk, for widening the ozone Do schools marshal their human and material resources to
hole, and for squandering nonrenewable resources, SUV produce idiots or citizens? Does the school curriculum cul-
drivers often justify their behavior by speaking of their tivate private vices or public virtues? Can schools tame the
“rights” or the advantage of “sitting up higher than others.” rugged individualism and amoral familism that undermine
But they focus especially on “family safety.”6 It is my right puberty and foul the common nest?

346 PHI DELTA KAPPAN

 Actually, schools already educate for citizenship to some by nature; they are created. And much of the creative work
extent, and therein lies our hope. By identifying how schools must be undertaken by engaged citizens who share some
accomplish at least some of this work now, educators can understanding of what it is they are trying to build together.
direct and fine-tune the effort. The wheel doesn’t need to Often, it is the unjustly treated members of a community
be reinvented; it is at hand and only needs to be rolled who are democracy’s vanguard, pushing it toward its prin-
more intentionally, explicitly, and directly toward citizen- ciples. “We know through painful experience that freedom
ship. There are three assumptions that propel this work and is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be de-
three keys to its success. manded by the oppressed,” King wrote in the “Letter from
The first assumption is that democracy (rule by the peo- Birmingham Jail.”11 The Framers of the U.S. Constitution
ple) is morally superior to autocracy (rule by one person), may have been the birth parents of democracy, American
theocracy (rule by clerics), aristocracy (rule by a permanent style, but those who were excluded, then and now, became
upper class), plutocracy (rule by the rich), and the other the adoptive, nurturing parents.
alternatives, mainly because it better secures liberty, jus- The third assumption is that engaged citizens do not
tice, and equality than the others do. Among actually attain- materialize out of thin air. They do not naturally grasp such
able ways of living together and making decisions about knotty principles as tolerance, impartial justice, the sepa-
common problems and projects, democracy (that is, a re- ration of church and state, the need for limits on majority
public, a constitutional democracy) is, as Winston Churchill power, or the difference between liberty and license. They
said, the worst form of government except for all the oth- are not born already capable of deliberating about public
ers.8 Democracy is better than the alternatives because it policy issues with other citizens whose beliefs and cultures
aspires to and, to varying degrees, is held accountable for they may abhor. These things are not, as the historical rec-
securing civil liberties, equality before the law, limited ord makes all too clear, hard-wired into our genes. (Just
government, competitive elections, and solidarity around ask any school principal!) Rather, they are social, moral,
a common project (a civic unum) that exists alongside in- and intellectual achievements, and they are hard won. This
dividual and cultural manyness (pluribus). third assumption makes clear the enormous importance
That democracies fall short of achieving these aspira- of educating children for democracy.
tions is obvious, and it is the chief impetus of social move- On the foundation of these three assumptions, taken
ments that seek to close the gap between the actual and the together, educators are justified in shaping curriculum and
ideal. Thus Martin Luther King, Jr., demanded in his 1963 instruction toward the development of democratic citizens.
March on Washington address not an alternative to de- In poll after poll, the American public makes clear its ex-
mocracy but its fulfillment: pectation that schools do precisely this.12

We have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check.

When the architects of our republic wrote the mag- SCHOOLS ARE PUBLIC PLACES
nificent words of the Constitution and the Declara-
As it turns out, schools are ideal sites for democratic
tion of Independence, they were signing a promis-
sory note to which every American was to fall heir. . . . citizenship education. The main reason is that a school is
We have come to cash this check, a check that will not a private place, like our homes, but a public, civic place
give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the with a congregation of diverse students. Some schools are
security of justice.9 more diverse than others, of course, but all schools are di-
verse to some meaningful extent. Former kindergarten teach-
The purpose of the civil rights movement was not to al- er Vivian Gussin Paley put it plainly: “The children I teach
ter the American Dream but to realize it. When a democ- are just emerging from life’s deep wells of private perspec-
racy excludes its own members for whatever reason (slav- tive: babyhood and family. Then, along comes school. It
ery, patriarchy, Jim Crow, etc.), it is “actively and purpose- is the first real exposure to the public arena.”13 Boys and
fully false to its own vaunted principles,” wrote Judith Shklar.10 girls are both there. Jews, Protestants, Catholics, Muslims,
Here is democracy’s built-in progressive impulse: to live up Buddhists, and atheists are there together. There are African
to itself. Americans, European Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian
The second assumption required if schools are to edu- Americans, and many more. Immigrants from the world
cate for citizenship is that there can be no democracy with- over are there in school.
out democrats. Democratic ways of living together, with the This buzzing variety does not exist at home, or in church-
people’s differences intact and recognized, are not given es, temples, or mosques either. It exists in public places

