EDUCATION AND DEMOCRATIC RESPONSIBILITY

I have written several blogs about the relationship between education and democratic responsibility, both at the individual and political levels. I want look into this connection a little more closely, not only to investigate the often unseen details and consequences of that relationship, but also to point out the dangers of ignoring it.

     So, let’s start with some basics, or at least one basic that I think is fundamental.

     Democracy doesn’t work without an educated electorate. You only have to look at countries that call themselves democracies, but do not have a well-educated electorate; Russia and China come immediately to mind, but it also applies to many other countries throughout the world. Some might even say it also applies in some measure to the United States.

     The common theme that runs through democracies with insufficient electorate education is the ease with which autocratic leaders can emerge and thrive. Turkey is one of the latest examples, even though they are part of NATO, and have pretensions to join the European Union. If you are a leader with dictatorial tendencies, your first job in consolidating your power is to suppress education or, at least, modify it to align with your own views and philosophy. Xi Jinping, in China, has proven a master at that process. Vladimir Putin has not been so successful and, consequently, has had to resort to more draconian methods to retain power.

     The current Republican thinking in the United States shows the same tendencies, with suppression of ideas overriding education. They are trying to doctor school curriculums to reflect their particular beliefs; these beliefs include specific religious beliefs, abortion biases, small community morays, among other restrictive practices. Bluntly stated, the movement says, “If you don’t accept and believe what I believe, you will be ostracized, not permitted to vote, will definitely go to hell and, therefore I will force you to believe what I do”. That is the slippery slope towards autocratic/dictatorial rule currently championed by Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis. The way to fight these autocratic movements is through education and democratic responsibility of the electorate. 

     I would be remiss, and wrong, to directly compare countries that are on the opposite ends of the slippery slope towards autocracy/dictatorship but, make no mistake, all the countries mentioned above are on that slope.

     One factor that is often overlooked is that our politicians went through the same education system as all of the rest of us. That means that they are probably only what we, individually, would become if we were given a little power. That’s frightening, in of itself, but it speaks to a much greater problem. If the education system fails to install a sense of ethics, integrity and citizen and public service responsibility in our politicians, it has also failed to install those attributes in all of us, the electorate, as well. We may not like to accept it, but we are just as bad as they are, by definition. Worse, it means that we intrinsically tend to accept their irresponsible, and self-centered, actions.

     Does that mean democracy is doomed? It might be, and it almost certainly will be if we don’t start including basic democratic principles and ethics in all school curriculums, everywhere in the U.S. That’s not going to change things quickly, but it will buttress us against the decline of democracy in the future.

     Trying to effect such a change will not be easy, even though we have done it to some extent before with classes in “Civics”. The first hard step will be to federalize the process. Trying to do it piecemeal, at the local or state levels, will be an exercise in frustration and, more importantly, won’t work. However, federalizing a nationwide curriculum, means that school boards, state governments and many other groups will try and stop what they will see as an incursion on their individual rights. The initiative could die right there, before it even begins.

     If a national curriculum on democratic principles and civics did make it through that first stage, the second step would be equally challenging; what goes into such a curriculum and who decides what those elements should be?

     All very challenging, but to not even attempt such a change in our education system almost certainly dooms democracy as we know it. We may be too late already, given the current Republican movement, but we have to try, or we will likely doom our children, and maybe even ourselves, to living under an autocratic/dictatorial political system. Time to wake up….and quickly.