Educational Vision
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American public education is in a crisis because the U.S. does not towards any type of democratic reform with the inherent belief that U.S. democracy has reached its highest achievement. This lethargy extends into an American public that does not actively participate in government elections, climbing illiteracy rates among the general population and people who do not actively criticize society or fight for social change. At the heart of this, public education is not used as a tool to educate people to become active and critical citizens capable of correcting these aforementioned wrongs. The reason why education is instrumental in democratic reform is because education offers people the opportunity to take up and reflect on the conditions that shape themselves and their relationships with others. This in turn means that when we discuss the topic of public education, we must address the political, economic and social realities, that sets the groundwork or foundation for what shapes it as an institution and the factors that produce its diverse population of students. This country has a history of trying to tear away at its education system over the past couple decades through, vouchers, school policy decisions based upon the logic of choice, attacks on education for cultural diversity, and cutbacks. Giroux suggests four developments that may link the education crisis to the project of radical democracy.
The first development deals with citizenship and ethics, the missing language of schooling. Schooling is about the production of citizens and this is associates with the ethical compact that make the language of community, solidarity and the public good a primary concern. Education cannot be reduced to forcing students to say the pledge, develop good work habits, or measuring their competency through standardized cultural literacy tests. As educators, we must ask ourselves what kinds of citizens do we want to produce; what kind of society do we want to create? If we are to make the connection between education and democratic reform, we must adapt school life towards citizenship that educates students to make choices, think critically, and believe they can make a difference. This can be accomplished by offering the students the opportunity to engage in a deeper understanding of the importance of cooperation, sharing and social justice.
The second development deals with schooling and the politics of difference. Students need to engage their strengths and weaknesses through critically assessing dominant and subordinate traditions.