JANUARY 2005 347

where diverse people are thrown together, places where capitalize on whatever diversity is present among students
people who come from numerous private worlds and social — be it race, religion, language, gender, or social class —
positions congregate on common ground. These are places and increase the variety and frequency of opportunities for
where multiple social perspectives and personal values are interaction.
brought into face-to-face contact around matters that “are Second, orchestrate these contacts so as to foster com-
relevant to the problems of living together,” as John Dewey petent public talk — deliberation about common prob-
put it.14 Such matters are mutual, collective concerns, not
mine or yours, but ours. The interaction in schools
Compared to home life, schools are like village squares,
cities, crossroads, meeting places, community centers, mar- can help children enter the
ketplaces. When aimed at democratic ends and supported
by the proper democratic conditions, the interaction in schools
social consciousness of
can help children enter the social consciousness of puber- puberty and develop the
ty and develop the habits of thinking and caring necessary
for public life. They can learn the tolerance, the respect, habits of thinking and caring
the sense of justice, and the knack for forging public poli-
cy with others whether one likes them or not. If the right necessary for public life.
social and psychological conditions are present and are
mobilized, students might even give birth to critical con- lems. In schools, this is talk about two kinds of problems:
sciousness. This is the kind of thinking that enables them social and academic. Social problems arise inevitably from
to cut through conventional wisdom and see a better way. the friction of interaction itself (Dewey’s “problems of living
This, then, is the great democratic potential of the pub- together”). Academic problems are at the core of each sub-
lic places we call schools. As Dewey observed, “The notion ject area.
that the essentials of elementary education are the three Third, clarify the distinction between deliberation and
R’s mechanically treated, is based upon ignorance of the blather and between open (i.e., inclusive) and closed (i.e.,
essentials needed for realization of democratic ideals.”15 exclusive) deliberation. In other words, expect, teach, and
Used well, schools can nurture these “essentials,” which model competent, inclusive deliberation.
are the very qualities needed for the hard work of living I lay out the pedagogical details of teaching deliberation
together freely but cooperatively and with justice, equality, in elementary and secondary schools in Teaching Democra-
and dignity. Schools can do this because of the collective cy (Teachers College Press, 2003). In it, I feature numerous
problems and the diversity contained within them. Prob- successful programs already under way. Here are some high-
lems and diversity are the essential assets for cultivating dem- lights.
ocratic citizens. Deliberation exploits the assets afforded by schools:
problems and a diverse student body. Deliberation is dis-
cussion aimed at making a decision across these differ-
THREE KEYS
ences about a problem that the participants face in com-
But how actually to accomplish this? Three actions are mon. The main action during a deliberation is weighing al-
key. ternatives with others in order to decide on the best course
First, increase the variety and frequency of interaction of action. In schools, deliberation is not only a means of
among students who are culturally, linguistically, and ra- instruction (teaching with deliberation) but also a curric-
cially different from one another. Classrooms sometimes ular goal (teaching for deliberation), because it generates
do this naturally. But if the school itself is homogeneous or a particular kind of social good: a democratic community,
if the school is diverse but curriculum tracks keep groups a public culture. The norms of this culture include, first, en-
of students apart, then this first key will be all the more gagement in cooperative problem solving. This is in contrast
difficult to turn. It is not helping that resegregation has in- to avoiding engagement either by being idiotically con-
tensified in recent years, despite an increasingly diverse so- sumed by private affairs or by electing others to do the de-
ciety. White students today are the most segregated from liberation and then relapsing into idiocy for the four years
all other races in their schools.16 (On this criterion, they may between elections. Other norms include listening as well
be at the greatest risk of idiocy.) Still, race is not the only as talking, perspective taking, arguing with evidence, shar-
source of diversity among students. School leaders must ing resources, and forging a decision together rather than

