There was once a place, right in the midst of every community, to argue about the public's role in educating the young, said Deborah Meier, principal of Mission Hill School in Boston, Mass., at her Special Feature. "Today there is no such place in virtually any of our communities."
Deborah Meier
When she was born, Meier observed, there were 200,000 school boards in the United States, serving a population of 123 million citizens. Today, by contrast, there are fewer than 20,000 school boards, serving 250 million citizens. In other words, one-tenth as many school boards are serving twice as many people. "Think what it would mean if, today, that same percentage of our citizens were that involved in their youth's public education."
Not only do we need more school boards, Meier argued, "but those that exist need more—not less—power to say things that count about curriculum, scheduling, pedagogy, assessment, hiring, etc." Schools with lively public involvement are good not only for democracy but also for serious intellectual work.
Ideally, Meier said, there would be a school board for every single school. "I'd like one in every school, because it's a way for young people and families to develop the skills of citizenship and to nurture the habits that democracy requires." Students should see and hear healthy, vigorous—sometimes even nasty—disagreements. "We don't have to shield our kids from those," she said. "They hear far worse on radio, on TV, and in the streets, about things that do not matter."
It's popular to knock school boards, Meier conceded, "in a way that sometimes reminds me of how fascists and communists used to dismiss parliamentary democracy, with all its wrangling and pettiness. But as Winston Churchill once said: ‘It's a very flawed idea, until you consider the alternatives.' I think that applies above all to school boards."
"I want to protect and extend every institution that offers us a place for communal and civic life—even if it reaches some conclusions I'm not so happy with, like too much phonics instruction," Meier said. "That's nothing to me compared to the loss of democracy."
Democracy is not a natural outcome of human civilization, Meier noted. "It must be taught consciously and practiced assiduously, especially in a society as large and heterogeneous as ours." Every subject taught in school must help instill the habits of mind that democratic public life depends on, she urged. "You can forget the stuff on the test, but we cannot let our kids forget the skills of democracy."