Deborah Meier is a visionary teacher, author, and founder of successful small schools in New York City and Boston. Harry Boyte, senior scholar at Augsburg College, is founder of the youth civic empowerment initiative Public Achievement and a leader in the movement to democratize higher education. This blog is no longer being updated.
Teaching
Opinion
Pedagogy of the Empowered
Agency is not the same as activism. Civic agency is the capacity to work across differences on common problems and creation of common things including communities, and, broadly, democracy as a way of life. Schools -- and other educational institutions -- need to develop pedagogies of empowerment that teach the skills and habits of civic agency. This is the foundation for democracy.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
Schools as Foundations of Democracy
Schools can play a powerful role in creating foundations of democratic thinking among students, writes Deborah Meier.
Social Studies
Opinion
Remembering our Roots—Democracy of the People
The most important task after this dismal election is to remember the idea that animated America's founding --- democracy is people-centered, not politician-centered. Building foundations for this idea through people-owned schools -- free spaces -- which bring people together across partisan and other divides is a crucial task.
Federal
Opinion
The Tough Road Ahead
In the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election, democracy in schools is more important than ever in the effort to win over Trump supporters on the part of those who didn't support the Republican candidate, writes Deb Meier.
Federal
Opinion
Democracy Schools After the Election: Overcoming the Cult of the Expert
Hillary Clinton's defeat stems, in significant part, from the "cult of the expert" and the reliance on Big Data which infused it. The philosophy of democracy schools, resting on an alternative view of the person -- as unique, dynamic, full of co-creative agentic potential -- is a profound alternative.
Education
Opinion
The Politics of Democracy, After Election Day
Between the U.S. Presidential Election of 2016 and the hierarchical bureaucracy of school leadership, the politics of democracy for the education community are at stake, argues Deborah Meier.
Social Studies
Opinion
Education and the Power of Memory
Education has a crucial role to play in launching a "campaign to remember" stories of agency, or popular empowerment, like the common school movement and many others. It also has the capacity to play such a role. This need is vivid illustrated by the election. People have forgotten that "we the people" created the nation itself, in a fight against a king.
Education
Opinion
The Truth of the Common School Movement
The narrative of the "common school movement" should be representative of the diverse group of students and school options it serves, argues Deborah Meier.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Citizen Teachers: A New Common School Movement?
Democracy schools in America were associated with the "common school movement," embodying ideals of a "commonwealth" created and sustained by people in communities. As people made the commonwealth -- and its common schools -- they became invested in the commonwealth as a counterweight to private wealth. Can we do this again? If so, how did you rebuild a sense of ownership and connections in communities with the schools you were involved with?
Social Studies
Opinion
The Politics of Citizen Teachers
Just as politics is an important function of a working democracy, smart politics can benefit schools and enhance democracy in schools, argues Deb Meier.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Lessons of Citizen Teachers
What's democracy got to do with teaching? Deborah Meier asked. A lot - including the nature of pedagogy and the identity of teachers who teach love of ideas, the importance of evidence, and the importance of public relationships with other adults, teachers and parents.
Social Studies
Opinion
Communities of Co-Creators
Democracy only works when open discourse is embraced. Schools must encourage discourse, and, even argument for the purpose of creating a foundation for democracy, and, in turn, some degree of liberty.
Social Studies
Opinion
An Epistemology of Agency
We need an "epistemology of agency" to counter today's growing "post-truth politics." And students will be receptive. They sense that we have the technology and the assets to address mounting problems. What we lack is education for civic agency, ways of knowing, learning, and acting to develop the capacities on a large scale for effective action across our differences. How can schools and colleges rise to this occasion?
School Choice & Charters
Opinion
How Do We Rebuild Democratic Communities for Education?
In an open letter to Harry Boyte, Deborah Meier considers how elements of school choice, like school vouchers and charters schools, promote ethnic and partisan separatism.