348 PHI DELTA KAPPAN

merely advocating positions taken before the deliberation We call it, ‘You can’t say you can’t play.’” These older chil-
begins. dren know the issue well. Vivid accounts of rejection are
Deliberation is ideally done with persons who are more shared. Some children believe the rule is fair but just won’t
or less different from one another; for pedagogical pur- work: “It would be impossible to have any fun,” offers one
poses, therefore, deliberative groups — schools and class- boy. In a fourth-grade class, students conclude that it is “too
rooms — should be as diverse as possible. Teachers and late” to give them such a rule. “If you want a rule like that to
administrators can expand the opportunities for interac- work, start at a very early age,” declares one 9-year-old.19
tion by increasing the number and kind of mixed student Paley takes these views back to the discussion circle in
groups. These groups should be temporary, because sep- her own classroom. Her children are enthralled as she shares
arating students permanently, for whatever reason, under- the older children’s views. The deliberation is enlarged; the
mines both individual and civic health. What the partici- alternatives become more complex. In the Socratic spirit,
pants have in common in these mixed groups
is not culture, race, or opinion but the prob-
lems they face together and must work out to-
gether in ways that strike everyone as fair.17

THE SOCIAL CURRICULUM

Probably the best-known example of young
children deliberating their shared social prob-
lems comes from the kindergarten classroom
of Vivian Gussin Paley. In a number of books,
Paley has captured the look and feel of actual
classroom-based deliberation, and she shows
how entirely possible it is to do such work in
everyday classroom settings, even with the young-
est children. In You Can’t Say You Can’t Play,
she tells how she facilitated a lengthy delibera-
tion about whether to establish the classroom
rule of the book’s title. She engages the kinder-
gartners in an ongoing discussion about the de-
sirability and practicability of having such a rule.
She tells them, “I just can’t get the question out
of my mind. Is it fair for children in school to
keep another child out of play? After all, this
classroom belongs to all of us. It is not a pri-
vate place, like our homes.”18 The children find
this a compelling question, and they have lots
to say. Paley brings them to the discussion cir-
cle again and again to weigh the alternatives.
“Will the rule work? Is it fair?” she asks. Mem-
ories and opinions flow. “If you cry, people
should let you in,” Ben says. “But then what’s
the whole point of playing?” Lisa complains.
Paley sometimes interviews older children
to ascertain their views and brings them back
to her kindergartners. Trading classes with a sec-
ond-grade teacher, Paley tells those children:
“I’ve come to ask your opinions about a new
rule we’re considering in the kindergarten. . . .

JANUARY 2005 349

she gently encourages them to support their views with to engage students in dialogues on the shared problems
reasons, to listen carefully, and to respond to the reason- of school life is not an argument for “process” without
ing of other children, both classmates and older children. “content.” It is not an argument for lessening emphasis on
High school deliberative projects exist, too. Perhaps the subject-matter learning. To the contrary, making decisions
most widely documented are the Just Community schools without knowledge — whether immediate knowledge of
conducted by Lawrence Kohlberg and his associates.20 In the alternatives under consideration or background knowl-
these projects, democratic governance becomes a way of edge — is no cause for celebration. Action without under-
life in high schools. These projects aim to transform the standing is not wise action except by accident. The Klan
school culture — its hidden or implicit curriculum — and acted; the Nazis acted; bullies act every day.
in this way to systematically cultivate democratic citizen- Consequently, a rigorous liberal arts curriculum that
ship. Even if the values of justice, liberty, and equality are deals in powerful ideas, important issues, and core values
well explored in the academic curriculum, the students is essential alongside deliberations of controversial pub-
are quick to perceive whether the school itself runs on a lic issues. Moreover, if deliberation is left to the school’s
different set of values. They will learn the latter as the real social curriculum only — that is, to the nonacademic areas
rules of the game. of student relations and school governance — then students
Students in Just Community schools participate in the are likely to develop the misconception that the academic
basic governance of the school. They deliberate on every- disciplines are settled and devoid of controversy. Nothing
thing from attendance policy to the consequences for steal- could be further from the truth. The disciplines are loaded
ing and cheating. Today, students might consider whether, with arguments and debates, and expertise in a discipline
as a move against resegregation, cafeteria seating should is measured by one’s involvement in these discussions. A
be assigned randomly. good teacher, on this view, is able to engage students, in
The Just Community high schools and the kindergarten developmentally appropriate ways, in the core problems
deliberations of Vivian Paley together suggest five condi- of the subject matter.
tions of ideal deliberation. Historians, for example, argue about everything they
• Students are engaged in integrated decision-making study: about why Rome fell, why slavery lasted so long in
discussions that involve genuine value conflicts that arise the U.S., and what forces contributed to the fall of the So-
in the course of relating to one another at school. These viet Union. What historians do is develop theses — war-
value conflicts may concern play and name-calling in an ranted assertions — about such matters. They defend their
elementary school, cliques and taunting in a middle school, claims with their interpretations of the evidentiary record.
and cheating, attendance, and segregation in a high school. Political scientists likewise don’t know with certainty why
• The discussion group is diverse enough that students in the past few years the U.S. has abandoned the UN Char-
have the benefit of exposure to reasoning and social per- ter and embarked on rugged unilateralism, nor do they
spectives different from their own. “know” a host of other things: whether nation states will
• The discussion group is free of domination — gross survive their contest with globalization or why the current
or subtle — by participants who were born into privileged cohort of 18- to 25-year-olds has proven so unengaged in
social positions or by those who mature physically before politics.
others. Engaging students in deliberations of academic contro-
• The discussion leader is skilled at comprehending and versies is arguably the most rigorous approach to disciplin-
presenting reasoning and perspectives that are missing, ary education available. Its advantage over drill-and-cover
countering conventional ideas with critical thinking, and ad- curricula, whether of the middle-track pedestrian variety
vocating positions that are inarticulate or being drummed or the Advanced Placement version, is that it involves stu-
out of consideration. dents in both the substantive (facts and theories) and syn-
• Discussions are dialogic. Discussants engage in con- tactical (methods of inquiry) dimensions of the disciplines.21
versation about their viewpoints, claims, and arguments, At the same time, such engagement prepares them for the
not in alternating monologues. reasoned argumentation of democratic living.
Fortunately, some resources are readily available that
help teachers and curriculum leaders decide which issues
THE ACADEMIC CURRICULUM
are appropriate for study and then lay out several alterna-
Citizens need disciplinary knowledge just as much as tives for students to consider. Two of the best low-cost re-
they need deliberative experience and skill. The suggestion sources for the high school social studies classroom, es-

350 PHI DELTA KAPPAN

pecially history and government courses, are published by 4. Jane Addams, “Why Women Should Vote,” in Aileen S. Kraditor, ed.,
The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1880-1920 (1909; reprint,
the National Issues Forum and by Choices for the 21st Cen- New York: Norton, 1981), p. 69.
tury.22 Each organization produces a series of booklets con- 5. Edward C. Banfield, The Moral Basis of a Backward Society (New York:
taining background information on a pressing problem (con- Free Press, 1958); see also Robert D. Putnam, Making Democracy Work:
Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
temporary or historical) and three to four policy alterna- Press, 1994).
tives. Both engage students in the kind of deliberation that 6. Sarah Jain, “Urban Errands: The Means of Mobility,” Journal of Con-
develops their understanding of one another, of the array sumer Culture, vol. 2, 2002, pp. 419-38; and Keith Bradsher, High and
Mighty: SUVs (New York: Public Affairs, 2002).
of alternatives, of the problem itself, and of its historical 7. Karl Marx, Capital, trans. Ben Fowkes, 3 vols. (1867; reprint, New York:
context.23 Penguin Classics, 1990), vol. 1; Robert N. Bellah et al., Habits of the Heart:
Individualism and Commitment in American Life (Berkeley: University
The authors of these materials have developed the pol- of California Press, 1985); and John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent So-
icy alternatives. Consequently, students are given (and don’t ciety, 40th anniversary ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998).
have to generate) grist for the analytic mill. Students can 8. See Amy Gutmann’s treatment of Churchill’s statement in “Democra-
cy, Philosophy, and Justification,” in Seyla Benhabib, ed., Democracy and
evaluate the authors’ diagnosis of the problem and judge Difference (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996), pp. 340-47.
their representation of stakeholders on the issue. Then they 9. Martin Luther King, Jr., “I Have a Dream,” in Clayborne Carson and
can deliberate about the options presented. The provision Kris Shepard, eds., A Call to Conscience (New York: Warner Books, 2001),
pp. 81-82.
of alternatives by the authors scaffolds the task in a help- 10. Judith N. Shklar, American Citizenship: The Quest for Inclusion
ful way, modeling for students what an array of alterna- (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991), p. 12.
tives looks like and allowing them to work at understand- 11. Martin Luther King, Jr., Why We Can’t Wait (New York: Mentor, 1963),
chap. 5, p. 80; see also Gary Y. Okihiro, Margins and Mainstream: Asians
ing these and at listening to one another. After such ex- in American History and Culture (Seattle: University of Washington Press,
perience, students are ready to have the scaffold removed 1994).
and to investigate an issue of their own choosing and cre- 12. Jennifer L. Hochschild and Nathan Scovronick, “Democratic Edu-
cation and the American Dream: One, Some, and All,” in Walter C. Par-
ate their own briefing booklet. ker, ed., Education for Democracy: Contexts, Curricula, and Assessments
(Greenwich, Conn.: Information Age, 2002), pp. 3-26.
13. Vivian Gussin Paley, You Can’t Say You Can’t Play (Cambridge, Mass.:
THE THREE R’S? Harvard University Press, 1992), p. 21.
14. John Dewey, Democracy and Education , in Jo Ann Boydston, ed.,
I would like to see a national campaign against idiocy, The Middle Works of John Dewey, 1899-1924, vol. 9 (1916; reprint, Car-
bondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985), p. 200.
and I believe schools are ideal sites for it. Put differently,
15. Ibid.
schools are fitting places to lead young people through 16. Gary Orfield, “Schools More Separate: Consequences of a Decade
puberty and into citizenship. Schools are the sites of choice of Resegregation,” Harvard Civil Rights Project, 2001, available on the
website of the Harvard Civil Rights Project. For access, simply Google
because they have, to some extent, the two most impor- the title. Orfield found, “Whites on average attend schools where less
tant resources for this work: diversity and problems. than 20% of the students are from all of the other racial and ethnic groups
combined. On average, Blacks and Latinos attend schools with 53% to
I realize that this view is apt to be too optimistic for some 55% students of their own group. Latinos attend schools with far high-
readers. After all, schools are products of society and are er average Black populations than Whites do, and Blacks attend schools
embedded in it. They are not autonomous places where mas- with much higher average Latino enrollments. American Indian students
attend schools in which about a third (31%) of the students are from In-
sive social forces can be stopped with a lesson plan. Still, dian backgrounds.”
schools are not insignificant sources of social progress. At 17. See Thomas F. Pettigrew, “Intergroup Contact: Theory, Research, and
New Perspectives,” in James A. Banks and Cherry A. McGee Banks, eds.,
some level, everyone seems to believe this. It is the reason Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education (San Francisco: Jossey-
that curriculum debates are often the most impassioned to Bass, 2004), pp. 770-81; see also Elliot Aronson et al., The Jigsaw Class-
be found anywhere in society. My view is that the three room (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1978).
18. Paley, p. 16.
R’s — mechanically treated and, now, tested with Puritan-
19. Ibid., p. 63.
ical fervor — are not the only essentials needed for the 20. F. Clark Power, Ann Higgins, and Lawrence Kohlberg, Lawrence Kohl-
realization of democratic ideals. A proper curriculum for berg’s Approach to Moral Education (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1989); and Ralph Mosher, Robert A. Kenny, Jr., and Andrew Garrod,
democracy requires both the study and the practice of de- Preparing for Citizenship: Teaching Youth to Live Democratically (West-
mocracy. port, Conn.: Praeger, 1994).
21. Joseph J. Schwab, “Structure of the Disciplines: Meanings and Sig-
1. Aristotle, The Politics of Aristotle, trans. Ernest Barker (New York: Ox- nificances,” in G. W. Ford and Lawrence Pugno, eds., The Structure of
ford University Press, 1958), p. 6. See also Christopher Berry, The Idea Knowledge and the Curriculum (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1964), pp. 6-30.
of a Democratic Community (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989). 22. Information about the National Issues Forum is available at www.
2. Daniel Kemmis, The Good City and the Good Life (Boston: Houghton nifi.org; information about Choices for the 21st Century is available at
Mifflin, 1995), p. 9. www.choices.edu.
3. Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, trans. George Law- 23. John Doble, The Story of NIF: The Effects of Deliberation (Dayton,
rence, ed. J. P. Mayer (Garden City, N.J.: Doubleday, 1969), p. 540. Ohio: Kettering Foundation, 1996). K

JANUARY 2005 351

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Walter C. Parker, “Teaching Against Idiocy,” Phi Delta Kappan, Vol.

86, No. 5, January 2005, pp. 344-351.

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